It is no surprise that cloud technologies are changing the way organizations consume technology radically. Cloud computing allows small and medium enterprises to devote more resources to develop its business, using cutting-edge tools and adopt international standards.

Small and mid-sized businesses are excellent candidates for cloud computing service. The reason for this is partly due to the fact that they are smaller and more agile than their larger counterparts. Despite the lack of knowledge of cloud computing, small business owners are betting their future not only in the cloud, but also on big data analytics and everything related to business.

But does SMBs now have access to greater computing power than ever before? Recently, IT research firm Gartner released top five cloud computing trends that will impact the way IT do business. The report outlined five trends to watch in the next three years -formal decision-making frameworks facilitating cloud investments, hybrid cloud computing adoption, cloud consumption, cloud centric design and future data centers and operating models. The role of these five cloud computing trends will re-define the traditional IT functions of midsized business.

According to data in a recent study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of BMC Software, the leader in Business Service Management, midsized business IT leaders are not entirely equipped to handle the trends of cloud computing and there is an increasing pressure between IT stakeholders and business. Eighty one percent of respondents in the study entitled “Delivering on High Cloud Expectations” indicated that cloud strategy is a high priority tasks for them but they need to clear some hurdle before jumping to public cloud strategies.

Nearly 39 percent of respondents stated having five or more virtual server pools while high percentage (43 percent) report they ran three or more hypervisor technologies. In addition, 79 percent of respondents support moving mission-critical applications to public clouds in the next two years. Almost 58 percent companies are already running cloud based apps in public clouds.

Interestingly, 72 percent of CIOs agreed that cloud technologies will benefit in cost reduction and simplification of IT process. Further, 71 percent of respondents said that public cloud services would meet IT requirements of performance, security and availability.

“This survey has helped us to pinpoint the pains felt by both the business and IT as they struggle to adapt IT strategies to the avalanche of public cloud consumption,” said Mark Settle, BMC’s CIO. “The conclusion is that the need for a comprehensive, unified environment is becoming a top priority for business to connect everything – from the mainframe to the cloud.”

Midsized business leaders need to know if they want the cloud is the focus of their business operation, or just be a support mechanism. Cloud computing solution can play an important role in data storage or disaster recovery or simply to manage their business by offering cloud computing services.

SMBs will unquestionably continue to adopt cloud-based computing services and related applications. But as cloud market evolves and as they grow, they need to quickly find the tools and effective ways to support growth and innovation and to overcome current limitations.