Small business is riding the cloud to cost effective operations.
All the fascination about terminal hardware applications will be over in the near future. The "Cloud" and SAS will rock the hardware and software world and make access to technology easier for vast populations. Devices to do so will cost pennies on the current dollar or the will be free.
Like the PC makers, the sun is already setting on cell phone devices, associated applications, OTS packaged software and related products. Even though these products are enjoying current popularity They are expensive and will be rapidly overtaken by tight economics and services competition.
Smart,strategic planners are pointing to the future and it is not a hardware and licensed software market - it is service oriented with low cost access and rates. Volume, free products, advertising and shareware will drive it all.
Possible exceptions for a bit longer period of time are the high-end hardware and software technologies in government contracting, which for security reasons must be cloistered, protected and safeguarded. Your friendly government agency will be the last to boot its PC out the window.
I pack 5G of storage on flash drives in my wallet and work on around 11 different computers from the public library to client locations, coffee shops and meeting places each day.
Someone else has to worry about the hardware that way and the server farms of the foundations I support maintain all my case records.
I have budgeted about $9 for a backup flash drive. Google charges me $10 a year for the web site domain where I maintain my books, articles and reference materials for clients. Box Net and Linked In are free web-based repositories.
Total projected expenditure for 2012, serving a projected 1200 clients based on my history the last 6 years and publishing a new book - under $30; could not be simpler.
Courtesy of Kenneth Larson