NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In the fast-growing U.S. Cloud services market, hosters are poised to take advantage of their relevant experience and strong customer relationships to become a leading purchase channel for small and medium businesses (SMBs, companies with less than 999 employees). SMB investments in Cloud services (including IaaS, SaaS, web hosting, UC and remotely managed IT services (RMITS)) in the U.S. are expected to reach $34 billion in 2012, with 46 percent of that spend flowing through hosters. This is according to AMI-Partners’ most recent Worldwide SMB Routes to Market Model and 2012 U.S. Hosters’ SMB Cloud Opportunity Playbook.
For SMBs, the promise of the Cloud continues to strike a chord. Two areas where these firms see clear benefits, and are aggressively moving to the Cloud, are hosted infrastructure, such as servers and storage, and remote management of IT systems and related applications. SMBs have very limited, if any, internal staff dedicated to managing technology, so deploying these solutions in the Cloud, with the support of a trusted provider, is quickly becoming the norm.
“A key reason that hosters are becoming a leading Cloud channel for SMBs is because they have proven they can effectively handle critical infrastructure, while providing the necessary level of support,” says Monik Sheth, Research Analyst at AMI-Partners. “Poor service can be an immediate deal breaker for any company, and SMBs are no different.” In fact, according to the AMI study, nearly a third of SMBs said they would quickly switch their Cloud service provider if desired service levels are not met.
For hosters, their legacy of providing web and mail solutions to SMBs has prepared them well for expanding their portfolios into other Cloud-based services. For more advanced Cloud deployment and migration needs, hosters are actively courting downstream channel partners like MSPs and ISVs, who can provide additional value-added services to SMBs. By developing these relationships, and offering integrated solutions coupled with RMITS, hosters are expected to play a leading role in enabling the growth of the SMB Cloud market.
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AMI’s Worldwide SMB Routes to Market Model measures spending by SMBs that flows through five distinct channels: Channel Partners (VAR, SI, ISV, etc.), Direct Market Resellers (DMR), Retail, Hosters/Telcos/Service Providers, and Vendor Direct. It provides a robust 5-year forecast of 90+ ICT technologies across 50 countries/regions. This model leverages extensive, global primary research and secondary sources to systematically size and verify these markets and outlook.
AMI’s 2012 U.S. Hosters’ SMB Cloud Opportunity Playbook offers a comprehensive understanding of the segmented U.S. SMB Cloud market, purchase behaviors and solutions usage/interest. The report, which addresses the complete set of Cloud solutions, covers the following topics:
- SMB landscape, firmographics and attitudes towards Cloud purchases
- SMB Cloud spend through Hosters on Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Software-as-a-Service, Remotely Managed IT Services, and Unified Communications, including forecasts through 2016
- Hosters’ Cloud value proposition and positioning versus other Routes-to-Market
- Hosters’ Playbook for targeting key SMB end-user segments, including geo-targeting and positioning of specific Cloud bundles
For more information about these studies, AMI-Partners, or global SMB research, call 212-944-5100, e-mail ask_ami@ami-partners.com, or visit us at www.ami-partners.com.
About Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.
AMI-Partners specializes in IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services strategy, venture capital, and actionable market intelligence — with a strong focus on global small and medium businesses (SMBs), and extending into large enterprises and home-based businesses. The AMI-Partners mission is to empower clients for success with the highest quality data, business strategy perspectives and ―go-to-market solutions. Led by Andy Bose, the firm has built a world-class management team with deep experience cutting across IT, telecommunications and business services sectors in established and emerging markets.
AMI has helped shape the go-to-market SMB strategies of more than 150 leading IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services companies. The firm is well known for its IT and Internet adoption-based segmentation of the SMB markets; its annual Retainership services based on global SMB tracking surveys in more than 25 countries; and its proprietary database of SMBs and SMB channel partners in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The firm invests significantly in collecting survey based information from several thousand SMBs annually, and is considered the premier source for global SMB trends and analysis.