Importance The Russian cloud services market has a significant growth potential, but it is to a lesser extent studied in comparison with developed countries. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have a great demand for cloud services since traditional and expensive IT-solutions are less affordable to them. So SMBs are of particular interest for researchers in this field. Objectives We aimed to segment the cloud services market and describe each segment companies' preferences in choosing cloud services. Methods To study the peculiarities of the Russian market, we held a quantitative research of 67 small and mid-size companies using cloud services, in one Russian region. To segment the market, we used factor and cluster analyses. Results Based on the collected data, we identified three segments of companies choosing cloud services: 'traditional', 'transitional', and 'mobile' ones. We described each segment companies' preferences. Conclusions and Relevance Our findings might be a foundation for the future evaluation of the Russian market's attractiveness and strategy development of cloud services providers.
Keywords: market, research, cloud services, small business, medium-sized business
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