SHARE

Midsized Enterprises Look to the Cloud, Analytics to Boost Productivity

This year, 54 percent mid-market companies polled by OnResearch on behalf of Deloitte said they their technology spending will be “higher” than last year. Another 19.4 percent said their spending will be “significantly higher” than in 2015. Improving employee productivity is one of the main reasons behind those boosted levels of IT investments. “Increased productivity […]

Written By

Pedro Hernandez

Aug 19, 2016

Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More

This year, 54 percent mid-market companies polled by OnResearch on behalf of Deloitte said they their technology spending will be “higher” than last year. Another 19.4 percent said their spending will be “significantly higher” than in 2015. Improving employee productivity is one of the main reasons behind those boosted levels of IT investments.

“Increased productivity ranked first of all the reasons the companies have for investing in technology. When asked how technology has generated change within their firms, half of respondents said it has increased productivity and freed up talent to assume new or additional responsibilities,” stated the Deloitte study.

Cloud Storage and Backup Benefits

Protecting your company’s data is critical. Cloud storage with automated backup is scalable, flexible and provides peace of mind. Cobalt Iron’s enterprise-grade backup and recovery solution is known for its hands-free automation and reliability, at a lower cost. Cloud backup that just works.

SCHEDULE FREE CONSULT/DEMO

In search of those productivity gains, mid-sized enterprises are seeking out cloud infrastructure (39.8 percent) and business analytics (38.2 percent) solutions. Big data (36.8 percent) also ranked high on the list of technologies that help employees accomplish more at work.

OnResearch surveyed 500 mid-sized firms with annual sales of $100 million to more than $1 billion for the study. The bulk of the responses came from C-suite executives (60 percent) and the rest came from other executives in managerial positions.

Underscoring augmented and virtual reality’s (AR/VR) bright future in the enterprise, 88 percent of respondents said they are already using AR/VR. Thirty-eight percent said they are employing virtual reality to help customers engage with their brands and 40 percent are using the technology to train customers how to use their products.

Similarly, the Internet of Things (IoT) is having a major impact on the IT strategies of mid-market organizations. “Virtually all respondents in our survey indicated they were at the very least investigating how they could implement IoT technology — the vast [universe] of Internet-connected devices and systems,” said the report. Fifty-six percent of respondents reported mature IoT deployments or that they are well on their way.

Among companies that are developing IoT-enabled products, smart hybrid cloud monitoring (50.6 percent) and smart industrial devices (47.6 percent) are among the top product categories. Smart consumer devices (43.2 percent) also ranked highly.

Finally, and unsurprisingly, over a third of those surveyed (36 percent) identified cybersecurity and information risk management as their top IT priority. Over the past twelve months, security spending was largely concentrated on implementing new security processes (61.2 percent), threat prevention (53.5 percent), employee education and training (53.5 percent) and security software (51.4 percent), the report found.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Datamation. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.

Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Driving Greater Equality

FEATURE | By James Maguire,
December 16, 2020
AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning

FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
December 11, 2020
Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think

FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
December 04, 2020
Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 18, 2020
Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA

FEATURE | By Guest Author,
November 10, 2020
Top 10 AIOps Companies

FEATURE | By Samuel Greengard,
November 05, 2020
What is Text Analysis?

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 02, 2020
How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 29, 2020
Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 23, 2020
The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media

FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
October 16, 2020
Top 10 Chatbot Platforms

FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
October 07, 2020
Finding a Career Path in AI

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
October 05, 2020
CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science

FEATURE | By Guest Author,
September 25, 2020
Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future

FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 25, 2020
Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2021

FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
September 22, 2020
NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
September 18, 2020
Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 14, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 13, 2020
IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI

FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 11, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality

FEATURE | By James Maguire,
September 09, 2020

SEE ALL
CLOUD ARTICLES

Pedro Hernandez

Pedro Hernandez is a contributor to Datamation, eWEEK, and the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals. Previously, he served as a managing editor for the Internet.com network of IT-related websites and as the Green IT curator for GigaOM Pro.