Agility is a critical competitive advantage that small to midsize businesses (SMBs) have over larger enterprises. SMBs typically can respond rapidly to changing demands and market conditions and fine-tune processes on the fly to enhance the customer experience.

As we discussed in a previous post, there remains widespread confusion about the cloud’s “shared responsibility” security model. Major cloud service providers such as Microsoft and Google have strong measures in place to protect their platforms, but their customers are responsible for securing their data within these cloud environments.

Businesses are aggressively adopting cloud-based productivity suites to improve agility, efficiency and collaboration in a work-from-anywhere world. Two of the more popular platforms, Microsoft’s Office 365 and Google’s G Suite, have hundreds of millions of users.

Bloomberg analysts report that cloud computing will be the top government IT spending category over the next several years. Most government CIOs say this is a welcome development. In an age of increasing digitization, government agencies are finding it difficult to support their constituents with aging infrastructure.

While early adoption of the cloud was driven largely by a desire to reduce capital expenses and management overhead, organizations are now moving to the cloud for strategic purposes. Users can be more productive because they have the flexibility to access cloud resources, collaborate with co-workers, and serve customers from any device and location.

Early video conferencing solutions were major timesavers and money savers. Organizations no longer had to spend days or weeks planning face-to-face meetings, or pay for travel and accommodations. But those early solutions did require expensive on-premises equipment.

The rate of cloud adoption will continue to be highest among small to midsize businesses (SMBs), according to recent forecasts from Techaisle, with 57 percent of SMBs accelerating their cloud initiatives. Not only is cloud adoption increasing, but cloud strategies are becoming more advanced.

Shadow IT is a growing threat, largely because organizations vastly underestimate the size and scope of the issue. According to one Cisco study, large organizations use an average of more than 1,200 different cloud-based applications and services — more than 13 times the number recognized by their IT departments.

The simultaneous explosions of big data and mobility have left many organizations scrambling to figure out the best way to store and protect data. While the amount of data being produced and the number of devices being used has skyrocketed, storage and backup strategies haven’t been able to keep up.

According to a recent survey from Softchoice, just 43 percent of IT leaders said their organizations have been able to stick to their cloud budgets. The same number confessed to not understanding how to create an effective cloud management strategy. Obviously, if you don’t know how to manage your cloud services, you’ll probably have trouble managing the costs involve with those services.