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Cloud computing has been a lofty realm of Fortune 500 firms, but according to Zac Smith, president of Voxel.net, small midsized businesses may be climbing to the heights too, boosted by technology advancements that help them compete effectively with the larger companies.

Here are five reasons why Smith he sees that change the way SMBs do business in 2010:

1. In 2010 the application developers catch up. Open source projects like blogging platforms, shopping carts and CMS companies like Drupal start to ‘just work’ on common cloud providers. As such, the cloud transforms from something that was cool but “techie” into something that everyday businesses can take advantage of.

2. We’ve matured past the beta stage. Private interconnection, standardized cloud abstraction layers and the mixing of the cloud with private infrastructure via VPNs, private interconnect and more lead to a much safer, more secure cloud.

3. Pricing becomes more in line with physical infrastructure on a per unit basis.  The marketplace becomes competitive.

4. Location starts to matter. Clients demand to know where their data is stored and, as customer facing applications start to live more on the cloud, physical proximity of your cloud becomes important.

5. SMBs use the cloud to avoid infrastructure problems faced by offering their services in different countries around the globe. The cloud will act as an equalizer in this manner and allow SMBs large and small to compete internationally. 

 

Last year, Voxel (News - Alert) released VoxCLOUD, its next generation, global, hybrid cloud computing offering. It helps customers scale their applications up and down themselves – in minutes – paying for only the resources that they use. Purpose built for the Web, VoxCLOUD offers an attractive price-performance ratio, as well as private and public deployment option. VoxCLOUD is unique to other clouds in that the firm does not force a cloud-or-nothing approach to customers, the company said.

 

VoxCLOUD and Voxel’s other offerings are connected to a network footprint that now spans 17 locations across three continents, delivering IP transit, transport and edge delivery. Last mile solutions into the Voxel network allow for true 'private/public' cloud interconnection.

 

 “Technology has been equalizing marketplaces for last two decades, allowing David to compete with Goliath in ways never before imaginable,” Smith said. “A two-person company out of a garage can change an industry. What is fascinating about the cloud is that it can change how small businesses operate, taking an edge away from larger competitors.”