Cloud computing 'will be popular with SMEs'

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which have 'off the shelf' IT requirements will benefit by migrating to cloud computing and virtual private servers, a claim has suggested.

While many firms may not currently find that virtual private servers are suitable for them, this situation will change, Michael Dean, head of marketing at the independent information technology membership organisation the National Computing Centre, stated.

The outsourcing for IT such as cloud computing and software as a service - which may be contracted to a reliable web hosting company - will become increasingly popular with SMEs, he stated.

A recent report by consultancy Ardent Solutions revealed that 41 per cent of SMEs believe that IT budget limitations could negatively impact upon the avoidance of downtime and system unreliability.

Choosing to outsource IT to a reliable web hosting firm could also be important, as the research found that 69 per cent of SMEs admit that a substantial systems outage would have a very or extremely disruptive impact upon their business.

Written by Tim Dunton