nGenx, a cloud services pioneer in the delivery of hosted workspaces, including applications, data, and desktops, today named six key trends that it expects to drive substantial adoption of Workspace as a Service (WaaS) solutions and services in 2016. These trends include the continued adoption of cloud computing technologies; growing demand for more flexible software licensing; the consumerization of IT; the need for greater data security; enhancements in business continuity, and greater focus on IT cost containment. As these trends grow, they are expected to drive higher demand for WaaS by small and medium businesses over the next 12 months.

According to new research published by Transparency Market Research, the global WaaS market is forecast to reach $18.4 million by 2022, representing a CAGR growth rate of 12.1 percent from 2015-2022. This is largely fueled by increasing enterprise mobility trends such as BYOD and the concerns around the security of smartphones, tablets and personal laptops for official work. In agreement with this forecast, nGenx has identified the drivers it expects will result in significant adoption of WaaS solutions and services in 2016.

1. Continued adoption of cloud computing by businesses of every size to increase operational efficiency: Deployment of WaaS solutions enables organizations to reduce the capital expense of upgrading and migrating operating systems and applications. Furthermore, these systems and applications can be managed and upgraded from a centralized server, increasing efficiency and ensuring the security and integrity of organizational data.

2. Software licensing flexibility with the option to use the same application regardless of whether it is on a desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone: The cloud model has opened the eyes of customers interested in paying only for what they consume. Now with greater mobility in computing and use across multiple devices, software licensing is becoming more flexible to accommodate user needs to access applications and data from different devices without the hindrance of redundant fees.

3. Continued pressure on IT professionals to reduce costs as much as 50 percent: With traditional server hardware and software, deploying and maintaining an application can cost four times the original software price tag. Additional costs can include environmental factors such as air conditioning, racking and protecting IT systems; resource management; data backup; and unplanned repairs. IT professionals will increasingly adopt WaaS as a way to reduce these costs by half.

4. Greater demand for workforce mobility: Employees increasingly expect to have the ability to work from anywhere using their preferred computing device. In this "bring your own device" (BYOD) environment, traditional computing platforms are incapable of providing the desktop, application, and data access necessary to remain productive. WaaS is a game-changing technology for organizations that have adopted BYOD, allowing secure access to employees who use their smartphones, tablets, and laptops for work.

5. Security: Traditional computing models have left gaps in security that exposes IT organizations to risk. The right WaaS solution addresses these gaps with more rigid controls, granular user management, customized reporting, and audit trails to achieve the strictest security and compliance levels in a cost-efficient manner. These centrally managed, higher level features allow for compliance with PCI, HIPAA, GLB, SARBOX, FINRA, and other data protection standards.

6. Business continuity and disaster recovery: Many organizations believe that in the event of system downtime caused by a natural disaster, major power outage, or other reason, their disaster recovery (DR) plan will keep them up and running. However, the majority of DR strategies do not include the user workspace because of the cost. As a result, many organizations are turning to WaaS as an affordable, easy way to ensure uptime, whenever or wherever a disaster takes place.

"All indications are that WaaS adoption will not just increase in 2016, but soar as a result of significant industry trends," said JD Helms, president, nGenx. "Small and medium businesses are looking for ways to operate at an enterprise level without the associated expense and infrastructure. Additionally, the boundaries between workspaces are dissolving with software licensing becoming more flexible and IT managers recognizing the ability to lower costs with WaaS. There has never been a better time to become a WaaS solutions provider, and we look forward to meeting the expected demand in 2016."