The Spiceworks Voice of IT market insights program publishes statistics, trends and opinions collected from global small and mid-size business technology professionals. More than 500,000 IT professionals in more than 100 countries have joined the program to share information and feedback on the technology issues important to them.

1. Voice of IT
TM
State of SMB IT 2H 2012
S e m i - A n n u a l R e p o r t O n S m a l l A n d M e d i u m B u s i n e s s Te c h n o l o g y P l a n s & P u r c h a s e I n t e n t
Spiceworks Inc., 7300 FM 2222, Bldg 3, Ste 100, Austin, TX 78730 Website: www.spiceworks.com/insights
Tel: 1-512-628-8280 • Fax: 1-866-567-2744 Email: insights@spiceworks.com

2. IN THIS REPORT
Executive Summary 2 Executive Summary
Budgets continue to climb while hiring 3
takes a dive In the last six months SMBs adopted tablets and cloud services in fast-growing numbers, and while IT
budgets are on the rise, SMB plans to hire new staff is at a standstill.
Where the $$ are headed 4
Tablets grab more hardware dollars 5 The 4 key findings that emerged from this latest study are:
Safety first 6
Tablet adoption keeps its momentum and nears smartphone levels. Hardware
Upgrades and renewals get majority of IT 7
services spend maintains the lion’s share of IT spend.
For SMBs, 53% now support tablets on their network, making them almost as popular as
Promising forecast for the Cloud 8
smartphones which are supported by 59% of SMBs. Hardware continues to account for
Mid-size businesses float to the head of 9 the largest share of SMB IT budgets at 40%, followed by software at 34% and IT services
the pack
at 26%. Within hardware, new purchases of desktops and laptops steadied in last 6
Virtualization holds steady 10 months while tablets spiked to 38% from 30% showing a shift of dollars toward mobile.
Virtualization: a pretty big deal 11
Desktops virtualized across the board 12
Adoption of cloud services spikes; desktop virtualization shows strong potential.
Smaller is getting bigger 13
Cloud services are now used by 62% of SMBs, up from 48% in the first half of 2012.
BYOD: a small to mid-sized trend 14
By early 2013, 73% of SMBs plan to adopt cloud services. Virtualization growth has
Apples vs. Androids 15 steadied, inching upward to 65% from 64% in the first half of 2012. For the first time, this
Background & Methodology 16 study looked into desktop virtualization showing 39% of SMBs either use or plan to use
desktop virtualization technologies in the first half of 2013.
About Spiceworks Voice of IT®
IT budgets reach highest point in last three years, while hiring freezes up.
The Spiceworks Voice of IT market insights program
publishes statistics, trends and opinions collected IT budgets at SMBs are on the rise in the second half of 2012. The average annual IT
from global small and mid-size business technology budget is now $162,000, up from the $152,000 reported for the first half of 2012. Only
professionals. More than 500,000 IT professionals in 26% of SMBs plan to hire IT staff in the second half of 2012, which is down from 31% a
more than 100 countries have joined the program to
year ago.
share information and feedback on the technology
issues important to them.
To receive updates on future research, follow BYOD still a hot topic with IT pros split on the issue.
Spiceworks Voice of IT on Twitter at @VoiceOfIT.
Fifty-nine percent of SMBs support a BYOD initiative, but IT pros remain split on
Sign up for Spiceworks Voice of IT research e-mails at supporting this policy. Our survey finds that 14% of SMBs fully embrace the trend, 32%
http://www.spiceworks.com/voice-of-it. note that it works well for some devices, but not for others, 24% claim it’s a headache for
their IT department, and the remaining 30% have not formed an opinion. Notably, SMBs
To learn more about Spiceworks’ research programs
and services, contact with less than 20 employees are embracing the trend with over 70% supporting BYOD.
insights@spiceworks.com.

3. Budgets continue to climb while hiring takes a dive.
Budgets are on the rise, up to an average of $162,000*, which is $10,000 more than planned tech budgets for 1H 2012. However, for the
next 6 months, more folks aim to hold staff steady than the previous 6 months, which reflects a decrease in the percentage of respondents
who plan to hire in the coming half year. By employee size, smaller companies are spending more on technology per employee than larger
organizations with companies with less than 20 employees spending $1,900 on average per employee vs. $700 per employee for companies
with 250 or more employees.
Average Planned Budgets and Percent Adding Staff O ver Time
* Making IT better: Budgets shown in thousands of dollars.
The method for $162*
Planned Budgets % Adding Staff
calculating Average $152
Planned Budget $143
got a much-needed
$122 $132
improvement in this
$117
release. Previously
participants responded
$108
to this question by
selecting the range their
budget fell into with 31% 31% 30%
the cap being $500,000
22% 26%
and above. We altered 20% 20%
the methodology for
this period to allow
respondents the ability
to input their actual
budget or select a 2H 2009 1H 2010 2H 2010 1H 2011 2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012
range. This important
tweak allows us to
better account for mid-
2H 2012 Average Planned
size companies in our Budgets by Employee Size Staffing Plans Over Time
average. Budgets shown in thousands of dollars.
61%
Average Planned Budget $420 57% Staying the Same
Average Per Employee Spend on Technology
56%
31% 30%
26%
$216 Adding Staff
$1.9 $96 $1.6 $1.2 $0.7
8% 10% 9%
Do not know
$19 4% 4% 4%
Reducing Staff
< 20 20 – 99 100 – 249 250+ 2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012
3

4. Where the $$ are headed.
Hardware still appears to be getting the lion’s share of tech budgets. Allocations remained the same as last period with hardware continuing
to take a larger portion of budgets (40%) than software (34%) and IT services (26%).
Allocation of Annual IT Budget Over Time
F R O M T H E CO M M U N I T Y
47%
42% 41%
40% 40% 40%
Creating a budget has
always been a balancing
act between what the
business needs and what
the business can afford.
34% 35% 34% 34% 34%
33%
Tyler Durden
Spiceworks User
community.spiceworks.com 26% 26% 26% 26%
23%
19%
1H 2010 2H 2010 1H 2011 2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012
Hardware Software IT Services
4

5. Tablets grab more hardware dollars.
The vast majority (87%) of respondents plan to make a new hardware purchase in 2H 2012. Over time, new purchases of desktops and
laptops have begun to plateau while tablets show a spike growing from 30% to 38% in the last period. This suggests dollars are on the go as
they shift toward mobile. Nearly 60% of respondents will upgrade hardware in 2H 2012 and it looks like desktop upgrades will get a boost
while other hardware upgrades stay level.
Allocation of Budget for Hardware Purchase Plans Over Time
47%
42% 40% 41% 40% 40%
1H 2010 2H 2010 1H 2011 2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012
To p N e w H a r d w a r e To p H a r d w a r e U p g r a d e s
Purchases Over Time Over Time
2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012 2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012
Desktop Computer 53% 63% 64% Desktop Computer 27% 30% 35%
Laptop/Notebook Computer 55% 60% 63% Server 29% 28% 29%
Monitors/Digital Signage n/a n/a 48% Laptop/Notebook Computer 20% 21% 22%
Server 44% 42% 45% Storage/SAN/NAS 22% 20% 21%
Tablet Computer 30% 30% 38% Wireless Networking 20% 22% 21%
IN THE NEXT 6 MONTHS IN THE NEXT 6 MONTHS
87% PURCHASING
NEW HARDWARE 58% UPGRADE
5

6. Safety first.
Three quarters of respondents plan to upgrade or renew software in 2H 2012 and security is the top focus with over half planning to renew
or upgrade anti-virus/anti-spam software. Nearly half of respondents will make a new software purchase in 2H 2012 and backup/recovery
and virtualization software lead the pack.
Allocation of Budget for Software Purchase Plans Over Time
34% 35% 34% 34% 34%
33%
1H 2010 2H 2010 1H 2011 2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012
To p N e w S o f t w a r e P u r c h a s e s To p S o f t w a r e U p g r a d e s / R e n e w a l s
Over Time Over Time
2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012 2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012
Backup/Recovery 16% 14% 20% Anti-Virus/Anti-Spam 54% 52% 54%
Virtualization 18% 14% 17% Email Client 37% 35% 39%
Productivity Suite 12% 10% 12% Productivity Suite 35% 34% 39%
Anti-Virus/Anti-Spam 12% 9% 12% Backup/Recovery 37% 39% 38%
Email Client 9% 9% 8% Database 33% 32% 34%
IN THE NEXT 6 MONTHS IN THE NEXT 6 MONTHS
48% PURCHASING
NEW SOFTWARE 75% UPGRADE/
RENEW
6

7. Upgrades and renewals get majority of IT services spend.
Sixty-four percent of SMBs plan to upgrade or renew IT services in 2H 2012. Though slightly down since 1H 2012, web hosting remains the
top service SMBs are upgrading and renewing, followed by domain and ISP services. Thirty-six percent of SMBs will purchase new IT services
in 2H 2012 and the top spots go to hosted backup/recovery and hosted data storage.
Allocation of Budget for IT Ser vice Purchase Plans Over Time
26% 26% 26% 26%
23%
19%
1H 2010 2H 2010 1H 2011 2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012
To p N e w I T S e r v i c e P u r c h a s e s To p I T S e r v i c e U p g r a d e s / R e n e w a l s
Over Time Over Time
2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012 2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012
Hosted Backup/Recovery 8% 11% 13% Web Hosting 41% 48% 45%
Hosted Data Storage 8% 7% 9% Domain 38% 38% 42%
Email Hosting 7% 8% 8% ISP 37% 38% 41%
VoIP 7% 8% 8% Email Hosting 26% 27% 28%
Web Hosting 9% 7% 7% Hosted Backup/Recovery 17% 16% 17%
ISP 8% 5% 7% Hosted Anti-Virus/Anti-Spam 19% 18% 16%
IN THE NEXT 6 MONTHS IN THE NEXT 6 MONTHS
36% PURCHASING
NEW SERVICES VoIP 64% UPGRADE/
RENEW VoIP
7

8. Promising forecast for the Cloud.
Cloud adoption underwent a big boost over the last 6 months growing from 48% to 62% currently using cloud-based services. Another
11% plan to start using cloud services in the next 6 months.
Cloud Adoption Over Time
F R O M T H E CO M M U N I T Y
73%
Current Usage Planned Usage (in next 6 months)
62%
I think the endgame,
however, is that the cloud
48%
isn’t about technology at
all. It’s about business. The
technology will adapt to
serve whatever the business
requires.
46%
Jim6fusion
Spiceworks User
community.spiceworks.com
28%
14%
2H 2010 1H 2011 2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012 1H 2013
8

9. Mid-size businesses float to the head of the pack.
By company size, it looks as if larger companies are starting to catch up, but mid-size companies are the ones moving ahead with cloud
services and show the highest level of adoption of cloud services for 2H 2012.
Less than 20 employees 20-99 employees 100-249 employees 250+ employees
A panorama of the cloud: The top 5 cloud-based services being adopted continue to be web hosting, email hosting, data backup/recovery,
1H 2012 55% 1H 2012 48%
application hosting and content filtering. The top three services respondents plan to add in the2012 48% months are data backup/recovery
1H next six 1H 2012 42%
< 20 20-99
(17%), application hosting (14%), and data storage (12%).2H 2012 67%
2H 2012 58% 100-249 2H 2012 63% 250+ 2H 2012 60%
1H 2013 76% 1H 2013 77% 1H 2013 72% 1H 2013 67%
Cloud Adoption Over Time by Employee Size
Less than 20 employees 20-99 employees 100-249 employees 250+ employees
1H 2012 55% 1H 2012 48% 1H 2012 48% 1H 2012 42%
2H 2012 59% 2H 2012 66% 2H 2012 64% 2H 2012 60%
1H 2013 73% 1H 2013 77% 1H 2013 73% 1H 2013 66%
To p C l o u d - b a s e d S e r v i c e s A d o p t e d O v e r T i m e
Planned
Are you a Cloud Vendor?
2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012 1H 2013
Web Hosting 48% 49% 60% 68% VENDOR SCORE
56%
Email Hosting 30% 32% 39% 48% 39 MPG
Data Backup/Recovery 23% 25% 27% 44%
See how you stack up vs. the competition
Application Hosting 24% 23% 26% 39% with the Spiceworks Dashboard
Content Filtering 20% 24% 23% 30% Sign up FREE at
www.spiceworks.com/marketing/dashboard/
Data Storage 16% 19% 20% 32%
9

10. Virtualization holds steady.
Virtualization remains important to SMBs as the number of respondents who’ve adopted server virtualization inches closer to two-thirds.
Fourteen percent plan to adopt server virtualization in the next 6 months, marking what could be a significant jump in adoption for 1H 2013.
Adoption of Vir tualization O ver Time
F R O M T H E CO M M U N I T Y 79%
Current Usage Planned Usage (in next 6 months)
Flexibility is what made me
64% 65%
61%
realize what virtualization
is. It made me realize that
servers were no longer tied
to those large pieces of
hardware.
52% 54%
44%
Derek_A
Spiceworks User
community.spiceworks.com
1H 2010 2H 2010 1H 2011 2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012 1H 2013
10

11. Virtualization: a pretty big deal.
By employee size, larger companies are virtualizing more than smaller companies. Over three quarters of companies with more than 250
employees are currently virtualizing servers vs. only 43% of companies with less than 20 employees.
More than 50% of SMBs are currently virtualizing core applications and common infrastructure applications. Of those currently virtualizing,
there continues to be an increase in the number of applications virtualized with the average growing to 3.3 apps virtualized per SMB. The
takeaway: Businesses who start virtualizing will most likely grow virtualization deeper into their companies over time.
Ser ver Vir tualization Adoption by Employee Size
Less than 20 employees 20-99 employees 100-249 employees 250+ employees
1H 2012 45% 1H 2012 64% 1H 2012 70% 1H 2012 78%
2H 2012 43% 2H 2012 63% 2H 2012 73% 2H 2012 76%
1H 2013 60% 1H 2013 79% 1H 2013 84% 1H 2013 87%
Average Number of
To p A p p l i c a t i o n s V i r t u a l i z e d O v e r T i m e Application Categories
Vir tualized O ver Time
2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012
Core Applications (i.e. web servers, databases, etc.) 48% 54% 54% 1H 2010 2.2
Common Infrastructure (i.e. DNS, DHCP, WSUS, etc.) 46% 49% 52% 1H 2011 2.1
Active Directory/LDAP/Authentication 42% 44% 48% 1H 2012 3.1
Email Messaging 37% 38% 40% 2H 2012 3.3
11

12. Desktops virtualized across the board.
For the first time, we asked respondents if they’re implementing desktop virtualization solutions. Nearly a quarter of respondents have
already adopted this solution and 16% are looking into adopting desktop virtualization in the next 6 months. Employee size doesn’t seem
to be a factor for desktop virtualization with the smallest and the largest companies leading the way, both with 26% currently virtualizing
their desktops.
Desktop Vir tualization Adoption Desktop Vir tualization Adoption by
F R O M T H E CO M M U N I T Y
Company Size Over Time
3% Less than 20 employees 20-99 employees
1%
You’ll notice that you will
have more control over 8%
20%
23% 26%
your environment with VDI,
patching is much easier,
and overall I think it’s
reduced our headaches and 16%
our costs. 52% 14% 63%
100-249 employees 250+ employees
Scott696d
Spiceworks User
community.spiceworks.com
58% 16% 1% 3%
23% 26%
59% 17% 56%
15%
Yes Yes
No, but I plan to start using it within the next 6 months No, but I plan to start using it within the next 6 months
No, and I have no plans to do so within the next 6 months No, and I have no plans to do so within the next 6 months
Not sure Not sure
12

13. Smaller is getting bigger.
Mobile is moving on up. Tablets continue to grow in SMBs and in the last 6 months, adoption has tipped to over half (53%) of SMBs
supporting tablets on their networks. The number of companies supporting tablets (53%) is on the verge of reaching the 59% of
companies who manage smartphones on their networks. Larger organizations are driving this trend towards more tablets in the
workplace, but smaller companies (<100 employees) are close behind with almost half using tablets on their networks today.
A d o p t i o n o f Ta b l e t s O v e r T i m e Adoption of Smartphones
65%
12%
53%
45% 27% 59%
33%
2%
Yes No, and I have no plans
to do so within the
2H 2011 1H 2012 2H 2012 1H 2013 next 6 months
No, but plan to Not sure
Current Usage Planned Usage (in next 6 months)
implement in the
next 6 months
A d o p t i o n o f Ta b l e t s O v e r T i m e b y C o m p a n y S i z e
Less than 20 employees 20-99 employees 100-249 employees 250+ employees
2H 2011 31% 2H 2011 26% 2H 2011 39% 2H 2011 36%
1H 2012 40% 1H 2012 40% 1H 2012 48% 1H 2012 53%
2H 2012 48% 2H 2012 49% 2H 2012 57% 2H 2012 62%
13

14. BYOD: a small to mid-sized trend.
Fifty-nine percent of organizations support BYOD, though the trend is more likely to be accepted in smaller companies. Of the companies
offering BYOD to their employees, the devices most often supported are smartphones (81%) followed by tablets (62%). In other words,
bring IT.
Nearly a third believe BYOD works well for some devices and not for others. Only 14% fully embrace the trend, which is most likely driven
by smaller companies where 71% (>20 employees) currently support BYOD.
F R O M T H E CO M M U N I T Y
B Y O D P e n e t r a t i o n i n S M B ’s D e v i c e s S u p p o r t e d b y S M B ’s O f f e r i n g
59% SUPPORT
BYO D b y Co m p a ny S i z e
Less than 20 employees 20-99 employees
BYOD
With the launch of the
71% SUPPORT BYOD 60% SUPPORT BYOD
original iPad and the swarm
of tablets that followed
coupled with the huge 84%
increase in smartphone 73%
65% COMPUTERS COMPUTERS
61%
41% 62%
usage by the average
person, more and more TABLETS TABLETS
devices are getting into SMARTPHONES SMARTPHONES
the hands of users, which
translates into bigger
headaches for IT.
Devices Supported
100-249 employees 250+ employees
b y S M B ’s O f f e r i n g B Y O D
53% SUPPORT BYOD 50% SUPPORT BYOD
Scott696d
Spiceworks User
81% 67%
87% COMPUTERS
62%
84% COMPUTERS
TABLETS TABLETS
33%
Smartphones
community.spiceworks.com 30%
SMARTPHONES SMARTPHONES
62% A t t i t u d e s To w a r d M a n a g i n g B Y O D D e v i c e s
Tablets Fully embrace this trend since is the future 12%
14%
Works well for some devices, not so well for others 32%
44% It’s a headache for our department 24%
Computers Haven’t formed an opinion yet 30%
14

15. Apples vs. Androids
The top mobile operating systems supported by companies either through company-issued devices or BYOD are Apple iOS and Android.
For tablets Apple is the brand most likely to be company-issued with 85% of companies supporting iPad. A far second is Android at 59%.
Through BYOD Android gains more penetration with 79% of SMBs supporting Android through this initiative.
For smartphones, penetration of Apple iOS and Android is fairly even whether it is coming through a company-issued or a BYOD policy.
Ta b l e t S u p p o r t e d O S
Co m p a ny I s s u e d v s BYO D
Apple iOS 85%
87%
Android 59%
79% Company-Issued
BYOD Supported
Windows 7 23%
34% Smartphone Supported OS
Co m p a ny - I s s u e d v s . BYO D
Blackberry 11%
20%
Apple iOS 75%
Windows XP 9% 86%
14% 74%
Android
88%
Google Chrome 5% Blackberry 45%
11% 40%
Windows 7 20%
26%
Symbian
7%
8%
15

16. Background & Methodology
The State of SMB IT Report is a semi-annual study released by Spiceworks Voice of IT® market insights
About Spiceworks program, which publishes stats, trends and opinions collected from small and medium business
technology professionals who are among the more than 2.2 Million users of Spiceworks.
Spiceworks™, the world’s largest social
business platform for IT, connects 2.2 million IT
professionals with more than 1,300 technology The 2H 2012 State of SMB IT is the seventh edition of this study which is designed to keep an active
brands. By combining a Facebook-like pulse on the happenings of small and medium business IT professionals and IT departments.
community with free IT management software, Responses to this latest survey were collected from 1,356 IT professionals around the world in
Spiceworks helps businesses to discover, buy
and manage $405 billion worth of technology companies with less than 1,000 employees.
products and services each year.
For more information visit: Employee Size Region
http://spiceworks.com/
Less than 20 employees
3%
Want to use data from this report?
Go to www.spiceworks.com/voice-of-it/terms
20% 12% North America
EMEA
Published on November 14, 2012 20-99 employees
23% 62%
35%
Asia-Pacific
Latin America
100-249 employees
28% Industr y
Manufacturing 14% Government 6%
250 or more employees IT Service Provider 11% Finance 6%
17% Education
Healthcare
8%
7%
Retail
Other
5%
36%
Non Profit 7%
Copyright Notice
The contents in this report are a result of primary research performed by Spiceworks. Unless otherwise noted, the entire contents
Connect your company with distributed as part of this report are copyrighted by Spiceworks. As such any information made available by any means in this report may
not be copied, reproduced, duplicated, published, displayed, transmitted, distributed, given, sold, traded, resold, marketed, offered for sale,
more than 2 million SMB IT pros modified to create derivative works or otherwise exploited for valuable consideration without prior written consent by Spiceworks.
This report contains information of fact relating to parties other than Spiceworks. Although the information have been obtained from, and
Set up your FREE vendor page now: are based on sources that Spiceworks believes to be reliable, Spiceworks does not guarantee the accuracy, and any such information might
community.spiceworks.com/pages/signup be incomplete or condensed. Any estimates included in this report constitute Spiceworks’ judgment as of the date of compilation, and are
subject to change without notice. This report is for information purposes only. All responsibility for any interpretations or actions based on
the information or commentary contained within this report lie solely with the recipient.
All rights reserved. 2012.
Spiceworks Inc., 7300 FM 2222, Bldg 3, Ste 100, Austin, TX 78730 Website: www.spiceworks.com/insights
Tel: 1-512-628-8280 • Fax: 1-866-567-2744 Email: insights@spiceworks.com