Despite the hype surrounding the move to cloud email and office systems, relatively few businesses
have made the move. Recent research from Gartner shows that about 50 million enterprise users are on a cloud office system—that equates to just 8% of all office system users.
Gartner expects that to start changing in the first half of 2015, though, and penetration will reach 33% by 2017. “Despite the hype surrounding migration to the cloud, big differences in movement rates continue, depending on an organization’s size, industry, geography, and specific requirements,” says Tom Austin, vice president and Gartner Fellow. Gartner also expects a considerable change in how users are accessing cloud office systems.
The research group notes that, in 2007, when the cloud office market first appeared, users accessed those office systems with just one device. Today, the average user now has up to four devices (typically a mobile phone, tablet, personal PC, and enterprise PC) accessing the office system.