Introduction Today’s growing businesses face a tough challenge. They need to provide the same affordable, always-on mobile services that more established businesses offer, but without the economic support enterprises can fall back on. That means IT professionals are constantly looking for creative ways to do more with less: managing teams, stretching budgets, and making the most of infrastructure and applications. To meet the needs of their organisations within those constraints, they’re turning to the cloud. Studies show that large enterprises are making heavier use of cloud-based applications than their smaller counterparts, but that small and mid-sized businesses are catching up fast. While only about 37% of small and mid-sized businesses are using cloud-based apps this year, experts anticipate that number to reach 78% by 2020. They also predict that the US small and mid-sized business cloud computing and services market will grow from $43B to $55B this year.1,2 We took a closer look at how today’s IT professionals are putting cloud solutions to work in their businesses and how they’re starting to shift their IT spend to match. This e-book offers a high- level overview of current cloud and technology usage in growing businesses, including what workloads are shifting first, what’s driving these efforts and how experience is lining up with these expectations. As cloud-based applications and solutions come within reach of businesses of all sizes, IT professionals are finding new ways to reduce costs and boost productivity. Read on to see what your colleagues are discovering. 1 Cloud-based app adoption, looking ahead: 78% 37% 2015 2020 The Small Business Cloud Outlook - Introduction 2