SMB IT spending seeing significant growth

Small and medium businesses (SMBs) are increasing IT budgets and recruiting more IT skills, according to research which reveals the most positive IT trends over the past 18 months.

According to a survey of 3,000 companies with fewer than 1,000 employees, carried out by business network Spiceworks, IT budgets will increase by 8% on average to £82,000 in 2011, and 31% of companies employing fewer than 20 staff said they will be hiring IT workers.

The report found that SMBs plan to invest more in virtualisation and cloud technologies. It revealed there has been a 100% increase in SME adoption of cloud services in the past year, with 28% now using these services. The report also found that over half of SMBs use virtualisation technology.

Jay Hallberg, co-founder of Spiceworks, said: "All signs point to a good year for the IT industry as SMBs around the world significantly boost investment in technology products and services, as well as staffing. Additionally, the hesitation many small businesses previously had towards virtualisation and cloud services appears to have dissipated, which bodes well for purveyors of these technology offerings."

• See another SMB IT report from Spiceworks here.