Cloud solutions for SMB

World market

In the next several years medium and small business (SMB) will actively invest in IT infrastructure. The significant share of these expenses will go for construction and use of the cloud systems, but cloud solutions can be both public, and private, and a clock period hybrid. It is important to understand pluses and minuses of these models for SMB.

In general "overcast" in the market of SMB increases from year to year. According to Intuit Small Business Success in the Cloud^[1], by 2020 78% of the companies of small and medium business will be ready to use of cloud computing in comparison with 37% in 2014. In terminology of the western analysts the companies to the Russian measures rather big treat a segment of SMB (small&medium business): numbering up to 1000 people. If to select from total amount the "small" companies in our understanding, digits would be even more.

Results of the research Parallels SMB Cloud Insights Download Parallels SMB Cloud Insights^[2] show growth of penetration of cloud services and cumulative rate of the annual growth (CAGR) of global market in 28%. According to forecasts of the company, by 2015 this market will reach $95.7 billion, and by 2016 - $125 billion.

The world market of cloud services for SMB

Parallels, 2013

Intuit suggested to separate all companies SMB using clouds into four categories. The first – "collectors of a portfolio" (portfoliolists): these are freelancers who use such services for the work and communication with colleagues. The second type the company is called "beehive" (hives): by analogy with a bee swarm, such organizations use clouds for interaction with the remote workers.

There are Head-to-headers companies, they stake on innovations, doing them by the competitive advantage and trying to win a market share from larger players and leaders thus. The most interesting category – the fourth. Such companies are called "Plug-in players", they are connected to a cloud as to electric "socket".

Literally it means that they completely trust the infrastructure to the cloud service provider delivering a pool of solutions based on which all business operations are built that allows them to focus on the core business.

There is also a reverse side of popularity of cloud services: even in the developed IT markets business with care considers prospect of transfer of crucial processes and information in public clouds. Results of the research IDC showed that in the western countries the most part (69%) of players of the market give preferences to private clouds. According to the research ^[3] conducted in 2013 among developers of cloud solutions for business (USA), 41% of respondents called concern about security and confidentiality of data the main reason that now public clouds are not actively used in SMB. However, investments into separate and hybrid cloud solutions are slightly higher, than in public that is an insuperable barrier to entry for the small companies.

The small enterprises owning strong IT departments and also working with confidential data and also those which processes require use of resources of a public cloud in safer environment it is key users of private clouds in a segment of SMB. Mainly it is the companies of the financial sector, technology startups, retailers. For example, the American company DevLinks which is working in a segment of robotics and having in staff of only 15 people made the decision on complete localization of the data processing centers and failure from public cloud services. The American company MemSQL creating solutions in a big data segment refused use of a public cloud for benefit of own infrastructure when it had opportunities and means to construct own IT systems.

There is an opinion that private clouds – destiny only of large business. There are many facts supporting this point of view. Problems which are solved by private clouds, namely safe storage of large volumes of data; a possibility of the centralized providing corporate services to remote workers, require considerable costs and existence of the qualified IT department providing the continuity of work of cloud infrastructure that not always small businesses can do.

The alternative concept for the SMB enterprises needing a possibility of sharing of a public cloud in safer environment are hybrid clouds in which private and public cloud infrastructures are combined. Hybrid clouds allow to increase reserves of data storage or to accelerate their processing to receive additional capacities without need to buy the additional hardware. In the report published by Wakefield Research and SAP AGhttp://global.sap.com/corporate-en/news.epx?PressID=21216^[4], 67% of the IT heads using cloud solutions declared implementation of hybrid structures.

For example, the food company Delhaize America uses a hybrid cloud for collecting and analytics of Big Data and studying of influence of local weather conditions on the fluctuations in demand in shops on different types of goods. The product retailer learned from the analysis, for example, that warm weather reduces purchases of certain types of meat for a grill and increases purchases of magazines. This knowledge allows the company to make more weighed decisions on existence of goods, advertizing campaigns and price policy.

The operator of online courses Pearson uses a hybrid cloud for providing digital educational programs to users of the whole world. The cloud allows Pearson to develop more flexible global hybrid infrastructure, to release resources for more web focused educational products, to ensure safety of these users and to provide deep analytics of results of training of students. Transition to hybrid model helps to accelerate transition of the company to the far, but fast-growing and perspective markets of South Africa and China.

Problem of hybrid clouds is not the obvious security level in lines of connection of a private and public cloud. Experts note that "seams" of hybrid clouds are blurred, occasionally, in quite tangled way. Therefore the question of open standards remains primary in discussions for and against use of hybrid cloud solutions. But standardization in the cloud computing market is at the initial stage so far.

Russian realities

According to data of Rosstat, published by the portal "The resource center of a small entrepreneurship" ^[5], as of January 1, 2013, according to Rosstat and FTS, in the Russian Federation 4.6 million small and medium-sized businesses at whom more than 18 million are employed are registered human. From them 1.76 million are the share of the microenterprises, 243 thousand - of small enterprises, 13.8 thousand - of medium-sized enterprises, and bulk is made by individual entrepreneurs: their total number - more than 2.6 million people. In total at the small and medium enterprises 18.1 million people worked, and their aggregate turnover was 36,281.7 billion rubles.

Only some companies of small business have a corporate website, quite often as web representation social networks are used. There are enterprises where the IT is practically not used, account is kept in Microsoft Excel or in a format of "paper" records. Quite often entrepreneurs are not interested in new products, do not understand why and how to use IT tools including cloud computing.

Normal portrait of the consumer of cloud services in a business sector - progressively configured medium business. There are IT startups and the companies with the state from two to hundred people, at whom is from the equipment only, notebooks and all business processes are performed using cloud applicaions. Parallels of such players in the market of cloud computing for SMB considers the main and calls "jumpers". These are the companies which begin to use "clouds" at once, passing traditional IT solutions.

According to the research ^[6], only 42% of the St. Petersburg companies of a segment of SMB (1.5 thousand heads are polled) expressed interest in use of cloud services as the tool for optimization of the business processes; only from them clouds shortly or within the next year intend to begin to use a third.

Use of powerful public cloud business services, not to mention creation of own private clouds, for the SMB enterprises in Russia expensive pleasure. Large vendors of "heavy" business solutions, including Microsoft, SAP, Oracle and other giants, released the modifications of the systems for business management expected the small companies. The last two years actively move ahead cloud solutions from 1C. But from the point of view of, for example, SAP or Microsoft a segment of SMB are the companies with turnover from 1 million euros a year that does not correspond to the Russian realities. The small companies having means to rent infrastructure and independently to set on it the necessary software, having created thereby a private cloud – a big rarity.

Therefore if small and medium business in Russia makes the decision on work with cloud computing, in most cases it is about public clouds. Here for SMB such services as corporate mail, data storage, the corporate websites from a cloud are relevant, CRM, virtual PBX, joint work with documents, the Workflow organization, mini-ERP, services for web conferences, a time recording of office workers and remote workers.

The small business operating with a large number of names of goods (trade), cosmetics (beauty shop), and which already realized that to keep account "on a knee" and in tables of Excel – it is not productive, it is interested in cloud accounting and warehouse services.

The experimental program was started by FTS on transfer in a cloud of the data collected from cash registers in retail outlets. The experiment within which information on purchases in sales points will be transferred to data centers and then to be processed by tax specialists, started since August 1, 2014 in Moscow, the Moscow, Kaluga regions and Tatarstan. Among participants — Russian Post, "The seventh continent", M.Video, "The alphabet of taste", Dixy, "The snow queen", MegaFon, Svyaznoy and Formula of Cinema movie theater chain^[7].

The experiment will last till February 1, 2015 FTS should estimate its results till March 10, 2015. Specially created working group into which representatives of business, FTS and expert community will enter will analyze results. Then the corresponding report should be submitted in the government. It is supposed that if the experiment is considered successful and entrepreneurs will accept it, then data from cash registers online will oblige to transmit business through changes in the legislation.

See Also

• Cloud computing: main determinations
• Public clouds vs Private clouds
• Creation of private clouds (market of Russia)
• The main trends of the market of private clouds in Russia
• Private clouds: typical customers
• Cloud services (market of Russia)
• Market of IT services of Russia
• Private clouds in a public sector
• Private clouds in the banking sector
• How to select IT service provider?
• Service companies: western vs domestic
• Economy of cloud services
• Data security in a cloud
• World market of cloud services
• Cloud services (market of Russia)
• Main trends of the world market of private clouds

Notes