Cloud computing represents the best opportunity for entrepreneurs for years, according to ex-Dragon's Den star James Caan.
"A business could get off the ground these days with just 5,000 to 10,000's worth of funding," the entrepreneur said, speaking at the Ahead in the Clouds event in the City, part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week initiative.
Caan explained that he had become a convert to the cloud after completing an office move earlier this year.
"My IT team asked me what I thought about moving to the cloud. My first thought was what was the cost?' When I was told that it was 1,500 a month, I thought that a zero had been left off the figure. He added, as a reflection of this, that the online technology sector was one of the few areas where there were more jobs than people looking for them.
Endorsing Caan's comments, former cabinet minister and trade secretary Lord Young said there had never been a better time to launch a business.
Caan pointed out that online services had been greatly undervalued. "We're number one in Europe when it comes to online services and it would be the largest single industry sector in the UK if we tracked it."
And Eric Van Der Kleij, CEO of Tech City Investment added: "Very few sectors can offer low capital intensive growth as does the technology industry. The cloud and agile development tools mean ideas can be thrown up quickly to see if they work.
