Eighty percent of SMBs in the U.S. say cloud computing contributes to business growth, and more than 40 percent of SMBs say that business agility and new capabilities are driving SMB cloud adoption, according to a survey from Techaisle.

Previously, SMBs turned to cloud adoption primarily as a way to cut costs. While IT-related costs are still leading SMBs toward cloud services, especially for the opportunity to acquire technologies and applications that would have been too costly otherwise, this is no longer the predominant reason for SMBs to turn to cloud computing.

Sixty percent of midsized business respondents said that turning to cloud computing made IT departments more productive, as IT personnel do not have to waste limited staff resources on managing service agreement licenses or upgrading computers with new software.

Another IT benefit: all computers within the company would be running the same software versions, making it easier to keep up with security patches and program updates. IT staff in SMBs are generally not trained in cybersecurity, so these automatic updates can help overall business security.

Monthly costs and a specific service contact helps the IT department manage its budget more efficiently, focusing money on new products to help grow the overall business.