IS cloud computing going to change the way the SMEs work ?

It is very interesting to learn about cloud, it is still in its initial stages. It takes time to penetrate into the market that too for SMEs to get into it.

Your views regarding SMEs are quite believable.. ...in fact a fact.......

Very nice Sumitra ji, excellent thought and way of explanation. But might be there is a chance it may come up with more advantages which are compatible to small as well as mid level business.

Would probably vouch for you on this idea Sumitra...Fcators confined to ignorance or being ill informed, infant stage, cost factors subject to implementation and usage in the long run, tech savy issues, results and so on…

The very term "cloud" shrouds many mistries!  There is already significant complications on cloud computing reported in the media recently.  The Income Tax department has raised a serious issue on how the larger companies in the country are evading taxes,following the footsteps of the MNCs, by storing their data in the servers hosted in the European coutries and the USA, and they are finding it difficult to access the data to assess the evasion.  They have strongly recommended to the Government to initiate incorporation of stringent clauses in the cyber laws.

Therefore, the SMEs in India should not jump over to this model without understanding the implications involved.  Instead of saving, if the stringent laws are applied, they will be paying very heavily on the customisation and additional reports they may seek to supply to the Government, once this law is implemented.

The current model available is okay for SMEs and in India the cost of storage devices are not that great.

Well I still doubt the capabilities of cloud computing. When you talk about SMEs, I would say you should know two things for sure. 1) SMEs are as vary about the security as is any big organization. 2) SMEs are often spearheaded with one man army people who are also very critical. Now, Cloud computing gives you standard product what about its customized usages. Further, Cloud computing also involves some hidden cost as per usage. The cost factor remains same minus some headache for sure. SMEs are willing to take that headache for sake of customization. I have used Amazon cloud computing environment for website hosting, and I know these things. Also, open source solutions is a very big challenge that cloud computing needs to answer. If you get certain features for free, you won't like to pay for it on a cloud computing environment or will you?