More SMB Love Needed

September 29, 2017 / G C Network / Comments Off on More SMB Love Needed

Cloud Migration Part 2: Classify your data

By G C Network | August 30, 2018

In my first post of this series, “Cloud migration part one: An overview,” I provided a high-level summary of how enterprises should migrate applications to the cloud. In this installment,…

Could Budget Sweeps Fix Your Cybersecurity Problem?

By G C Network | July 19, 2018

A recent roundtable discussion in Washington, DC with Federal IT and Cyber leaders focused on the business drivers, challenges and evolving strategies around cybersecurity in government.  After an opening presentation…

Cloud Migration Part 1: An Overview

By G C Network | July 17, 2018

Cloud Migration Part One: An Overview   Business is all about efficiency and effectiveness.  In today’s world, however, those twin goals almost always lead to cloud migration.  This anecdotal observation…

A Personal Technology for Good Redux: Call for Code

By G C Network | July 12, 2018

In 2013 I had the opportunity to manage a $2M demonstration of how cloud computing could be used to support natural disasters. In that NCOIC Geospatial Community Cloud (GCC) demonstration,…

A Path to Hybrid Cloud

By G C Network | May 31, 2018

Cloud computing is now an operational reality across every industry.  Organizations that fail to leverage this economic, operational and technology consumption model are merely consigning themselves to irrelevance.  The rapid…

Human-Led Collaboration with Machines

By G C Network | May 29, 2018

When charged with managing large and complex efforts, an overarching project management task is risk assessment. It involves documenting the current situation, comparing it to the past, and understanding the…

Sensomorphic

By G C Network | May 28, 2018

240 million results are returned in 1.06 seconds (as of May 28, 2018) when you search for cloud computing in a Google search. With that much information available, and that many…

Artificial Intelligence and the Project Manager

By G C Network | May 25, 2018

Organizations use teams to create wealth, market share, customer service, competitive advantage, and organizational success. Effective teams accomplish their assigned end goals by engaging in collaboration as a joint learning…

Building A Collaborative Team

By G C Network | May 18, 2018

Recently, Harvard Business Review cited some insightful research into team behavior at 15 multinational companies. It found that although these teams tended to be large, virtual, diverse, and composed of…

Welcome the New Project Manager!

By G C Network | May 18, 2018

According to CIO.com, the six traits of highly effective project managers are: Be a strategic business partner who can offer higher-level strategic leadership skills, not just technical management skills, provide…

 

 

In a recent post, titled “10 Surprising Facts About Cloud Computing and What It Really Is”, Zac Johnson highlighted some interesting facts about cloud computing in the SMB marketplace:
  • Cloud Computing is up to 40 times more cost-effective for an SMB, compared to running its own IT system.
  • 94% of SMBs have experienced security benefits in the cloud that they didn’t have with their on-premises service
  • Recovery times for SMB are four times faster for businesses using cloud computing when compared to those not utilizing cloud services.
  • For SMB, energy use and carbon emissions could be cut by 90% by using cloud computing, saving the environment and energy costs.

 

These advantages show a strong indication that SMB information technology should be dominated by the adoption of cloud computing services.  Although one of the most prominent of these cloud services is Microsoft’s Office 365 (O365), a recent survey cited by CIO.com suggests that 83% of U.S. small and medium businesses (SMBs) have yet to use any form of O365.  If cloud services can deliver such remarkable improvements, why are SMBs holding back?
 
According to the survey, part of the reason is that SMBs often lack the required internal resources needed to analyze the cloud migration opportunity.  This type of analysis often requires the testing of multiple cloud-based business and productivity services as well as more focused attention on data protection capabilities.  Many SMB executives see cloud computing as nothing but marketing hype and are more focused on running their businesses.  Cloud services may also be perceived as being very confusing, technically overwhelming, and even frightening.  Another key technical challenge is dealing with a more sophisticated networking environment that may require virtual private network (VPN) management and remote infrastructure access.
 
The networking challenge is further exacerbated by the requirement to support a distributed mobile workforce with secure mobile device access to company network resources.  NETGEAR is making an impressive bid to address this challenge by their recent release of a new line of small business switches, access points, and NAS devices equipped for native cloud management via a new mobile application.  The app, called Insight, is designed to let administrators or unskilled end users discover and configure multiple wired and wireless network devices.  The users can then monitor and manage these network resources remotely through an intuitive touchscreen interface.  Insight is designed to fill a critical gap in the networking market for simple SMB solutions that provide robust functionality.
Switching from software or CPU license-based pricing to the subscription-based utilization models offered by cloud service providers can also require an SMB to conduct a careful economic analysis of the change.  This change can potentially divert finance and IT staff from their core jobs. The reality is that most cloud services aren’t designed for SMB consumption.  Small businesses are therefore likely postponing cloud migration because they don’t know where to start or don’t possess the internal resources to manage through the transition.
 
This small business industry challenge is bound to become harder. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), the small and medium business spending on IT hardware, software, and services, including business services,  is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.2%, reaching $668 billion in 2020.
 
As SMB cloud adoption grows, the need for more cloud transition support for the SMB marketplace will also continue to grow.  As a historically underserved market, more SMB tailored cloud services and cloud adoption support are desperately needed.  Unfortunately, the SMB market is typically seen as an afterthought by enterprise vendors, and small business solutions are designed as dumbed down versions of the enterprise solutions, let’s hope that more companies like NETGEAR will wake up and serve this clear and growing SMB marketplace need.
( This content is being syndicated through multiple channels. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of GovCloud Network, GovCloud Network Partners or any other corporation or organization.)

 

 

Cloud Musings

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