New Microsoft Study - SaaS Adoption by SMB Grows to 86%

A new Microsoft Study, released today, called the 2009 SMB Insight Report, says, among other things, that SaaS adoption by small and mid-sized businesses will grow to 86% in 2009.

The key trends that Microsoft identifies for Small and Midsized Businesses for 2009 all bode well for SaaS:

1. Lower Budgets Mean Less Has to Be More.
2. Strategic IT Investments Bolster the Bottom Line
3. Service and Responsiveness Are Key to Customer Retention.
4. Smaller Companies Will Increasingly Adopt Cloud Computing.
5. Better Together: SMBs Rely on Trusted Partners.

Somewhat strangely, the highest interest reported by the study for a Microsoft SaaS offering was for Microsoft Silverlight - their competitor to Adobe flash - which I have a hard time thinking of as a SaaS or Cloud Computing kind of thing at all.

So while there is nothing earthshattering here, just more good validation that SaaS is become more and more widely adopted and why, one interesting thing that may not be obvious is that Microsoft is now starting to use the terms "cloud computing" and SaaS - for those of you that don't follow this closely, Microsoft have been pushing the term "Software + Services" as their alternative to SaaS, the idea being you combine traditional desktop software with Internet services. Perhaps now that they are seeing 86% of businesses wanting to adopt SaaS, they've decided to get a little bit SaaSy too.