The development of cloud computing represents a major business opportunity for small and medium sized software product companies, particularly those operating in vertical sectors such as transport or oil and gas. These companies may currently have high-value soorftware products with a strong existing client base. However, extending this customer base is difficult and expensive and the costs of product support are continually increasing. Migrating the functionality of these products to the cloud and delivering the functionality as cloud services offers opportunities to develop a wider global market without consequent increases in supp ort and development costs.