SMEs make a rapid shift to hybrid working

According to new research 42 percent of SMEs have moved, or are planning to move, offices to facilitate hybrid working, with those downsizing reducing their office space requirements by an average of 38 percent.

The study from UK data center specialists ServerChoice shows that these office moves are causing SME business leaders to rethink their IT strategies and shift their server infrastructure away from on-premises to either co-location facilities or public/private cloud.

Private cloud is the most popular infrastructure option at 72 percent, with co-location at 19 percent -- providing the obvious benefit that existing servers can be kept.

Adam Bradshaw, commercial director at ServerChoice, says:

SMEs are undergoing a rapid shift in working patterns with four in ten of these businesses moving offices. This has become a driver for businesses to relook at their IT server estate and our research found that SMEs are using the office move as an opportunity to shift IT servers off premises.

SMEs remain unconvinced by public cloud, with co-location found to be twice as popular as public cloud. This is unsurprising as perfectly good IT hardware does not need to be replaced with co-location. It is a solution that not only maximizes the potential of existing hardware but provides a more secure, and often more reliable, foundation for a business' core infrastructure.

As SMEs start to plan for the future, they should look to find the solution that best fits their planned ways of working. An office move is an opportunity to re-look at IT infrastructure and the cost of moving IT equipment shouldn't be a blocker to finding the best solution for a business.

Worries about moves include 38 percent concerned about the cost of moving their servers, 33 percent concerned about downtime during the move, and 18 percent worried about the possibility of breakages during a move.

You can find out more on the Server Choice site.

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