Many small business owners nationwide may be looking for ways to reduce their costs when it comes to keeping computer systems on-site, and that has led many to the world of cloud computing and data storage. However, reliance on these options may also increase the need for tech insurance policies that will help to safeguard companies from the costs related to potential exposure.
Today, medium and small business owners are adopting the cloud as a viable option in some way in large and growing numbers, according to a report from IT solutions company Spiceworks. For instance, the number of companies that are using hosted email systems has risen to 46 percent from 42 percent a year ago, and an additional 5 percent say they’re going to move to the newer options within the next six months. Meanwhile, the proportion of these businesses that use on-site email systems dipped to 49 percent from 52 percent during the same period.
“The survey results shows that cloud-based services continue to be an integral way employees access information, communicate, and collaborate during their work day,” said Kathryn Pribish, Voice of IT program manager at Spiceworks. “Over the last year, we’ve seen that more companies are taking notice and formally adopting solutions that meet the ease of use and accessibility demands of their employees while maintaining corporate security, cost and compliance requirements.”
In addition, half of IT professionals surveyed said that employees are using cloud-based file-sharing systems on their own, without their companies implementing such plans themselves, the report said. That was up from just 17 percent last year. Of that adopting group, more than nine in 10 use the service Dropbox. However, among vendors, only 24 percent have company-approved file sharing. Slightly more than half of those in IT also say that they also take advantage of companies’ approved Web conferencing services, and another three in 10 rely on online collaboration tools, or plan to add them within the next six months.
However, putting a larger amount of potentially sensitive information into the cloud also opens small businesses up to the potentially increased possibility of suffering a data breach, which can be extremely problematic and expensive. For this reason, small business insurance policies that are specifically designed to help cover the costs of remediating the possible damage caused by such an incident.
