Techaisle Blog

Techaisle research shows that the US SMB spend on security (including managed security services) is likely to be US$8.4 B in 2017. Within the entire SMB (1-999 employees) segment it is easy to point to a lack of budget as a reason why US small businesses (1-99 employees) are not proactive when it comes to addressing security (or other IT) issues, but that may not be the whole problem, or perhaps even the greatest obstacle to small business adoption of security technology. Techaisle data illustrates, relative to midmarket (100-999 employees) firms, small businesses have limited internal IT security staff, are not generally working with a managed service provider capable of managing security needs, are about one-third less likely than larger peers to work with outsourcers delivering Security-as-a-Service, and are about 50% less likely to embrace external vendors’ software-based security solutions. While microbusinesses could theoretically pursue the same strategies that are used by larger competitors, they lack experience and skills needed to identify, deploy and manage the products and relationships used to develop shields protecting valuable corporate data, application and human assets.

Techaisle’s US Enterprise Cloud survey conducted with senior IT decision makers shows that Cloud actually opens the doors to increased IT investment. For all the trepidation about the negative impact of cloud on IT budget and authority, data from the Techaisle US upper-midmarket/enterprise (1,000 employees to 10,000 employees) cloud survey indicates that advanced use of cloud actually drives higher IT spending. In 92% of US enterprises, IT has a voice on the board and helps drive the direction of the business rather than business deciding IT needs. There is also a great deal of near-term opportunity for a variety of SaaS providers in the US enterprise market: ten diverse application categories are included in near-term plans of 37%-41% of respondents.

Cloud adoption maturity & IT staffing impact

Survey data shows that cloud maturity does not correlate to reductions in IT staffing levels. The most and least mature cloud user segments have an average of 19.0 and 20.3 users per IT staff member, respectively. The two groups between the extremes have an average of 16.6 and 16.2 users per IT staff member. The roles may be different, but the survey data finds that absolute employment in IT shops does not decline with cloud use.

Techaisle forecasts that US SMB IT spend growth rate could very well remain flat at US$188 billion in 2016 as compared to 2015. However, the US midmarket spending growth will likely increase by 6% whereas the small business spending will fall by 2 percent in 2016 from 2015. In early 2015, Techaisle had forecast US SMB IT spending to be US$180B by end of 2015 – based on most recent Techaisle SMB surveys the actual spending for 2015 came in at US$188B. Techaisle survey data shows some very interesting patterns for planned SMB 2016 IT budgets across different employee size businesses. Small businesses show progressive fall in IT budgets until they reach a certain size whereas midmarket businesses show budget increases until they reach a certain size.