More SMB Love Needed

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

Ambient Awareness. The cloud killer app?

By G C Network | September 10, 2008

Ambient Awareness: the ability to acquire, process, and act upon application specific contextual information, taking the current user preferences and state of mind into account. In the September 5th New…

The Cloud Wins in Minneapolis at the RNC!

By G C Network | September 9, 2008

Little did I know that while I was watching the Republicans cheer their standard bearer inside the Xcel Energy Center that the cloud infrastructure was outside defeating the forces of…

Cloud Computing vs. Virtualization

By G C Network | September 8, 2008

Yesterday, Reuven Cohen in ElasticVapor, provided an excellent post on the title subject. I’d like to “second his emotion” and, for my audience, add that cloud computing technologies and techniques…

Government Technology Cloud Recommendations

By G C Network | September 5, 2008

Recommendation on the cloud from Government Technology: No. 1: Educate your team about cloud computing. Don’t just ignore this topic as hype – the future is in this direction. Go…

Cloud Computing: A pay-by-consumption scalable service

By G C Network | September 4, 2008

John Edwards (not the Senator) of Computerworld sees cloud computing as a “…pay-by-consumption scalable service that’s usually free of long-term contracts and is typically application- and operating system-independent”. His recent…

Cloud Computing Dictionary

By G C Network | September 4, 2008

Geva Perry will be presenting at the October 8th SOA-R event. Before attending, you may want to visit his cloud computing dictionary to catch up on the current cloud computing…

Google Launches Chrome: Desktop-centric to Network-centric

By G C Network | September 3, 2008

According to Nicholas Carr, “Chrome is the first cloud browser”. If you’re not familiar with Chrome, this application is Google’s entry into the browser wars. In his blog, Mr. Carr…

Boeing Gives Up On Interoperable Modelling and SimulationNnetworks

By G C Network | September 3, 2008

Last week a Flightglobal article reported on the softening of Boeing’s stance on the need to establish standards for networking protocols across the US and global defence industry. Citing the…

Cisco: A Cloud Computing Company?

By G C Network | September 2, 2008

Yes Cisco ! Red Herring’s report on Cisco’s acquisition of PostPath last week presents a strong case for this. If finalized, PostPath would become Cisco’s fifteenth acquisition in less than…

Cloud Computing at top of Hype Cycle

By G C Network | August 29, 2008

Computerworld reports that Gartner see cloud computing as being at the top of the hype cycle. They have also settled on a definition: “a style of computing where massively scalable…

 

 

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.)

 

 

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