Report: Cloud Storage Market to Increase by 11 Percent Yearly; Reach $270 Million By 2015

The small and medium businesses (SMBs) in the U.S are constantly looking for backup/storage for their company’s data and email in the cloud due to the fears of proliferation of hackers, natural disasters and unstable market conditions. The SMBs are attracted to invest in cloud storage in order to reduce costs, improve flexibility, and maintain privacy of sensitive data. Additionally, for mobile SMB employees, cloud storage is an attractive tool for backing-up and storing data while on the go. 31 percent of the one million U.S. SMBs using hosted storage have mobile employees. According to AMI-Partners’ recent report, U.S. SMB Cloud Playbook, the market for hosted storage is likely to increase by 11 percent yearly (CAGR) through 2015, to $270 million.

In a press release, Nichelle Grannum, Survey Research Analyst at Access Markets International (AMI), said, “Many U.S. SMBs are moving to the cloud to enhance existing packaged applications, such as CRM databases. Cloud storage provides these companies with the latest storage technology realizing a significant reduction in IT overhead due to decreased investment in physical storage devices on their premises.”

Company data is constantly changing and growing in volume, thus moving storage to the cloud gives companies greater storage capacity and flexibility at a lower cost. With the influx of smartphones and tablets, cloud storage will become increasingly more critical in providing an easily accessible, yet secure place to backup and retrieve company data.

“Hosted storage also allows companies to subscribe based on their storage capacity requirements and desired backup schedule, coupled with the benefit of a flexible payment schedule,” added Grannum. “Since companies need only to pay for the storage they actually use, hosting costs can be tightly controlled. Responsibility for storage maintenance tasks, such as backup, data replication, and storage software updates are entrusted to the service provider, allowing SMBs to focus on their core business.”

Sujata Garud is a TMCnet freelancer with three years of writing/editing experience and two years of market research experience. As an editor she has covered the IT, electronics, banking, pharma, construction, mining and healthcare industries. To see more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.