CloudingSMEs Deliverable D2.2.1 SMEs Requirements for Cloud Development, Adoption and Evolution

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CloudingSMEs – FP7- No. 609604 WP2

SMEs Vision and Road mapping for Cloud Development Deliverable D2.2.1

SMEs Requirements for Cloud Development, Adoption and Evolution

CloudingSMEs

Deliverable D2.2.1

SMEs Requirements for

Cloud Development, Adoption

and Evolution

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Document Details

Project Acronym CloudingSMEs Grant Agreement No. 609604

Project Title Accelerating the adoption, deployment and use of Cloud Computing by SMEs

Deliverable Reference Number CloudingSMEs-WP2-D2.2.1 Deliverable Title SMEs Requirements for Cloud

Development, Adoption and Evolution

Revision Number V4.0

Deliverable Editor(s) UEAPME, EBS

Authors / Contributors Lorenzo Accardo (UEAPME) Luc Hendrickx (UEAPME) Sebastiano Toffaletti (PIN-SME) Fotis Stamatelopoulos (EBS) Makis Magdalinos (EBS) Angelos Lenis (EBS) Andreas Weiss (EuroCloud) Christine Neubauer (EuroCloud) Caterina BerbenniRehm (PatS)

Project co-funded by the European Commission within the FP7 Framework Programme Dissemination Level

PU Public

Statement of originality:

This deliverable contains original unpublished work except where clearly indicated otherwise. Acknowledgement of previously published material and of the work of others has been made through appropriate citation, quotation or both.

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Revision History

Rev. Author(s) Organization(s) Date Changes

V0.1 Lorenzo Accardo, Fotis Stamatelopoulos

UEAPME, EBS 25/11/2013 Structure & Introduction

V0.2 Lorenzo Accardo, Fotis Stamatelopoulos

UEAPME, EBS 14/02/2014 Updated Information in Chapter 2;

V0.25 Makis Magdalinos, Angelos Lenis

EBS 10/06/2014 Information Analyzed from Background Surveys V0.30 Sebastiano Toffaletti PIN-SME 23/06/2014 Inputs to Chapter 3 on SME

Workshops (Madrid & Bologna) V0.35 Makis Magdalinos,

Angelolos Lenis

EBS 27/06/2014 Initial Consolidation of Requirements in Chapter 4 V0.40 Sebastiano Toffaletti PIN-SME 11/07/2014 Inputs to Chapter 3 on SME

Workshops (Manchester Workshop)

V0.45 Andreas Weiss, Christine Neubauer

EuroCloud 17/07/2014 EuroCloud Inputs to Chapter 2 regarding Empirical Knowledge V0.50 Makis Magdalinos,

Angelos Lenis, Christine Neubauer

EBS, EuroCloud 18/07/2014 Inclusion of results from Ques-tionnaires

V0.55 Luc Hendrickx, Fotis Stamatelopoulos

UEAPME, EBS 18/07/2013 Executive Summary; Consolidated Requirements V1.0 Lorenzo Accardo UEAPME 21/07/2014 PreFinal Version for Quality

Control

V2.0 Lorenzo Accardo UEAPME 01/10/2014 Sending the deliverable to the European Commission V2.1 Fotis Stamatelopoulos EBS 06/11/2014 Outline of Revisions in order to

address reviewers comments V2.2 Fotis Stamatelopoulos,

Angelos Lenis

EBS 07/11/2014 Update on Cloud Computing Status in Greece

V2.25 Fotis Stamatelopoulos, Angelos Lenis

EBS 11/11/2014 Deleted Section 5;

V2.3 Lorenzo Accardo UEAPME 15/12/2014 Added information from inter-views with SME Associations V2.35 Andreas Weiss,

Christine Neubauer

EuroCloud 15/12/2014 Information about Cloud Com-puting Workshops in Germany; Formatting of the Document V2.4 Fotis Stamatelopoulos,

Angelos Lenis

EBS 16/12/2014 Various Edits

EBS 29/12/2014 Analysis of Questionnaires

V2.6 Fotis Stamatelopoulos, Makis Magdalinos,

EBS 05/01/2015 Updates to Conclusions and Executive Summary V2.7 Lorenzo Accardo UEAPME 06/01/2015 Various Edits

V3.0 Lorenzo Accardo UEAPME 07/01/2015 Preparation of Version for Re-lease

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EBS 28/05/2015 Updates to Introduction and Ab-stract in preparation of final re-lease

V3.2 Lorenzo Accardo UEAPME 30/06/2015 Information about Cloud-ingSMEs Workshops in Section 2

V3.3 Lorenzo Accardo UEAPME 30/06/2015 Updates to Conclusions and Chapter 2

V3.4, 3.5

Fotis Stamatelopoulos, Angelos Lenis

EBS 06/07/2015 Updates to the deliverable based on the analysis of addi-tional questionnaires (per Sec-tor and per Size of the SMEs) V3.6 Luc Hendrickx,

Patrizia di Mauro

UEAPME 15/07/2015 Update to the deliverable on personal interview

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Abstract

This deliverable presents a set of requirements for cloud adoption, which reflect the viewpoints of SMEs with interest in deploying cloud solution and/or in developing and rolling-out cloud solutions. These viewpoints have been derived based on a number of complementary modalities including:

(A) Direct contacts with SMEs in the scope of workshops for SME com-munities organized by the project;

(B) Surveys administered to the SMEs by the consortium upon various occasions;

(C) Review of surveys on SMEs requirements regarding cloud adoption, notably surveys that are available in the literature;

(D) Analysis of the state-of-the-art and state-of-practice regarding cloud adoption by SMEs in various EU countries;

(E) Interviews and face-to-face discussions with representatives of SMEs and SMEs associations

The requirements expressed in this document are an important result of CloudingSMEs, since it will drive several other project activities including:

(A) The development and fine-tuning of the CloudingSMEs toolbox in WP3; and

(B) The production of documents on SMEs cloud vision and roadmap in WP2.

Following relevant recommendations received during the CloudingSMEs technical audit, this deliverable has become a living document, which will constantly incorporate new data and information that will become available as part of the project’s stakeholder’s interviews and workshops.

This version of the deliverable is the final one, which incorporates the analysis of 177 questionnaires from SMEs end-users of cloud computing, along with 26 questionnaires from ICT SMEs i.e. providers of cloud computing solutions. Note that these questionnaires were collected during the whole range of SME engagement activities that were conducted during the project’s lifetime.

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Table of Tables

Table 1: Requirements Collection and Analysis Activities ... 14

Table 2: Additional output due to adoption of cloud computing (% of annual output) (Source: Centre for Economics and Business Research, the Cloud Dividend: Part One, December 2010) ... 21

Table 3: Barriers to Cloud Adoption (by SMEs) in Greece ... 23

Table 4: Overview of CloudingSMEs Workshops ... 25

Table 5: Consolidated List of End-User SME Requirements ... 70

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Table of Figures

Figure 1: Top Cloud Computing Benefits for SMEs according to [ENISA09] ... 16 Figure 2: SMEs Concerns associated with Cloud Adoption according to [ENISA09] ... 1 Figure 3: Envisaged Net Cost Savings in Greek Economy due to Cloud Computing ... 22 Figure 4: Distribution of the participating ICT SMEs according to the number of their

employees ... 52 Figure 5: Level of Cloud Knowledge Declared by the participating SMEs ... 53 Figure 6: Cloud Knowledge of the SMEs (analyzed according to the size of the SMEs) ... 54 Figure 7: Main areas where SMEs need support (analyzed according to the size of the

SMEs) ... 54 Figure 8: Factors that motivate SMEs to move to cloud solutions (analyzed according to the

size of the SMEs) ... 55 Figure 9: Types of Cloud Deployments Envisaged by SMEs (analyzed according to the size

of the SMEs) ... 56 Figure 10: SMEs concerns associated with cloud aodption and contracts (analyzed

according to the size of the SMEs) ... 56 Figure 11: Per-Sector Distribution of the SMEs (participating in the survey) ... 57 Figure 12: Cloud Knowledge of the SMEs (analyzed according to the sector of the SMEs) . 58 Figure 13: Factors that motivate SMEs to move to cloud solutions (analyzed according to the

sector of the SMEs) ... 58 Figure 14: SMEs intentions & plans regarding cloud adoption (analyzed according to the

sector of the SMEs) ... 59 Figure 15: Areas where the SMEs need support (analyzed according to the sector of the

SMEs) (y axis denotes number of responses) ... 60 Figure 16: Cloud Models Envisaged by SMEs (analyzed according to the sector of the

SMEs) (y axis denotes number of responses) ... 60 Figure 17: Types of Cloud Deployments Envisaged by SMEs (analyzed according to the

sector of the SMEs) ... 61 Figure 18: SMEs Concerns against Cloud Adoption (analyzed according to the sector of the

SMEs) ... 61 Figure 19: Thorny Issues in Cloud Contracts Envisaged by theSMEs (analyzed according to

the sector of the SMEs) ... 62 Figure 20: Modes of ICT Services Delivery in for companies according to their sector ... 62 Figure 22: ICT SMEs’ Level of Cloud Computing Knowledge ... 63 Figure 23: Analysis of how SMEs use (or intend) to use Cloud Computing (y-axis denoted

number of responses) ... 64 Figure 24: Types of Clouds Used by ICT SMEs ... 65

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Figure 25: Cloud Models Deployed by ICT SMEs ... 65

Figure 26: Positioning of the Cloud Solutions Deployed by SMEs... 66

Figure 27: Types of Cloud Solutions Deployed by ICT SMEs... 66

Figure 28: Motivation for ICT SMEs to adopt/use cloud solutions ... 67

Figure 29: ICT SMEs needs in terms of cloud computing ... 67

Figure 30: Evaluation of Different Cloud Issues by ICT SMEs... 68

Figure 31: Common Elements and Concerns contained in the SLAs / contracts established by ICT SMEs ... 68

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Executive Summary

This deliverable presents a set of SME Requirements regarding the adoption and evolution of cloud computing infrastructure and services. These requirements have been derived on the basis of a multi-facet methodology, which has taken into account:

(A) A review of the finding of recent surveys on SMEs needs and expec-tation from cloud computing, including analysis of the state-of-play in EU countries;

(B) Discussion with SMEs in the scope of a series of workshops for SMEs, which have been organized by the consortium across several EU countries (including Spain, Italy, Germany, UK and Greece); (C) Analysis of feedback from SMEs received through questionnaires. In

the present version/release of the deliverable the questionnaires from 177 end-users (cloud user) SMEs have been analysed, along with questionnaires from 26 ICT SMEs (cloud solution providers). (D) Interviews and guide with representatives of SME Associations in

specific sectors (such as the ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and the European Builders Confederation (EBC)).

Based on this methodology, we have attempted to understand what end-user SMEs in their cloud adoption efforts, but also what ICT SMEs need in order to be able to develop, deploy and sell competitive cloud-based solutions and services.

In terms of end-user SME needs, the following have been identified:

 SMEs are in need of better understanding the benefits of cloud computing for their business activities. Existing presentations and discussions of cloud computing with SMEs tend to focus very fre-quently on technical issues rather than on business benefits.

 Awareness Rising in SMEs should be customized and tailored to the profile and needs of the SMEs as defined by their size and business activities. General awareness rising should be targeted to sectors that are currently less involved in cloud computing nowa-days (e.g., Construction sector), while more focused support (e.g., Sector Specific Best Practices) should be provided to adopters (e.g., companies in the ICT and Services sectors).

 Awareness rising should be prioritized for Micro SMEs, which do not possess the time and equity capital to invest on cloud educa-tion, despite the potential benefits.

 Cloud Computing Services should be presented to SMEs in terms of their business benefits rather than technical characteristics.

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End-user SMEs prioritize efficiency, mobility, agility and cost as the main benefits.

 SMEs need support in understanding and negotiating Service Lev-el Agreements (SLAs), especially in terms of Security, Data Protec-tion and QoS issues.

 SMEs need support in understanding security, privacy and data protection risks in cloud computing along with related solutions. Security, Privacy and Data Protection is the main area of concern for end-users SMEs, given that most of them view their data as a top company asset.

 SMEs need support in the migration and management of change associated with cloud computing

 Cloud Computing Services should be registered to services cata-logues/directories so that SMEs could locate/identify them

 SMEs need support in understanding and scoring criteria for se-lecting cloud vendors and offerings

 SMEs would benefit from referrals to certified cloud providers.

 SMEs need support in the adoption of IaaS and SaaS, which is rel-atively more appealing than PaaS. SaaS solutions seem to be pri-oritized and better tailored to end-user SMEs comparing to IaaS solutions.

 Micro SMEs prioritize public cloud solutions over private ones and look for relevant resources and value propositions. Small and Me-dium sized SMEs are more likely to invest in Private Cloud Solu-tions.

 SMEs need their Security and Data Protection concerns to be ad-dressed in their cloud contracts and SLAs.

 SMEs need support in scoring and evaluating cloud services, since they (currently) do not usually possess the knowledge and exper-tise to do the evaluation themselves.

 SMEs are able to make informed choices and have access to ob-jective, comparable and relevant information when choosing ser-vices and providers. This is particularly important for MicroSMEs, but also SMEs in specific sectors (e.g., Accounting).

 SMEs need careful consideration of the kind of services the enter-prise is able to buy, the interoperability of these with the current software, the pricing of bolt-on services, the differences between providers and the risk attached to each option.

 SMEs are concerned about transparency and interoperability, in-cluding their ability to switch between vendors once they adopt a cloud solution.

 SMEs use specific cloud solutions according to their size, but also to their experience in terms of cloud computing. For example, mi-cro SMEs with very limited cloud experience focus on simple public cloud services (e.g., e-mail, storage), while gradually adopting

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more sophisticated cloud services (e.g., enterprise applications as a service).

At the same time, the following needs for ICT SMEs have been identified and consolidated:

 SME Cloud Vendors need support in understanding the areas where they could develop competitive Cloud Products and Services

 SMEs need support in understanding how to complete large cloud vendors, including support in identifying possible product areas and markets

 SMEs need to identify and adhere to appropriate standards and certi-fications.

 Cloud SMEs need to market their products and services in a busi-ness-friendly way

 SME cloud vendors need partnerships with entities that provide busi-ness advice (e.g., financial services) and consulting to SMEs, given that these services providers are very close to their

cli-ents/customers.

 SMEs that are cloud vendors and/or solution providers need support in focusing on niche products, services and solutions rather than completing with giant vendors on the basis of cost and economies of scale.

 SMEs need support in identifying cloud solutions (and related busi-ness opportunities) that could be adapted/localized to national or re-gional needs. These opportunities are not adequately exploited by ICT SMEs.

 SMEs need to be provided with Best Practices, Blueprints and Cloud Resources that could boost their ability to develop competitive prod-ucts and services.

 SMEs should be supported in the development of SLAs and con-tracts with customers, since their flexibility in cloud concon-tracts could differentiate them from large companies (competitors).

The above listed requirements/needs are already used to drive several other results of the project, including the development of the project’s vision for cloud development (in WP2), as well as the areas for which tools (in WP3) and best practices (in WP4) will be developed. Note that the present deliverable is a living document that will be continually updated from results from the CloudingSMEss workshops as the latter are gradually made available.

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1 Introduction

The main goal of the CloudingSMEs project is to provide essential support to SMEs wishing to adopt cloud solution, as well as to SMEs that plan to develop, deploy and roll-out cloud based products and services. The relevant support will be provided on the basis of the CloudingSME toolbox (developed in WP3 of the project) and the consolidation of best practices (as part of WP4 of the project). Furthermore, the project is (as part of WP2) committed to publishing a roadmap for evolving cloud infrastructures and services in-line with SMEs expectations.

The above-listed results of the project will be driven by the requirements and preferences of the SMEs in terms of cloud adoption, development and evolution. Therefore, the purpose of this document is to articulate a number of SME requirements regarding cloud adoption and evolution. In order to derive, collect, analyze and consolidate these requirements, the project has conducted the following complementary activities:

 Review of the state-of-the-art on SMEs wishes and preferences re-garding cloud computing, as the latter preferences have been ex-pressed in recently published surveys.

 Review of the status of cloud adoption across various EU countries, with an emphasis on data and information that relates to SMEs.

 Organization of a number of workshops for SMEs communities, dur-ing which the Clouddur-ingSMEs partners have had the opportunities to discuss/interact with SMEs and learn about their requirements and concerns in terms of cloud computing adoption.

 Collection of requirements through questionnaires. To this end, the project has created and published two surveys/questionnaires, in-cluding one destined to (potential) end-users of cloud computing ser-vices and another destined to (potential) vendors/providers of cloud computing solutions and services.

 Interviews with representatives of SMEs and SMEs associations, which have provided insights on the preferences of SMEs in terms of cloud adoption, but also on the barriers that hinder adoption and use.

The requirements collection activities and modalities are reviewed in the following table:

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Technical Barriers Non- Technical Barriers

Review of State-of-the-art Analysis of Surveys conducted by other initia-tives and organizations

Country-Specific Information Analysis of the situation in various EC Countries

Workshops for SMEs Direct Interactions with SMEs in the scope of focused/targeted workshops

Questionnaires Collection of Data through Questionnaires

Interviews

Guided discussions with representatives of SMEs and SMEs associations and emphasis on specific economic sectors

Table 1: Requirements Collection and Analysis Activities

On the basis of these activities the project has collected and analyzed information about SMEs requirements. The latter requirements are consolidated and presented as part of the deliverable. They have been extensively used as input to other project developments, including the development of the toolbox (WP3), the elicitation/documentation of best practices (WP4), as well as the publication of guidelines for policy development (WP5). Moreover, they have been used to drive the formulation of the SMEs vision regarding cloud computing, along with the specification of relevant roadmaps for achieving the vision. The main outcome/result of this deliverable is a number of consolidated SME requirements, which are detailed in the document. Overall, the deliverable is structured as follows:

 Section 2 presents a set of SME requirements regarding cloud

com-puting, which are derived from the literature (notably based on pub-lished surveys on this subject). It also includes information about cloud adoption across various EU countries.

 Section 3 outlines information/requirements collected during a

num-ber of workshops for SMEs communities, which have been organized by the project. It also outlines information gathered through inter-views with SMEs and SME associations.

 Section 4 presents a list of consolidated SME requirements

regard-ing cloud computregard-ing.

 Section 5 is the final and concluding section of the present release of the deliverable.

As already outlined this deliverable is a living document that will be con-tinually updated with results and information from more interactions with SMEs (i.e. workshops, interviews) as the latter become available.

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2 Background on SMEs Requirements about

Cloud Adoption

2.1 Background Surveys and State-of-the-art

CloudingSMEs is aware of a range of studies and surveys that have tried to understand the main issues and concerns of small medium enterprises (SMEs), where it comes to adopting cloud computing solutions. These surveys are in several cases associated with the SMEs communities of specific countries such as UK [Sahandi13] and Ireland [Carcary13], and could therefore serve as a valuable complement to the surveys that CloudingSMEs is organizing in the scope of its community building efforts. In particular, the project will take into account results of these studies as part of its attempt to document the SMEs vision for the cloud, but also as part of its effort to provide support structures that will be useful to SMEs considering cloud computing solutions. In the sequel we briefly review these results and outline how these are taken into account in CloudingSMEs.

In [Kaur12] the author identifies the main motivations for SMEs to adopt the cloud, which include ease of use, shorter boot times, more flexibility in software updates, possibility for mobility and ubiquitous access, higher and more cost-effective scalability, as well as the opportunity for instant availability of cloud computing resources. At the same time, a number of pale points associated with cloud adoption are identified including data security, issues associated with vendor lock-in, performance instability, dependency on the network, as well as the need to understand and effectively deal with SLAs with a cloud provider. The same article suggests also a scoring-based methodology for evaluating the merits of cloud adoption through comparing them with a traditional data center solution. In particular, the author suggests that the following factors and issues are considered (scored) when choosing between traditional data center solutions and emerging cloud based solutions: Boot Time, Internet Connectivity, Capital Expenses, Operational Expenses, Software Updating, Mobility, Scalability, Storage Space, Implementation (flexibility), Security, Lock-in, Uptime Guarantee, Performance Instability and Network-related Limitations.

Another (less recent) study on cloud adoption by SMEs has been carried out by ENISA [ENISA09], which was based on the administration of questionnaires to several SMEs. As part of this study, SMEs identified the following (three) benefits of the cloud as being the most appealing value propositions:

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 Flexible and scalable access to IT resources.

 Reduction of capital expenses when comparing to traditional non-cloud solutions.

 Improved business continuity and disaster recovery opportunities.

Figure 1: Top Cloud Computing Benefits for SMEs according to [ENISA09]

SMEs found the cloud less relevant in their efforts to control marginal profit and marginal costs or even to improve the effectiveness of their business processes and achieve better performance. The survey did not expose any specific trend in relation to the type of cloud computing infrastructure (public, private, partner, federated/hybrid) that SMEs would prefer to use, yet the choices of federated and partner clouds received slightly more votes. Similarly, there were SMEs showing interest in SaaS, PaaS and IaaS, with SaaS being slightly more popular (and considered more useful). However, SMEs did not find it a good idea to outsource security services in the cloud.

In addition to querying SMEs about their prefer cloud types, the [ENISA09] survey attempted also to identify their preferences/wishes in terms of the type of cloud applications that SMEs would like to use in the cloud. CRM/Sales Management was a clear winner in this question, while project management, application development and payroll followed. On the other hand, procurement and human resources applications on the cloud were much less selected by the SMEs. Finally, the survey identified also the major concerns of the SMEs in terms of cloud adoption, which included data privacy, the availability of corporate services and/or data, the integrity of corporate services and/or data, the confidentiality of corporate data, as well as the liability of the cloud provider in case of

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security incidents. A snapshot of the responses to the relevant question about cloud adoption concerns is illustrated in Clouding SMEs

Figure 2: SMEs Concerns associated with Cloud Adoption according to [ENISA09]

The results of a survey conducted with the participation of 300 (UK based) SMEs is presented [Sahandi13]. As a general remark from this survey, SMEs show interest in the cloud computing paradigms, but are also concerned in terms of security and vendor lock-in. Furthermore, the importance of data privacy and data/services migration risks are underlined. These concerns are more or less similar or the same to the ones expressed in the previously presented surveys. However, the survey among UK SMEs has revealed a strong preference of the survey participants towards specific cloud offerings, notably hosting services, backup services and hosted emails and data storage. These cloud offerings do not coincide with the offerings identified in the ENISA survey. The identification of these offering signifies also that SMEs have a strong interest in outsourcing mainstream IT services as a means of cutting costs and improving flexibility. However, the concerns outlined above are considered a serious set-back to the rapid adoption of the cloud. As a remedy the authors suggest that cloud providers have to provide more information on their security features and offering, including information about handling of data in multi-tenant environments. Moreover, security certification of the cloud provider (based on appropriate standards) is

SMEs

Cloud Service Preferences Hosting Backup Hosted E-Mails Data Storage SMEs General Interests Cutting cost Improving flexibility SMEs Cloud Concerns data privacy data/services migration risks

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suggested as a measure that could alleviate cloud security concerns for SMEs.

A report and an analysis of findings from a survey on cloud adoption by Irish SMEs are contained in [Carcary13]. It attempts to identify the benefits of the cloud that are envisaged by cloud adopters, as well as the problems/issues faced by non-adopters. The reported benefits and problems are not essentially different from those listed in other surveys. However, the authors attempt to interpret the answers of the various SMEs based on their profile, but also to provide a set of recommendations for Irish SMEs that could be taken into account by policy makers (e.g., Government and State Bodies in Ireland). One of these recommendations is that despite general improvement in cloud awareness (see for example [Craig12]), there is a still a need to invest in improving SMEs understanding of the cloud. For example, the survey revealed that several SMEs were unaware of any cloud computing benefits, while other felt that they did not have the proper technical/IT skills to deal with cloud migration. As a result, several SMEs felt that cloud computing was not feasible for them or even not relevant to their industry sector. The authors suggest also that a structured approach that would guide SMEs in cloud adoption is needed. This approach should specify simple steps to cloud adoption for SMEs, based on their profile.

In [Abdollahzadehgan13] the authors attempt to identify and categorize critical success factors (CSFs) associated with the adoption of cloud computing by SMEs. Towards identifying the CSFs, the authors identify and catalogue the pros and cons of cloud adoption. In particular, they list cost savings, scalability, flexibility, reliability, maintenance, minimization of licensing and innovation potential as key advantages of the cloud, while they also list lack of control, dependency, risk, the need for an Internet connection, software migration, lack of standards and continuous evolution as the main drawbacks of the cloud. CSFs are identified towards exploiting the advantages of the cloud, while at the same time mitigating drawbacks and risks. CSFs are relating to the (well-known) technical aspects of cloud computing, as well as to organizational aspects, such as: (A) The fact that cloud can be an enabler for small firms to compete with other (bigger) companies both locally and nationally; (B) Cloud’s positive impact on the creation of new products, services but also of entire companies and (C) Cloud’s potential to help SMEs penetrate markets and increase their profitability.

Note that the list of the above-mentioned surveys on cloud adoption by SMEs is not exhaustive. There have also been many other surveys during recent years, without however significant deviations from the already presented ones in terms of the main motivations and set-backs

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extensively analyzed and briefly presented the findings of such surveys as a prerequisite step towards organizing its own requirements collection and analysis activities (such as workshops for SMEs). In particular, the above surveys have provided a sound basis for:

 Formulating the project’s questionnaires (included as Appendices to the document) addressed to both end-user SMEs (interested in adopting cloud solutions) and ICT SMEs (interested in the devel-opment of cloud solutions and products).

 Guiding discussions and presentations during the workshops with a view to eliciting more detailed and SME focused information com-paring to the information derived from the above analysed surveys.

 Identifying the main cloud areas, where the project gather/analyse requirements and provide support.

2.2 Other Empirical Knowledge about SMEs Needs

We can summarize current Trends from surveys, presentations of guests from several EuroCloud events. In general the trends are similar to the last chapter and here we point out some key aspects from our point of view:

•Fast scalability of IT-Performance •Less IT-Administration effort

•Easy access on geographically allocated IT-Resources Most important positive effects of the cloud include (source: KPMG):

•Fear of data loss

•Difficulties with integration into in-house solutions

•Uncertainties with respect to existing legal and regulatory Provisions

Most important hurdles for cloud adoption include (source: KPMG):

•Backup- and Security concept •Availability and reliability •Safety by storage

•Transfer and access data

Significant confidence-building factors include (source: cloudwerker user):

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A third of respondents locatemissing functions as greatest difficulty in software solutions.

•SaaS: Focus on Software as a Service - Paas and IaaS are not

relevant.

•Capital: The lower capital lockup and higher liquidity on the

basis of savings in investments of hardware and software is a strong argument for smaller craft enterprises to prefer Cloud Computing.

•Mobile: Basically the application of mobile terminals is useful for

all craft enterprises that do their work outside. For example, the entry of order data, customer data or measurement can be supported by mobile Terminals and this way increases productivity of the company.

•Craftsman cooperation: The cooperation of craftsmen brings

significant benefits for customers (from one source) and hence becomes a competitive advantage.

General Statements derived from craftsman

(source: cloudwerker market) include:

•Providers should strongly highlight the positive experience with cloud solutions and the real delivery of benefits that counts. •Providers should address safety concerns and provide

information on the existing legal situation.

•Providers could assist (advisory) in building an internal private cloud. In a second Step outsourcing of these services could be discussed.

•What is important is the ability to integrate cloud solutions. Companies do not want further "IT islands" in the cloud. •A very strong service mentality and National/European data

center are important for (potential) users. Some recommendations for Cloud suppliers

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2.3 Analysis of Cloud Computing Adoption in EU Countries

In the sequel we include a brief analysis of the adoption of cloud computing by SMEs in Greece. Relevant information for other EU countries (including Germany, Italy, Belgium) will be added in subsequent releases of this living document.

2.3.1 Cloud Adoption by SMEs in Greece

Greece is characterized by a strong percentage/presence of SMEs in its business ecosystem. The large number of SMEs in the Greek business ecosystem provides fertile ground for the development of cloud computing solutions, given that SMEs would like to benefit from «pay-as-you-go» and «pay-as-you-grow» opportunities. Recent studies (e.g., [Danchev13]) conclude that SMEs in many different sectors could benefit from the cloud on the basis of more flexibility and reduced costs in their IT expenditures. As shown in Table 2, potential gains in output ranges from 0.10% in construction to 0.28% in finance & business services. Furthermore, the cloud’s scalability benefits could be another source of productivity improvement (especially for the largest SMEs in areas such as communication, trade and financial services).

Table 2: Additional output due to adoption of cloud computing (% of annual output) (Source: Centre for Economics and Business Research, the Cloud Dividend: Part One, December 2010)

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Figure 3: Envisaged Net Cost Savings in Greek Economy due to Cloud Computing

During the years of the recent financial crises, numerous start-up compa-nies have been founded in Greece, including high-tech start-ups. Cloud computing reduces capital expenditure thereby reducing the barriers for new businesses (including start-ups) to enter markets [Etro09]. As a re-sult, cloud computing is a catalyst for the creation of new businesses. [Et-ro09] estimated that at least 3,491 new SMEs will be created in Greece over the medium run as a result of adopting cloud computing, out of which most companies (1,498) are expected to emerge in the Trade sec-tor. Moreover, the emergence of new companies will put competitive pressures on existing businesses, which will lead to overall productivity improvements.

The Greek SME market is also characterized by a very high variability in terms of the mix of computing resources (e.g., CPU, storage, network in-frastructure) that the various companies require. Nevertheless, most of the Greek SMEs do not have the resources, expertise and equity capital to invest in highly customized solutions. As a result, providers offer ag-gregated computing resources and benefit from the multiplexing of spare resources/capacities stemming from the variations in user profiles and cloud services bundles for the various customers.

Despite the potential benefits for SMEs, cloud computing adoption in Greece is still in an early stage of development. The main obstacles are of both technical and non-technical nature and are summarized in the fol-lowing table.

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Technical Barriers Non- Technical Barriers

Lack of Know-how Legal uncertainties (notably in terms of liability)

Security and data transfer risks Low-awareness on cloud technologies

Legacy technologies integration and migra-tion costs

Legal constraints and regulations (notably in terms of processes that can be out-sourced)

Trust in cloud reliability Counter-party risk and matching difficulties

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3 Analysis of Interactions with SMEs

3.1 Overview of Workshops Organization

CloudingSMEs is from its contract committed to the organization of sev-eral workshops for SMEs communities. The workshops have a manifold purpose and support several of the project’s objectives including:

 Raising awareness about cloud computing within SME communi-ties.

 Building up the CloudingSMEs community.

 Soliciting and collecting SMEs feedback regarding the main areas where they need support. The identification of these areas will be later on taken into account in the CloudingSMEs support activities (such as the development of the toolbox in WP3).

 Soliciting and collecting feedback on the tools that have already been developed by the project, based on the methodology outlined in a later section of this deliverable. This feedback will be exploited in order to fine-tune the tools of the toolbox, as part of the final re-leases of the respective deliverables of WP3.

 Disseminating the project’s achievements to SME communities to-wards encouraging the use of the project’s results and boosting their wider sustainability and use.

This deliverable includes the part of the workshops that has to do with the collection of requirements from SMEs. In order to support this require-ments collection process, the workshops were organized on the basis of the following principles:

 Wide coverage of different types of SMEs. In particular, attention was paid into involving both (demand-side) end-user SMEs and (supply-side) ICT SMEs.

 Discussion of topics beyond basic information and requirements. To this end, the questionnaires listed in the Appendices of this de-liverable were administered to SMEs, while more targeted discus-sions were held in selected topics of primary interest for SMEs.

In the sequel we provide short reports on the three workshops that were used in the requirements collection process, with emphasis of the re-quirements collection aspects. The reports concern the workshops that have been organized at the time the present release of the deliverable is provided. As already outlined, the present deliverable is a living docu-ment, which will be constantly updated on the basis of additional mation from workshops and interviews with stakeholders, as this

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infor-mation becomes available. An overview list of the workshops is provided in the following table.

Place & Date of the Workshop, Organizer Number and Type of Participants

Madrid, Spain, June 11th, 2014 (organized by UEAPME and PIN-SME)

30 participants in total (approx. 24 ICT SMEs and 6 end-user SMEs) Bologna, Italy, June 19th, 2014

(organized by UEAPME, ECIPA, PIN-SME)

30 participants in total (approx. 9 ICT SMEs and 21 end-user SMEs) Manchester, UK, July 10th, 2014

(organized by PIN-SME, UEAPME)

35 participants in total (approx. 31 ICT SMEs and 4 end-user SMEs) Aachen, Germany November, 11th, 2014 &

Cologne, Germany, December 12th, 2014 (organized by EuroCloud and BiTMi)

45 attendees out of the SME community with a balanced mixture of Cloud users, Cloud Provider and Consultant for SMEs Piraeus, Greece, February 25th, 2015

(organized by UEAPME and EBS)

35 attendees from the retail sector, End-User SMEs

Milan, Italy, March 25th, 2015 (organized by ECIPA)

21 participants mostly professionals in the ICT sector and/or ICT SMEs

Dublin, Ireland, May 12th, 2015 (organized by UEAPME)

40 participants, SME users as well as ICT services providers

Cremona, Italy, June 12th, 2015 (organized by ECIPA)

15 participants, mostly professionals in the ICT sector and/or ICT SMEs

Bayreuth, Germany, May 20th, 2015 (organized by EuroCloud)

Stuttgart, Germany, June 18th, 2015 (organized by Cloudzone and EuroCloud)

Frankfurt, Germany, July 2nd, 2015 (organized by EuroCloud)

Paris, France, 3rd July, 2015 (organized by UEAPME)

20 participants, SMEs users and Stake-holders

Luxembourg, Luxembourg, 9th July, 2015 (organized by UEAPME)

60 participants, SMEs users and Stake-holders

Table 4: Overview of CloudingSMEs Workshops

3.2 Report on Workshops

3.2.1 «CLOUD PARA PYMES» SME Workshop, Madrid, Spain, June 11th,

2014 (organized by UEAPME and PIN-SME)

Workshop Overview

PIN-SME and UEAPME organized a workshop in Madrid, Spain, which tools place June 11th, 2014. The workshop (titled «CLOUD PARA PYMES») was dedicated to issues relating to the adoption of the cloud by SMEs and aimed at a direct interaction of the CloudingSMEs consortium with Spanish SMEs. Local arrangements and organizations were undertaken by CONETIC (Confederación Española de Empresas de Tecnologías de la Información, Comunicaciones y Electrónica), the Spanish association of ICT SMEs, and member of PIN-SME. The

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audience included a mix of end-user SMEs (approx. 20% of the audience) and cloud vendors ICT SMEs (approx. 80% of the audience). The program included presentation by the CloudingSMEs consortium, notably presentations focused on the support tools (toolbox) and activities of the project (e.g., workshops). Based on these presentations the consortium derived feedback for fine-tuning these developments, but also for appropriately focusing these developments on the core needs of SMEs.

The program included also open discussion on the main issues associated with cloud adoption by SMEs. As part of this discussion there was an exchange of views about potential crucial issues impacting cloud adoption, including security, privacy, data protection, cost-benefit issues and the establishment of SLAs. Moreover, a part of the debate/questions regarded the different offers on the market addressed to SMEs. This was also a good opportunity to highlight the differences between services offered of large companies and SMEs.

As already outlined the CloudingSMEs were also distributed to the participants both electronically and in paper version. The collected answers are analyzed in a subsequent section. The following paragraph summarizes the main SME requirements that were identified based on the discussion.

Discussion on SMEs Requirements and Needs

The discussion revealed a general agreement on the main cloud computing issues, where SMEs need support. Note however that cloud vendors had in general slightly different concerns from end-users. In particular:

 End-Users expressed interest in receiving support on cloud securi-ty, data protection, negotiation and formulation of SLAs (Service Level Agreements), identification of trustful vendors, cloud cost/economics issues, as well as management of change within their organizations towards adopting cloud computing.

 Cloud Vendors were mostly concerned about support in positioning and communicating their (cloud) products and services in the mar-ket, in understanding, selecting and implementing cloud standards, as well as in formulating SLAs towards their customers.

Note that the above-listed areas are more or less similar to those identified in the background studies analyzed as part of the second chapter of the deliverable. Apart from technical issues, SMEs raised the ever important organizational and behavioural issues that are associated with the adoption and use of cloud computing. In this context, they also

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expressed concerns about the possible reluctance of employees (notably IT departments) to adopt cloud computing and support its implementation.

A special requirement about the cloud concerned the need for raising awareness in a targeted and effective way within both potential adopters and vendors. To this end, it was deemed important to emphasize the business (rather that the technical) characteristics of the cloud, as part of communication activities. Instead of emphasizing technical features and mechanisms, service types (e.g., SaaS, PaaS, IaaS), cloud types (e.g., Public, Private, Hybrid) it was mentioned that awareness raising about the cloud should focus on the elaboration of the business benefits and the cloud’s potential to improve bottom lines. This requirement was raised by both cloud vendors and cloud end-users. It will be taken into account in sub

3.2.2 SMEs Workshop, Bologna, Italy, June 19th, 2014

(organized by UEAPME, ECIPA, PIN-SME)

This workshop was organized by PIN-SME, UEAPME and ECIPA. Local arrangements were undertaken by the CNA association of SMEs, which is a member of both PIN-SME and UEAPME. The audience included SMEs from both the demand and supply side of cloud computing. However, the mix was balanced differently from the Madrid workshop, since participants were approx. 70% end-user SMEs and 30% ICT SMEs. The website and the existing tools CloudingSMEs (ROI/TCO, Strategic scorecard, Cloud Security Scorecard) were presented with a view on users opinions in order to fine tune them. Furthermore, a presentation on the cloud computing benefits for SMEs was given and a discussion of SMEs requirements and concerns about cloud adoption took place. Some of the SMEs were concerned on the cloud offering available on the market for SMEs. This provided a first class opportunity to highlight the differences between services offered of large companies and SMEs.

As in all workshops, participants filled in questionnaires that were distributed both electronically and in paper version. In the sequel we highlight the main requirements that were derived from the discussion.

Due to the fact that the majority of the audience consisted of end-users the discussion was not very technical. Note that the majority of the ICT SMEs were not cloud vendors/experts as well which reinforced the non-technical character of the discussions. Overall, most of the SMEs were in

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need of more information regarding the potential business benefits of cloud computing, while some of them were also in need of tutorials on cloud computing. Nevertheless, there were also SMEs with a better understanding of cloud computing issues, which prioritize advice on privacy and data protection issues, especially given that several of the them were able to link these issues to recent security incidents that received high publicity (such as the U.S NSA (National Security Agency) scandal).

Several of the participants mentioned also that they use free cloud services (e.g., Google Gmail, Dropbox) and therefore did not find the economical issues very interesting. On the other hand, they show interest on the cloud catalogue service of the CloudingSMEs toolbox, since it would allow the identify/locate offerings. They also underlined that they would benefit from comparisons of the various offerings as part of a support service. Furthermore, they commented that the tools should operate as a one-stop-solution.

Cloud vendor selection was another topic that received particular attention. Participants seemed very concerned and interested in the criteria that could enable a proper choice of a cloud service provider. The definition of objective criteria and their matching to providers needs was deemed very important.

3.2.3 SMEs Workshop, Manchester, UK, July 10th, 2014

(organized by PIN-SME, UEAPME)

The event was co-organized by PIN-SME and UKITA. The latter is the British association of ICT SMEs member of PIN-SME. It took place at the Technology Centre Wolverhampton Science Park (WV10 9RU Wolverhampton).

The audience included approx. 35 people, composed for 90 % by IT companies that provide cloud services. The remaining 10 % are consultants and association’s staff. The presentation of CloudingSMEs and the related discussion time consumed more than one hour. The rest of the time was mainly dedicated to the EU Growth Vauchers, a funding scheme of the UK Gov for SMEs that get strategic consultancy services.

CloudingSMEs leaflets and questionnaires (Supply side) have been distributed. The presentation of CloudingSMEs focused on the advantages of Cloud for SMEs, as well as on the related challenges. The presentation also included the tools currently available on cloudingsmes.eu, ie Strategic, Security and TCO scorecards.

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The following points summarize the main conclusions stemming from the discussions during the workshop:

 Participants consider that the Cloud adoption in UK is still low compared to the US. Several participants raised the issue that SMEs lack education about the subject. In this direction they also stressed the fact that US companies have more opportunities to become certified in cloud computing, thereby being able to stay in-formed and/or educated about cloud developments.

 There was interest on some of the CloudingSMEs tools, such as the TCO calculator. However, it was suggested that they become more personalized and tailored to SME needs. In terms of the TCO calculator, there was also an interesting comment which concerned the fact that the cost actually depends on which data the SME Company decides to migrate to the cloud. In several cases it is not advisable to move all data, or applications to the cloud, but rather a subset of them. This can have an impact on the TCO of the cloud solutions.

 SMEs highlighted the role of consultants and providers of services in cloud adoption. For example, they stated that SMEs might be more willing to adopt financial cloud-based SaaS services in case this is recommended by their accountants.

 SMEs cloud providers suggested that end-users should deal with providers accredited by SME associations as PIN-SME and UKITA.

 In general participants showed interest in the ways CloudingSMEs could help them promoting and showcasing their services. As a re-sult, they were willing to provide information about their cloud ser-vices in order to be included in the cloud serser-vices catalogue of the CloudingSMEs toolbox.

3.2.4 SMEs Workshops, Aachen, Germany (November, 11th, 2014) and

Cologne, Germany (December 12th, 2014) (organized by EuroCloud, BiTMi)

The German associations BITMi and EuroCloud Germany performed two workshops during the last quarter of 2014, in particular:

 One workshop in Aachen, held November 11th, hosted by the Chamber of Commerce Aachen.

 Another workshop in Cologne, held December 12th, hosted by the eco Association of the German Internet industry.

In total the two workshops had 45 attendees out of the SME community with a balanced mixture of Cloud users, Cloud Provider and Consultant

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for the SME target groups, with a segmentation of 1 person up to 300 person enterprises.

Both workshops where held in the standard format, which is public avail-able on the CloudingSMEs website. In both sessions there where a very active discussion about the needs of SMEs to understand the value of Cloud Computing and relevant feedback about the necessary support, expected by this initiative, was given.

As a main conclusion from both workshops a set of key statements were collected and consolidated. In particular, the attendees saw a strong need to:

 See real showcases which are showing the benefits and decision points to use Cloud Services.

 Get support to identify relevant offerings for their business.

 Receive guidance and checklists to identify business processes to be supported by cloud services.

 Graduation of knowledge to get access to pre filtered information and prepared in a SME friendly way.

 Receive support for cost benefit analysis.

 Receive support for security and data privacy assessment.

Beside this there is a general concern in terms of broadband infrastruc-ture and resilience as well as uncertainty about legal questions which might occur if the provider is not offering the service according to local law of the user and the data are not processed and stored in the country of the data owner.

In terms of quality assessment the EuroCloud Star Audit (which was pre-sented in the workshop) was well accepted, especially due to the gradu-ated rating of stars in similarity to hotel categories. It would be valuable to combine such a rating with cloud marketplaces and vendor listings to identify appropriate services in compliance with local law and adequate security and SLA measurement.

3.2.5 SMEs Workshop, Piraeus, Greece, February 25th, 2015

(organized by UEAPME and EBS)

In February 25th, 2015, UEAPME and EBS organized in Greece a work-shop for end-user SMEs. The workwork-shop was supported/hosted by the National Confederation of Hellenic Commerce on behalf of UEAPME.

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Α link to materials and video of the workshops is available (by the Na-tional Confederation of Hellenic Commerce):

http://us9.campaign-archive1.com/?u=46c41e64fb620105ed414943d&id=6fefab4995

EBS members were the main speakers from the CloudingSMEs consorti-um. They also talked to SKAI TV (one the most popular news broadcast-ers in Greece): http://www.skai.gr/player/TV/?mmid=257238.

The workshop attracted 35 participants (SME) mainly from the retail sec-tor. The agenda/programme included short speeches by the president and director general of the confederation, which showed interest on the subject and expressed interest for follow-up actions. Furthermore, both referred to EU studies regarding the potential benefits of the cloud in general and for SMEs of the retail sector in particular.

There was great interest shown around e-commerce (due to its growing momentum in Greece) and how e-commerce could be sup-ported via cloud services (E-shops as a Service). CloudingSMEs presented cloud services with relevance for retails, notably POS-as-a-Service, CRM-as-a-Service, ERP-as-a-CRM-as-a-Service, Shop-as-a-Service. The participants stood the concept, even though some of them had only a poor under-standing of cloud computing. Furthermore, they expressed a number of concerns regarding:

(A) Security and Data Privacy Issues, and in particular how their data are secured and protected;

(B) Migration Issues, with emphasis on issues relating to switching from one provider to another;

(C) The scope and functionalities of available services. They were con-cerned about what types of cloud services are available, whether they could get a bundle of multiple services (e.g., POS, CRM, ERP), as well as whether cloud services offer more functionalities compar-ing to legacy IT services;

(D) The fact that national rules in Greece do not usually subsidize or pro-vide incentives for the use of cloud services, whereas this is usually done for IT assets (e.g., equipment) purchased for on premise use.

3.2.6 SMEs Workshop, Milan, Italy, March 25th, 2015

(organized by ECIPA)

The Milan workshop “Digital skills for the development of the Italian economy, development of digital skills in Italy” was centred on the

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analy-sis of the new digital scenario, and a particular focus was given to cloud computing, to which the afternoon session was fully dedicated. The CloudingSMEs project was presented, and also the possibilities that cloud technologies offer to SMEs, as well as risks associated with it and best practices in order to prevent business losses.

The workshop was attended by 21 participants (plus speakers and ECI-PA/CNA Lombardia personnel), mostly professionals in the ICT sector and/or ICT SMEs, some representatives of other regional CNA branches and some participants from the university sector.

By the rapporteurs and by the interventions of the public showed the widespread shortage of digital culture in small enterprises and the need for a specific approach for SMEs in the dissemination and training on dig-ital skills and on cloud computing.

3.2.7 SMEs Workshop, Dublin, Ireland, May 12th, 2015

(organized by UEAPME)

ISME, the Irish SME organization organized on the 12th May a workshop in Dublin, entitled: “CloudingSMEs : Benefits and Savings. Costs and Pit-falls. A must for all SMEs.” Around 39 people participated in the event. The questionnaires were distributed and 27 participants filled them in. 12 micro enterprises, (0-9); 10 small enterprises (10-50); and 4 medium-sized enterprises. (51-250).

The workshop lasted 4 hours. First the CloudingSME project has been presented - the outcomes of the project so far: identifying what keeps SMEs away from Cloud Services, why should SMEs care about Cloud Services and key needs of SMEs as users. This was followed by a demo presentation of all the tools and services freely available for SMEs through the project. From the providers side there was a presentation on “The Magnificent Seven: The benefits for SMEs of using the Cloud “by Johnathan Eustace, SMB Cloud Lead, Microsoft. He discussed what the ‘cloud’ really is (or according Microsoft), the impact it can have on a busi-ness and how one can begin to position a busibusi-ness to take advantage of the opportunities cloud technology presents. Finally, there was a testimo-ny of an SME experience of the Cloud. The workshop was closed by a Q&A session.

Depends on the level of awareness and knowledge about the cloud. Personal advice.

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Main remarks/questions/ concerns expressed during the meeting

 Is Office 365 safe?

 What about the future of Cloud Computing?

 How secure Cloud can be?

 How to find the right provider?

 There is no one size fits all solution for SMEs.

 Can I go with my accountancy software to the Cloud?

 Cloud solutions should take hazzle away from the SME entrepre-neurs.

 What about digital signature? Is it allowed?

 What about anti-virus software?

 Access to internet is a problem in Ireland, especially in remote are-as. There are frequent cuts.

 Cutting cables (due to road works)

 When was the last time Microsoft went down?

 Issue of 99,9 % availability – insurance is possible for this.

 TCO is important

 Broad band and fail over.

 Data: what happens with my data in case of sudden death?

We received from a participant in writing what he had mentioned during the meeting and it is worth citing it.

He stressed that the term “Cloud” comes in many shapes and forms and for any SME looking to go this route you really do need an on-site as-sessment to see what is viable and what is not viable for them as a busi-ness. “One size does not fit all” and this is very important when it comes to SME’s all over Ireland and abroad. He thought that the wrong mes-sage was been brought across by the speakers from BCM and from CloudAssist, as they gave the impression that Microsoft Office 365 will eliminate your server and you will have no need for anything else.

He continued: “This is far from the case as I have learned the last 4 years calling out to SME’s all over Ireland and the UK. We built our own multi-tenant environment within 2 Data Centres and do not use Azure, even though we are a Microsoft Partner. I assess what’s the best solution for the business and it would be wrong of me to say that Cloud suits every-one as this is not the case. Yes, it’s a fantastic offering, but may not suit a business for a many number of reasons including:

(A) Cost/Uncertainty over any Savings (B) Legacy Hardware or Software

(C) Broadband or Failover broadband not adequate (D) Performance Concerns

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(E) Reliability is not mission critical and downtime is acceptable to the business

(F) Security Concerns (G) Control concerns (H) Vendor Lock-In concerns

We have moved clients away from other Cloud providers with considera-ble “Pain” involved in the process and we see ourselves as experts in mi-gration tasks. Simple questions that SME’s would never think to ask be-fore they sign up to a Cloud Provider such as “How much bandwidth is available to us should we decide to move away from your Data Centre and are there any restrictions we should know about should we ever de-cide to leave”. This is where proper guidance is so important to SME’s when looking at hosted options and would save a lot of agony for SME’s who were not completely satisfied with the solution provided.”

He felt that it was too focused on Microsoft Office 365 and Cost Savings. Perhaps the clients there did not get the real questions they want an-swered i.e. Can I move my applications, Active Directory, SQL services etc. to a Cloud Environment and if so, will it be more expensive than an on premise solution, is my business viable for such a solution, are other SME’s going this route for a full hosted offering not just Office 365, what are the benefits other than cost, will this technology enable my staff to work smarter and be more productive, is there any employee re-training involved with a full hosted solution? So you see, there’s a lot in it as you know yourself.

Further he stated that: “I feel the main problem with Microsoft 365 is the fact that SME’s in Ireland believe that Cloud is cheap as the 365 service is so cheap. This is far from the case as I know this from projects we have delivered in Ireland and the UK. CloudingSMEs rightly pointed out that the savings that were presented from Office 365 were not a true re-flection in the case where a client still required an on premise server.“

The organiser had distributed an evaluation form for the event. 33 partici-pants filled it in.

 On the question “What was the most useful part of training for you?” presentation of case studies was mentioned twice. One person men-tioned the learnings about Office 365 and its possibilities. One third of the replies were very satisfied about the concept of the workshop: the content and presentation of the toolbox, the questions in the tools to understand SME needs, the Information regarding benefits and drawbacks of going to the cloud, the general information provided through the CloudingSMEs project which was very informative, the

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fact that it allows the entrepreneur to build its own knowledge and the balanced views as pros and cons were presented and discussed.

 On the question “What aspects of training/organizing could be im-proved?” there was in the first place the request to have testimonies from SMEs that are already in the cloud. In addition more technical examples would be welcomed as well as practical examples of solu-tions : to show products working such as Google apps DocuSign, Of-fice 365, Dropbox, Salesforce, Box etc. as well as how to implement the Cloud. Practical advice would also be welcomed. More in general show casting the benefits of applications that are enabled by cloud operations are also demanded. On the other hand many people found the presentation already to vendor centric and the presentation by Microsoft biased. Some people saw the presentation as just a sales pitch for Office 365.

 Analysing the last question “What ideas or actions you learned during this training that you will take back in your workplace?” we can sider that the message brought has been heard. The workshop con-vinced entrepreneurs to meet with their IT partner what to do and that it is important to find an IT partner. Others stated that they will look at the Microsoft partnership and apply the toolbox questionnaires to their requirements. Participants declared that they will look up the CloudingSMEs website and spend more time then they might other-wise might have done in comparing and reading the small print when purchasing packages and also to an in depth review of the cost. Awareness about the security of the cloud was also mentioned as point to be taken. On the products themselves, ic Office365, its functionality, the cost saving aspect and its mobility were retained as major points. DocuSign was also considered as useful.

3.2.8 SMEs Workshop, Cremona, Italy, June 12th, 2015

(organized by ECIPA)

CNA is organizing the project “DIGITALY” in collaboration with Amazon, Google, Seat and Registro.it, a series of events all over Italy to promote the digitalization of Italian SMEs: last May ECIPA defined the modalities to gather more information on cloud computing from end users and ICT SMEs during these events. The DIGITALY event organized in Cremona last June 12th was attended by 15 participants, mostly professionals in the ICT sector and/or ICT SMEs. The speakers from Amazon and Seat PG have described briefly the correct approaches for digital marketing and online sales. As part of the workshop ECIPA presented the Clouding SMEs project and collect six (6) questionnaires filled in by end users.

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3.2.9 CloudingSMEs Workshop in Bayreuth, May 20th 2015 (EuroCloud) http://www.cloudingsmes.eu/wordpress/veranstaltung/new-digitial-world-opportunities-for-smes-de-bayreuth/ The event was held as a joint event of the EuroCloud Association, the Chamber of Commerce for Upper Franconia Bayreuth and the eBusiness pilot Upper Franconia. It highlights both the technical aspects of the new technology as well as application examples of a company.

The Focus of the event: New Digital Worlds: Opportunities for Upper Franconian companies. The Clouding SMEs workshop was embedded within two other key Items of the agenda:

 Flexible IT support for adaptive businesses

 Prof. Dr. René Peinl, Institute of Information Systems of the Uni-versity of Hof

 Interview with Markus Mühle, owner of a horticultural company and users of an online timesheet cloud solution

There were 18 participants both from ICT SMEs and User side. Within the Clouding SMES presentation we asked all the users the key questions to tell about their

 Business and sector

 Cloud knowledge

 Questions and expectations

Here are the Results of 14 very active participants:

The sectors:

 6 of 14 were from the IT environment

 8 of 14 were from other industries like horticulture, marketing, lo-gistics, automation technology and technical planning and stake-holder (IHK HWK)

Their knowledge:

 2 said they have no idea

 3 had moderate knowledge

 4 were experts

 5 had advanced knowledge

Their general demands and requirements:

 1 said more enterprises should use the cloud

 2 ask for more Best Practice Examples

 2 said central access of cloud solutions is beneficial

 3 claimed that processes and interfaces are important

 4 demand more Privacy and Security in cloud solutions itself and as a focus of promotion of the provider companies