South African small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) are largely uninformed about cloud technologies, strategies and benefits, a new study has found.
Adrian Schofield, manager of the Applied Research Unit at the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) at Wits University, says a recent survey carried out by the JCSE supported by a grant from Microsoft, found there are many misconceptions and concerns about cloud computing among SMMEs.
Micro enterprises appeared to be least informed, says Schofield. "Overall, we found that most SMMEs are using some cloud-based apps, but on the whole they did not perceive this to be cloud computing. Companies are aware that cloud computing is a trend, but are asking 'what does this mean in terms of my business, what resources do I need, do I just plug it in and use it, and do I need a structured approach?'"
Schofield points out that cloud offers solutions across the board to SMMEs. However, cloud as a concept may confuse business. "If cloud computing is the future, we may need to stop calling it the cloud and talk of managed services, or something similar that makes sense to people," he says.
Schofield will release the findings of the study at the Microsoft SMME Cloud Computing Executive Forum, to be staged in partnership with ITWeb, in Johannesburg next month. For more information about this event, click here.
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