News

Spiceworks Survey of 1,200+ Small and Mid-Sized Businesses Also Reveals Significant Growth in Tablet Usage, Virtualization Adoption and IT Budgets
AUSTIN, TX–(Marketwire – Nov 9, 2011) – A new study issued today by Spiceworks™, Inc. revealed that small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) continue to embrace advanced technology — including tablet computers, cloud services and virtualization technology — at a rapid pace. According to the results of the recently released Spiceworks State of SMB IT survey, nearly half of SMBs have adopted tablet computers and cloud services, while IT budgets for the second half of 2011 saw the greatest jump in more than two years.
The Spiceworks State of SMB IT survey is a semi-annual global study that investigates the latest technology purchasing, usage and staffing trends among companies with less than 1,000 employees. The study of 1,200+ IT professionals was conducted during the fall of 2011 via the Spiceworks Voice of IT® Market Research Program.
Survey highlights include:
Tablets are becoming more popular among small and mid-sized businesses.

• Fifty percent of SMBs have deployed or plan to deploy tablet devices, such as iPads, within the next six months.

Adoption of cloud services continues to rise rapidly among SMBs, while virtualization is still their top IT initiative.

• Cloud services are now used by 46 percent of SMBs, a significant rise over the 28 percent that reported using cloud services in the first half of 2011 and the 14 percent that reported doing so mid-year 2010.
• Virtualization continues to dominate the SMB market. Currently, 61 percent of small and mid-sized businesses use virtualization, which is up from the 54 percent that reported using virtualization during the first half of 2011.

IT budgets see the largest increase in two years as SMBs continue to add IT staff.

• Overall IT budgets in the second half of 2011 grew 9 percent when compared with IT budgets for the first half of 2011 — the largest increase in two years. The average annual IT budget for SMBs now stands at $143,000, up from the $132,000 previously reported for the first half of 2011.
• Nearly one in three SMBs, or 31 percent, plan to hire IT staff — which is consistent with data reported for the first half of 2011.

“Despite market fluctuations, 2011 proved to be a great year for disruptive technologies as SMBs increasingly adopted tablet computers, cloud services and virtualization technology,” said Jay Hallberg, co-founder and vice president of Marketing for Spiceworks. “The results of our most recent survey show SMBs making similar strategic technology investments with expanded budgets — pointing to a stronger market for IT products and services among small and mid-sized businesses in 2012.”
Methodology
The State of SMB IT survey included 1,295 respondents from 95 countries around the world. Forty percent of respondents were from North America, 32 percent from EMEA, 25 percent from Asia-Pacific, and 4 percent from Latin America. Those surveyed work in organizations with fewer than 1,000 employees and were among the more than 1.7 million SMB IT professionals who use Spiceworks to manage their computer networks.
More at http://www.spiceworks.com/voice-of-it