Will a slower economy accelerate cloud adoption?

As we are all aware, Microsoft is rolling out BPOS (Business Productivity Online Services). Basically, you could compare this to a “rent” versus “own” conversation – in the past we have traditionally bought and “owned” our technology, and we are now considering “renting” these applications that will be hosted in the cloud.

So, does the current state of the economy mean that “renting” is now a more attractive option than when the economy was strong? Can we look at other industries to see trends there that we could apply to IT?

My thoughts? I believe this is coming, but I wonder if Joe average small business owner is ready for this. What “tipping point” needs to exist? For example, it took Y2K to force many to dump DOS applications – will we need a huge event (or non event) to push cloud solutions?

Let me know your thoughts, thanks! Bradk