Cloud Storage Not Used by 48% of US SMBs – Clutch

Clutch surveyed small businesses in the US to determine how many use cloud storage and to identify the most popular and satisfactory service providers in the SMB market.

The survey revealed three significant findings:

• Nearly half, 48%, of small businesses do not use cloud storage.
• Small businesses identified Dropbox as the most popular cloud storage service, followed by Google Drive, Apple iCloud, and Microsoft OneDrive.
• Apple iCloud received the highest Net Promoter Score (NPS), a standard measure of customer satisfaction and loyalty, followed by Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive.

The full survey included 744 respondents who were employed full-time by firms with between 11 and 1,000 employees and held an associate position or higher, such as manager, VP, C-level executive, or president/CEO. The survey was conducted throughout October 2015. The total number of respondents varies for each question.

To learn more about what users think about these cloud storage service providers
 
1. Quantity of Small Businesses that Use Cloud Storage
Does your company use cloud, or online, storage, services? Examples include backing up PCs to online storage, sharing documents on Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox or Google Drive, or backing up a website to Amazon Cloud.

Of 438 small businesses, 48% do not use cloud storage, while 52% do use cloud storage.

The data indicates room for growth in small business cloud storage adoption. But, why are small businesses reluctant to adopt cloud storage?A lack of awareness about cloud capabilities, as well as security and compliance concerns may hold small businesses back, according to David Amaya, consultant at Cardinal Solutions(link is external) and cloud thought leader.

“Yes, cloud storage has been around for a while, but there are still many people who do not know the full scope of what can be done with it. Security and compliance concerns hold many back from adopting the Cloud. As small businesses become more aware of what is possible and how the cloud addresses these concerns, the number using the cloud will continue to increase,” said David Amaya, consultant at Cardinal Solutions and cloud thought leader, in an interview with Clutch. “Security and compliance concerns hold many back from adopting the Cloud. As small businesses become more aware of what is possible and how the cloud addresses these concerns, the number using the cloud will continue to increase.”
 
2. Most Popular Cloud Storage Service Providers
What cloud storage service providers does your company use? Please select all that apply.

 
The small businesses that use cloud storage identified Dropbox as the most popular service, with 53% of respondents indicating that their firms use this service.

Google Drive, at 45%, Apple iCloud, at 34%, and Microsoft OneDrive, at 30%, followed Dropbox as the top four most most popular cloud storage service providers.
 
3. Customer Satisfaction Ratings for Cloud Storage Service Providers

To determine the cloud storage services with the highest customer satisfaction ratings, Clutch calculated the Net Promoter Score (NPS) for the top four most popular providers.

The NPS measures customer satisfaction and loyalty based on responses to the question, “How likely is it that you would recommend this service to a friend or colleague?“

A total of 289 respondents selected the cloud storage provider with which they were most familiar and provided a numerical rank, on a scale of one to ten (with ten being the highest possible score), based on their willingness to recommend the service.

Calculating the NPS required separating the percentage of detractors (rankings of zero to six), passives (rankings of seven to eight), and promoters (rankings of nine to ten), for each cloud storage provider selected. Then, the percentage of detractors was subtracted from th percentage of promoters to attain the NPS.

Small businesses identified Apple iCloud as the most satisfactory cloud storage service, with an NPS of 62.

Dropbox, with a score of 54, Google Drive, with a score of 50, and Microsoft OneDrive, with a score of 45, represent the top four most satisfactory cloud storage services.

These NPS scores are based on the rankings given by the 42 small business employees who selected Apple iCloud as the service provider with which they were most familiar, 84 who selected Dropbox, 64 who selected Google Drive, and 40 who selected Microsoft OneDrive.