For SMEs with limited IT budgets, limited IT expertise and limited access to outsourced expertise, Software as a Service (SaaS) and cloud computing mean good (and big) things. Technologies previously only available to enterprise-size organisations with enterprise-size IT departments or outsource agreements are finally within their grasp, at an SME-size price too. Says Yossi Hasson, CEO of Synaq (an SME itself): “Cloud computing for routine, have-to-have business applications such as e-mail, messaging, collaboration and security, makes perfect sense – and cents – for the SME. “This is particularly true for start-up organisations that generally can’t afford to devote an enormous chunk of their IT budget on basic infrastructure – servers and applications (between R150 000 and R200 000 to get up and running) – which add little competitive value to the business.”

“SMEs only now have proper choice,” says Integr8 IT joint-MD Rob Sussman. “We’ve had all the hype around SaaS and services in the cloud and procuring access on an on-demand, pay-per-use basis. The reality is that it is only of late that this has really been afforded to small business. There have been challenges like the last mile, both from a cost and access perspective, and access to applications has been problematic because many weren’t hosted here, which meant they were expensive to access.