78% of Small Businesses to Implement Cloud by 2020
A study conducted by Emergent Research has concluded that nearly 4 of 5 small businesses will use cloud by the beginning of the next decade. The study was called “Small Business Success in the Cloud” and the SlideShare presentation mentions that current small business cloud use sits at 37%. Emergent predicts an interesting shift in the small businesses economy where small businesses of the future will fit into 1 of 4 general categories in regards to their cloud use.
Emergent describes these four categories as being Cloud Plug-in Players, Hives, Head-to-Headers and Portfolioists. Small businesses who are cloud plug-in players are the types of businesses that off load their accounting or HR applications into the cloud. These types of small businesses will likely plug-in to existing services rather than build out their own. Small Business Hives are being described as collections of people who come together to work on one central project. Small Business Hives will fully utilize the cloud to collaborate as offices and physical walls become less important. The report described Head-to-Headers as small cloud based businesses that have plans to go head-to-head with large corporations for market share. The last type of small business classification given was called the portfolioist. Freelancers are expected to profit immensely from cloud adaptation and those who create a business based on their portfolio of work will make up a significant portion of the small businesses in 2020.
Intuit helped fund this study and Vice President and General Manager of QuickBooks online Terry Hicks mentioned, “Whether you’re a tech startup in Silicon Valley or a mom-and-pop shop on Main Street, cloud technology presents both radically new opportunities, and potentially disruptive changes. This report is all about developing a deep understanding of how small business can stay ahead of the curve.”
