Most Used Cloud Apps in Enterprises

There’s no question about it – cloud-based apps are becoming increasingly used in enterprises. Cloud computing has been responsible for a new wave of agile business tools that let you replace on-premise hardware with an internet connection and a few monthly subscriptions.

There are Software as a Service (SaaS) tools for everything from business accounting and HR to email marketing and document storage. And they bring a lot of extra benefits, including better collaboration, automatic updates and pay-as-you-go pricing models.

Last month, Otka has just released its latest March 2016 Business at Work report, and the new data confirms that Office 365 remained the most popular cloud application among businesses in the second half of 2015, followed by Salesforce, Box, and Google Apps.

At the same time, the Top 20 Enterprise Cloud Services list offers insight into the cloud apps and services that business are standardizing on and provides CIOs with a short list of services that have reached mass adoption across enterprises.

In Q3 of 2015, 72.9% of the cloud services in use by the average company were enterprise cloud services and these services accounted for 71.8% of data employees uploaded to the cloud at work. Office 365 is the top enterprise cloud service by user count, followed by Salesforce and Cisco WebEx.

So let’s take a look at some of the other “cool kids on the block” that have been used massively into the enterprise:

1.       Google Drive – Google’s online storage and synchronization solution offers a smooth, streamlined service that seamlessly integrates across Google’s cloud platform. The storage solution also enables collaborative editing of all types of documents. Employees are using it at work, whether permitted by company policy or not.
2.       Facebook – Facebook isn’t only for sharing vacation pictures or cat videos. With its large base of users and agile app development tools, Facebook allows big businesses to reach directly into the lives of their clients, and it’s also probably the most popular destination for bored employees.
3.       Box – Box.com is like your old My Documents desktop folder except it lives online and you can access it from all your gadgets and devices. Drag and drop the files you want to access on the move so you never have to worry about forgetting your USB stick or finding that email attachment. It’s great for collaboration too, and everyone in the team can share and update documents in Salesforce.
4.       iCloud – Apple’s backup and storage cloud is one of the most widely adopted storage solution among enterprises. Apple’s got 320 million users sharing photos, music and business documents, while backing up all those Apple devices, and they are surely not just doing that at home.
5.       Google Docs – Google’s suite of productivity apps have made the Internet giant that was once focused almost exclusively on the consumer into an emerging force in the business world. As Google Cloud Platform continues to gain market share, Docs increasingly becomes the tool set used by office workers.
6.       LinkedIn – Hiring and workforce dynamics are drastically changing, and no tool is more influential in shaping the employer landscape than LinkedIn. The service has become an essential tool of HR departments, and while businesses are using LinkedIn to attend to their workforce, employees are secretly using it to look for other jobs.
7.       Evernote – Evernote is the place to store and organize all the notes that would otherwise clutter your desk on post-its or on the back of envelopes. It can even scan images for words, so you can upload a picture of a whiteboard full of handwritten notes and find it later using text search.
8. Dropbox – Dropbox is similar to Box.com and Google Drive, but has some impressive enterprise features like, integrating into your Enterprise environment and other enterprise applications.  They also comply with the most widely accepted standards and regulations like HIPAA, ISO 27001, ISO 27018, and SOC 1, 2, and 3

Enterprises are investing in tools that give them real time visibility into the devices that are on the network as well as the applications that are being used. What other cloud apps are you using in your business? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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