Some interesting points from ‘Cloud Adoption: The Difference Between Small & Large Companies‘ on Sandhill.com…

Another interesting pattern emerges when you look at the really small companies with less than 100 employees. A recent survey by Spiceworks Inc. resulted in 1,500 global responses from their Voice of IT Market Research Program. In this survey, nearly half of the responses (47 percent) are from businesses with fewer than 20 employees, while 24 percent are from businesses with 100 or more employees. The data shows that 14 percent of SMBs are currently using cloud solutions and another 10 percent plan to deploy cloud services over the next six months. The smallest SMBs (companies with less than 20 employees), high-tech companies, and companies in emerging economies are on the leading edge of the adoption curve. Though the user base is smaller today, the adoption rate appears to be growing.

Our research found that SMEs are twice as likely to move their core business-critical services to the cloud as large enterprises (25 percent versus 12 percent)

Cloud adoption is catching up with the hype. For example, some SMBs have up to 80 percent of their services in the cloud.

No doubt that almost everybody will be using cloud services in the near future. Though, the adoption by small businesses is going to lead the way.

We have started a Twitter Chat on Business Productivity every Thursdays with the #simpli5 tag. Yesterday was the first such chat on the topic of Email Overload. It was very interesting to discuss how other people are managing their emails, their tips and tricks!

Read the entire transcript!

These chats will be happening every Thursday, to know about the topic and other notifications please follow @simpli5! See you there!

Goldman Sach has released a survey about technology software usage as on Feb 2010. According to these reports SaaS usage is surely on the rise especially by small to medium sized businesses.

44% of the companies use SaaS for collaboration,

Work-life is usually filled with ups and downs and some days are inevitably more stressful than the others. Maybe it’s the project deadline or some issue you are tackling. We believe health comes first no matter how busy or bumbed-out you feel. It is important to de-stress and calm down. Here are a few tips that I find useful to rejuvenate myself.

Watercooler Break
This proverbial small break from the routine of office, can be very effective to relax you. The water would also help cool the body.

Loiter
A small walk around office, maybe to the balcony or window, can be quite refreshing! The movement is good to loosen up the body. Additionally, looking away from the computer screen for a bit relieves eye-strain.

Socialize
Have a chat with a nearby colleague. As you think about other things apart from work like a movie, music, travel, book or family can really help set a relaxed perspective over stuff. This can also go a long way in team bonding.

Energy Boosters
A small snack in your seat maybe a cookie or fruit etc.. gives you a mental break as well as it boosts the body energy. Try to keep it healthy though, junk food could spoil your health and increase uneasiness.

Web-Fun
Visiting a social network or checking out some favorite website or group discussion can really help with your web enthusiasm. In fact there are many researches that suggest social networking in offices boosts productivity.

Play Time
Feels like revisiting childhood but, adding some actual play time to the work routine would not only help various motor and co-ordination skills in your body but also bring cheer to your life! Juggling, Rubik’s cube, yo-yo are some simple games that can be really interesting and viable even in cramped offices.

Some more cool de-stressing tips can be found here:
http://zenhabits.net/2010/01/8-unconventional-ways-to-de-stress-and-release-tension/

How do you guys de-stress?

Pluggd.in is a blog about startups, entrepreneurship and tech in the Indian sector. Sahil recently contributed a guest post on common SaaS myths and ways to overcome them.

Using online software to increase productivity and grow your business is a no brainer. I can’t imagine why any small business would not readily adopt SaaS. What’s holding them back (besides poor bandwidth penetration in some areas) when they can pay a monthly subscription, not have to worry about installation, upgrades and have access to the same tools that their competitors have? This is close to having ’software utopia’ for the small business!

Lets go back in time….

- People might not have been prepared to put their money with other people’s money when banking was established. Banking and online banking is mainstream now.

- People were probably afraid to get on an aircraft which weighed a few tones and promised to soar like a bird. Today, air travel is a given.

Back to the present.

Currently, we are witnessing one of the biggest shifts in enterprise software (software used for business) and as everything else, it comes with it’s own set of myths, mindsets and confusion. Here are a few I have experienced over the last few years from people who are still not ready to adopt online software for their business.

“My data is more secure with me than putting it on someone else’s server”

Your data is more secure at your vendor’s data center than your own internal network. Security is more than just about taking daily backups, maintaining uptime and setting up a firewall. It’s about password policies, encryption, intrusion detection, offsite backups, secure transmission, software updates, patching etc. If hosting or maintaining servers is not your core business then you are better off renting out software from a reputed vendor who understands all these things. This will ensure peace of mind in the long run.

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