SMB cloud market has room to grow, study says

In an effort to improve data quality and management, organizations are leveraging cloud computing and hosting services with increasing frequency. According to a report by J.D. Power and Associates, roughly 18 percent of business data customers are using remote services, up from only 12 percent in 2011.

"While traditional data services offer a suite, or package of services, employing cloud-based services like [Software-as-a-Service] provides businesses the opportunity to view data as a commoditized service, where the differentiation among providers is primarily based on price, bandwidth and reliability," J.D. Power and Associates telecommunications director Frank Perazzini said.

The report noted that larger firms are the most likely to implement the cloud, as 20 percent of enterprises have adopted the technology, while only 14 percent of small and medium-sized businesses and 5 percent of very small companies have done so.

By leveraging the cloud, IT departments will be able to spend less time ensuring data quality is maintained, as the hosted services push the responsibility on the service provider, according to an IT Business Edge report.

Additionally, cloud services often helps decision-makers implement robust data quality tools if an organization chooses to deploy a private cloud.