Semi annual report on SMB Techology Plans and Purchase Intent

1. Voice of IT
TM
State of SMB IT 1H 2012
S e m i - A n n u a l R e p o r t O n S m a l l A n d M e d i u m B u s i n e s s Te c h n o l o g y P l a n s & P u r c h a s e I n t e n t
Spiceworks Inc., 7300 FM 2222, Bldg 3, Ste 100, Austin, TX 78730 Website: www.spiceworks.com/insights
Tel: 1-512-628-8280 • Fax: 1-866-567-2744 Email: insights@spiceworks.com

2. IN THIS REPORT Executive Summary
Executive Summary 2
In the last six months SMBs continue to show their strength. Budgets and technology adoption are all
SMB IT Budgets Continue to Grow 3
on the rise, but at a slower rate than the previous six months. Mobile moves into the forefront as tablets
Budget Allocation Remains Consistent 4 gain ground and IT pros struggle to find the right approach for managing employee owned devices.
New Hardware Grabs Largest Portion of 5
IT Spend The four key findings that emerged from this latest study are:
Virtualization Reaches Mainstream 6
SMBs Deepen Reliance on Virtualization 7 Virtualization and cloud adoption continue to rise; Reliance on virtualization
deepens significantly.
Cloud Adoption Steadies but Outlook 8
Remains Strong Sixty-four percent of SMBs are currently using virtualization, and results show that
Services in the Cloud…or Not 9 SMBs are becoming more reliant on this technology with the number of application
categories virtualized up to 3.1 vs. 2.1 a year ago. Cloud adoption increased only
SMBs Love Their Tablets 10
4% in the last 6 months to 48%, but projections remain strong with 14% of SMBs
BYOD Trend is Here to Stay but IT Pros 11 planning to adopt cloud services in the next 6 months.
Have Mixed Opinions
Background & Methodology 12 BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is well established in SMBs, but IT pros have
mixed opinions on managing these devices.
Three-quarters of SMBs manage employee-owned devices, indicating the BYOD
About Spiceworks Voice of IT® trend is now a standard. But IT pros are still unsure on how they feel about managing
these devices with 55% stating they fully embrace BYOD or believe it works well
The Spiceworks Voice of IT® market insights
program publishes stats, trends and opinions for some devices, while the other 45% haven’t formed an opinion or find it to be a
collected from small and medium business headache for their department.
technology professionals who are among the
more than 1.9M users of Spiceworks. Survey
panelists opt-in to answer questions on Tablets find a solid spot in SMBs.
technology trends important to them. In the last 6 months, the number of SMBs using tablets has increased from 33% to
45% with another 17% planning to purchase a tablet for their company in the next
To learn more, visit:
www.spiceworks.com/voice-of-it 6 months. If this projection holds true then 62% of SMBs will be using tablets for
business by 2H 2012.
To receive updates on future research:
Follow Spiceworks Voice of IT on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/VoiceOfIt IT Budgets continue to increase while new hires remain steady.
IT budgets grew 6% to an average of $152,000 in the last 6 months showing a
Be the first to hear about Spiceworks Voice of IT strong, healthy trend toward investment in technology for SMBs. Nearly a third
insights, email:
of IT departments plan to add staff in the next 6 months while 56% will keep their
marketresearch@spiceworks.com.
department headcount the same.

3. SMB IT budgets continue to grow.
The majority of respondents in this study (62%) are from companies with 20-250 employees. Data from all respondents show that annual
budgets continue to rise in 2012 and have reached an average of $152,000. This is a 6% increase over the last 6 months. Nearly a third of IT
departments plan to grow their teams in the next 6 months which is consistent to what we have seen over the last 2 waves of this study.
Average Planned Budgets and Percent Adding Staff O ver Time
Budgets show in thousands of dollars.
% Adding Staff $143 $152
Planned Budgets
$122 $132
$108 $117
31% 31% 30%
22% 20% 20%
2H 2009 1H 2010 2H 2010 1H 2011 2H 2011 1H 2012
IT Staff Changes in Next 6 Months
4% 56% 30%
* 10% Don’t Know
REDUCING STAFF STAYING THE SAME ADDING STAFF
3

4. New hardware grabs largest portion of IT spend.
The largest portion of IT budgets are allocated to hardware purchases and 87% of respondents’ state this will be on new purchases vs.
upgrades. Software purchases capture an average of 34% of the budget and spend will be split somewhat evenly across new purchases,
renewals and upgrades with nearly 50% of respondents making each of these types of purchases. An average of 26% of the budget will go
towards IT services and 31% of respondents state this will be for renewals.
2012 Allocation of Annual IT Budget
Top 5 Planned Purchases in Next 6 Months:
Hardware (New Purchase or Upgrade)
Desktop Computer 93%
Laptop/Notebook Computer 80%
40% Server
Storage/SAN/NAS
Wireless Networking
49%
47%
70%
34% Software (New Purchase, Renew or Upgrade)
Anti-virus/Anti-spam 61%
Backup/Recovery 53%
Email Client 44%
Productivity Suite 44%
Virtualization 42%
26% IT Services (New Purchase, Renew or Upgrade)
Web Hosting 54%
ISP 44%
Hardware Software IT Services Domain 43%
Email Hosting 34%
Hosted Backup/Recovery 27%
4

5. Budget allocation remains consistent with prior period.
While the allocation of IT budget stays steady since 1H 2011, the trend over time shows allocation toward hardware services decreasing
and IT services increasing. This is most likely due to the adoption of more cloud-based services and the movement towards employee
owned devices in the workplace.
Allocation of Annual IT Budget Over Time
47%
Hardware 42% 40% 41% 40%
34% 33%
Software
34%
35% 34%
19%
IT Services
23% 26% 26% 26%
1H 2010 2H 2010 1H 2011 2H 2011 1H 2012
5

6. Virtualization reaches mainstream.
While the pace of adoption has slowed over the last 6 months, virtualization continues to grow among SMBs and has increased 18% over
the last year. In the next 6 months, 13% of respondents state they plan to start virtualizing.
Adoption of Vir tualization O ver Time
77%
Current Usage Planned Usage (in next 6 months)
64%
61%
52% 54%
F R O M T H E CO M M U N I T Y
44%
Any environment with
more than 2 to 4 servers
is a good virtualization
candidate. If you’re
installing more than
one critical app on
any of those servers,
then you are a GREAT
virtualization candidate.
ITSlave
Spiceworks User
community.spiceworks.com
1H 2010 2H 2010 1H 2011 2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012
6

7. SMBs deepen reliance on virtualization.
While overall adoption of virtualization has slowed down in the last 6 months, companies who are virtualizing have increased the number
of application categories virtualized from 2.1 to 3.1 in the last year. In addition, a quarter of those respondents currently virtualizing
plan to virtualize additional application categories in the next 6 months – with core applications and common infrastructure as the top
applications to be virtualized.
64% of SMBs Virtualize Today Application Categories Today
and Planned for the Next 6 Months
(by those Virtualizing Today)
Current Usage Planned Usage (in next 6 months)
8%
8% 81%
10% 8%
74%
9% 68%
25% PLAN TO VIRTUALIZE
IN THE NEXT 6 MONTHS
58%
66%
Average Number of Application Categories
Virtualized Over Time
1H 2010 2.2 EMAIL/ ACTIVE DIRECTORY/ COMMON CORE APPLICATIONS OTHER
1H 2011 2.1 MESSAGING LDAP/AUTHENTICATION INFRASTRUCTURE (WEB SERVERS,
(DNS, DHCP, WSUS, ETC.) DATABASES, ETC.)
1H 2012 3.1
7

8. Cloud adoption steadies but outlook remains strong.
Forty-eight percent of respondents are using cloud services today. While this measure shows a 4% increase over the last 6 months, the
rate of adoption is much slower than the 64% increase from 1H 2011 to 2H 2011. The good news is anticipation for IT pros to adopt cloud
services in the next 6 months remains strong at 62%.
Cloud Adoption Over Time
Current Usage Planned Usage (in next 6 months)
62%
48%
F R O M T H E CO M M U N I T Y
46%
Cloud is a fairly nebulous
term to many people and it
covers a lot, but aside from
a physical device and an
Internet connection to get
to the data or services there
28%
is nothing that requires it to
be local. Every service can
be put in the cloud. 14%
Alex3031
Spiceworks User
community.spiceworks.com
2H 2010 1H 2011 2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012
8

9. Services in the cloud...or not.
Share of hosted vs. on-premise services remains consistent to the previous six months with web and email hosting topping the list of
cloud-based services used by SMBs. While data backup/recovery, application hosting and data storage are part of the top 6 cloud-based
solutions used today, they are also the top 3 solutions IT pros plan to add in the next 6 months. Sixty-five percent or more of respondents
have no plans to use cloud-based services for logistics management, VoIP and security indicating that IT pros prefer to keep these
technologies on-premise.
To p I T S e r v i c e s
In the Cloud Current Usage
Planned Usage
Web Hosting 49% 8% (in next 6 months)
Email Hosting 32% 11% No Plans
Data Backup/Recovery 25% 17% (in next 6 months)
Content Filtering 24% 8%
Not in the Cloud
Application Hosting 23% 12%
Data Storage 19% 12% Logistics Management 73%
VoIP 66%
Security 65%
Ecommerce 64%
CRM 63%
9

10. SMBs love their tablets.
In 1H 2012 45% of SMBs report they are using tablets for business up from 33% in 2H 2011. By company size, 53% of SMBs with 250 or
more employees are using tablets today vs. 40% of SMBs with less than 20 employees. But these smallest of the small plan to catch up in
the next 6 months with 22% planning to adopt tablets during this time.
Current and Plan ned
Dep loym ent of Tablets By Co mpa ny Si ze
Less than 20 employees 20-99 employees
3% 6% 2%
Check out our infographic
on tablets in the workplace:
www.spiceworks.com/voice-of-it
35% 32% 40% 41% 40%
22% 17%
17% 100-249 employees 250+ employees
62% 3% 3%
45%
PLAN TO BE USING
TABLETS IN NEXT
6 MONTHS 35% 31%
48% 53%
14% 13%
Use tablets on network today Use tablets on network today
Plan to implement tablets in next 6 months Plan to implement tablets in next 6 months
No plans to implement tablets No plans to implement tablets
Not sure Not sure
10

11. BYOD trend is here to stay but IT pros have mixed opinions.
One trend we keep hearing about is BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). To understand how IT pros are dealing with this trend we explored
this topic further. Results show this trend is here to stay with 75% of respondents currently managing personal devices for employees.
Twenty percent of IT pros fully embrace BYOD and another 35% believe it works well for some devices. The remaining 45% have mixed
feelings and either believe it is a headache for their department or haven’t formed an opinion yet.
BYOD in SMBs Attitudes toward Managing BYOD Devices
25% 20% 35% 25% 20%
Fully embrace this trend since this is the future
Works well for some devices, not so well for others
It’s a headache for our department
Haven’t formed an opinion yet
F R O M T H E CO M M U N I T Y
75%
Types of BYOD Tablets
There are opportunities
(for BYOD), just have to Allow BYOD 41%
have the infrastructure
in place to support the Do not allow BYOD 32%
actual work.
Types of BYOD Smartphones
PSX_Defector iPhone 60%
Spiceworks User
Android 55%
community.spiceworks.com iPad Android
Blackberry 36%
Windows 35%
11

12. Background & Methodology
The State of SMB IT Report is a semi-annual study released by Spiceworks Voice of IT® market insights
About Spiceworks program, which publishes stats, trends and opinions collected from small and medium business
technology professionals who are among the more than 1.9 M users of Spiceworks.
Spiceworks™, the world’s largest social
business platform for IT, connects 1.9 million IT
professionals with more than 1,000 technology The 1H 2012 State of SMB IT is the sixth edition of this study which is designed to keep an active pulse
brands. By combining a Facebook-like on the happenings of small and medium business IT professionals and IT departments. Responses to this
community with free IT management software, latest survey were collected from 1,498 small and medium business IT professionals around the world.
Spiceworks helps businesses to discover, buy
and manage $351 billion worth of technology
products and services each year.
For more information visit: Employee Size Region
http://spiceworks.com/ Less than 20 employees
4%
Want to use data from this report?
19% 15% North America
Go to www.spiceworks.com/voice-of-it/terms EMEA
Published on May 8, 2012
20-99 employees 47%
34%
Asia-Pacific
33% Latin America
100-249 employees
28% Industr y
Manufacturing 15% Non Profit 5%
250 or more employees Education 10% Finance 5%
20% IT Service Provider 9%
Healthcare 7%
Engineering 4%
Retail 4%
Government 6% Other 35%
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are based on sources that Spiceworks believes to be reliable, Spiceworks does not guarantee the accuracy, and any such information might
be incomplete or condensed. Any estimates included in this report constitute Spiceworks’ judgment as of the date of compilation, and are
subject to change without notice. This report is for information purposes only. All responsibility for any interpretations or actions based on
the information or commentary contained within this report lie solely with the recipient.
All rights reserved. 2012.
Spiceworks Inc., 7300 FM 2222, Bldg 3, Ste 100, Austin, TX 78730 Website: www.spiceworks.com/insights
Tel: 1-512-628-8280 • Fax: 1-866-567-2744 Email: insights@spiceworks.com