According to the Acronis Global Disaster Recovery Index 2012, “Small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) around the world are planning to adopt server virtualisation in 2012 at a faster pace than large enterprises.”

During September and October 2011, Ponemon Institute conducted this survey across 18 countries.   Over 6,000 IT practitioners were surveyed in small-to mid-market organizations with no more than 1,000 seats (no more than 500 seats in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong).

83 percent of organizations surveyed had already employed some form of cloud-based IT infrastructure that has grown by 13 percent. 19 percent of all IT infrastructure goes under the cloud category. However, only 19 percent of businesses are using the cloud today, despite 87 percent predicting that usage would increase during 2011. The explanations given by SMBs included concerns around recovery of data in the event of a disaster, security risks and lack of trust in cloud providers.

Praveen Bhadada, director, Zinnov Management Consulting, said, “25 percent of IT investments happened through SMBs and around $6-7 B came from there in 2011.”

For this year, 26 percent anticipated that  more than 50 percent of their IT infrastructure will be cloud-based.  Lower IT operating costs; additional or flexible storage space; and improved compliance.. as per the SMBs these are these are the drivers for cloud adoption in 2012.

Small sized enterprises are resistant to experimenting with change and thus it is difficult for cloud service providers to establish greater hold in this market. Security is always a concern with cloud and for SMBs investments is also an issue, as they may not be well versed in the investment options. Decisions of enterprises in this space are influenced by evidences and testimonials. Bhadada added, “There is need for more case studies that substantiate cloud usage and its advantages for the SMBs.”

Surveys cloud findings include:

·Using the cloud for offsite backup is becoming a popular choice with over a fifth (21%) using it for this purpose;
·Almost half (42%) still rely on the traditional approach of physically taking backup tapes or disk offsite each day;
·Almost a quarter (23%) still do not have an offsite backup strategy in place at all.

“Virtualisation has become more affordable and relatively easy for SMBs to implement – the high growth rate of virtualisation adoption should not be a surprise. Since protecting data is a fundamental requirement and a best practice for any business of any size today, it’s particularly disappointing that VMs get overlooked. Some businesses are potentially playing Russian roulette with their virtual backups and, if their luck runs out, will face very real consequences that may adversely impact their business,” pointed Bill Taylor-Mountford, president, Asia Pacific at Acronis. 

As per the survey, widespread backup and disaster recovery shortcomings are:

·  A third (33%) admit that they don’t back up their VMs as often as their physical ones;
·  Almost half (49%) back up their VMs infrequently, typically weekly or monthly;
·  Just 37% back up their VMs on a daily basis.

As per the survey, India key findings:

580 organizations participated in the survey from India across a broad range of industries.  Below are the key findings on virtualization and cloud in India:

·30% Indian businesses surveyed admit that they don’t back up their VMs as often as their physical ones;
· 45% of them back up their VMs infrequently, typically weekly or monthly;
· And 44% back up their VMs on a daily basis.
· Using the cloud for offsite backup is becoming a popular choice with over a fifth (20%) using it for this purpose;
· Almost half (42%) still rely on the traditional approach of physically taking backup tapes or disk offsite each day;
·  Almost a quarter (23%) still do not have an offsite backup strategy in place at all.