Small businesses in IT should look into the increasing popularity of cloud computing, which can provide great online off-site solutions, a popular newspaper has stated.

The Financial Times made its comments about software-as-a-service (SaaS), which is becoming a more economically sound investment as online storage space and broadband costs have largely dropped, resulting in off-site solutions such as data backup being more approachable.

It was also argued that online technology responds to demands from the employee in terms of ease of access, which many may need while on the move or working from a separate location, particularly as flexible working hours have come in recently.

The FT closed by stating there is no better time than the present to look to cloud computing, as IT budgets may be rolled back further in coming months.

Forrester Research's William Band recently stated that new systems, for example customer relationship management, must be adapted to existing computer systems otherwise employees will not be able to adapt to them with ease, losing precious money in the process.

New research from Connect found that, on average, it takes businesses that use backup tapes take 11.6 hours to retrieve and restore files. Connect is now recommending that SMEs switch to online backup.