As the prospect of using cloud services grew among enterprises and small businesses alike, vendors and resellers jumped on the bandwagon in an effort to gain a piece of the expanding market. While some companies harbored concerned thoughts about the technology, other decision-makers jumped headfirst in an effort to gain a competitive advantage over firms on the fence.

Regardless of where many organizations stand, the cloud infrastructure market continues to carry on throughout the private sector with many executives believing the majority of their IT networks will be cloud-based within the next few years, according to a report by Channel Pro.

The news source said this continuing expansion of the market is primarily driven by three factors: the potential to reduce IT expenses during a tough economy, improved compliance and the ability to leverage flexible cloud storage environments. These three components are all important to successful disaster recovery programs, which are becoming more integrated with the cloud as it matures and evolves.

Since 2011 was a major eye-opener to the impact of natural disasters, having a plan in place has become more of a priority for organizations of all sizes, especially smaller ones that may have a more difficult time bouncing back, the news source said. By using the cloud, companies can access mission-critical resources on the fly from virtually anywhere, allowing them to continue operating at full speed in the wake of an emergency.

A separate report by TechNavio noted that the disaster recovery market is forecast to generate more than $22 billion in revenue by 2014. This expansion will largely be driven by the adoption of cloud services, helping SMBs and enterprises boost performance even after a disaster hinders operations.