If cloud-computing offers benefits to enterprise IT departments, it's an absolute godsend to small and mid-sized companies. Instead of making do with a small, under-resourced IT staff trying to emulate the productivity of IT outfits with multimillion-dollar budgets, smaller companies can now access enterprise-class technology with low up-front costs and easy scalability.
Important as those things are, they're only the first steps in a larger shift. Cloud computing doesn't just level the playing field--it promises to tilt it in the other direction. Simply put, today's most powerful and most innovative technology is no longer found in the enterprise. The cloud makes leading-edge technology available to everyone, including consumers, often at a far lower cost than businesses pay for similar or inferior services.
Source: Information Week, http://www.informationweek.com