ANTenna Blog -- Services

There's so much cloud computing talk right now, it borders on inescapable. But smaller businesses have been taking a wait and see approach, holding steady until the mists fade and reveal a clear path to follow. That reticence may have saved some from missteps, while costing others opportunity, but now the clouds may be lifting.

Legend has it that in an 1899 speech, Missouri Congressman Willard Vandiver declared, "I come from a country that raises corn and cotton, cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I'm from Missouri, and you have got to show me."

"Show me" is the attitude that smaller businesses have taken toward cloud computing, but that's changing according to InformationWeek story that details growing interest and adoption, albeit slow, by smaller businesses. Now that they've been shown the way by the 67% of large enterprise that have embraced Web 2.0 technologies according a June CDW report, smaller businesses are seeing the opportunity.

The evidence that smaller business have begun embracing hosted services has been gathering. Skepticism about the reliability of SaaS providers voiced the end of last year, gave way to a report from AMI Partners this spring indicating the SMB adoption rate had doubled with 21 percent of small businesses and 31 percent of midsize companies using SaaS.

Sensing the quickening momentum for hosted options, bMighty's own Fred Paul weighed in:

"If cloud computing offers significant benefits to IT departments in the enterprise, it's an absolute godsend to small and midsize companies. Instead of making do with a small, under-resourced IT staff trying to emulate the productivity of billion-dollar IT outfits, smaller companies can now access enterprise-class solutions with limited up-front costs and easy scalability."

But early adopters are one thing, many small and midsize businesses can't just haul their applications and infrastructure into the cloud tomorrow -- there's a business to run here! Fortunately, there's middle ground between "all in" and folding and it's right there for two of the most familiar business applications: QuickBooks and Microsoft Excel.

Cloud computing applications such as MyBizHomepage for QuickBooks and eXpresso for Microsoft Excel provide the benefits of computing in the cloud -- enhanced collaboration, increased (yet controlled) access to information, even integration of third-party analytics. Trying these types of applications doesn't require a small business to migrate for software or business process already in use. Rather, they can be "added-on" with minimal (or no) cost and little effort, allowing smaller and growing businesses to venture into the cloud essentially risk free and show themselves the value.