Amid all the excited talk about the future of cloud computing, very little has been directed at its role for small business. This will soon change.

For large organisations, the benefits of cloud-based services are compelling. Rather than wrestling with the management issues of an in-house data centre, resources can be off-loaded to an external provider.

For those who wish to retain control, the cloud can be used to augment internal systems. At times of peak demand, extra resources can be 'rented' for as long as they are needed. This gives flexibility without excessive cost.

But there are also big benefits for small businesses. While they don't tend to have data centres, replacing even a single server with cloud-based resources can pay handsome dividends.

Most SMBs are unlikely to have in-house IT support. They tend to get by through the skills of IT literate staff members with the occasional use of third-party technicians.

So moving computational resources into the cloud makes perfect sense. Rather than having to spend time updating, patching and managing equipment, staff can focus on the business.

There's also things such as backups, which many SMBs to sporadically if at all. Cloud-based data stores are secure and replicated automatically.

SMBs also have the option of moving desktops into the cloud. By making use of services such as Google and Microsoft, you can do away with the traditional PC-based applications altogether. As well as reducing costs, this makes staff more flexible as they can access their documents and data from just about anywhere.

So, while the cloud is attracting much attention at the big end of town, expect to see more SMBs embracing the concept. The benefits on offer are too big to ignore.