June 19, 2008 | Comments: (0)
TechEd Reflections: Microsoft, SMB, and success
Having a few days to reflect on the events at TechEd Professional this year, there are a few things that stand out -– some are fairly obvious, and some less so.
1. Microsoft has done some very good things for small-business IT
I've been working on Microsoft's new Small Business Server and Essential Business Server, and the folks in Redmond have done some very good things for the SMB market in areas ranging from management interface to licensing. (Yeah, I know –- sanity in licensing. Who would have thought?) A full Test Center review of each is coming, but my impressions haven't really changed dramatically since the first time I saw them –- these are solid platforms from which to run a small to midsize business.
2. Microsoft still needs to do better things for the workstation user
I know that TechEd Professional was for the business IT person, but I was struck by how few sessions really dealt with Vista. Maybe it's just me, but I would have thought that there would be a greater push toward helping businesses move to Vista, especially given the impending demise of Windows XP for most corporate purchasers. I've heard users say that they have no trouble with Vista: I'm just not one of those users. It's fascinating to me that Microsoft seems to be hitting its stride in the back end while giving the competition a real window of opportunity on the user end.
3. The virtual is becoming the real
Virtualization is taking off for businesses from the very large to the incredibly small. With the new cloud services now being offered through the Google App Engine and Amazon EC2 and S3, very small businesses can plan for tremendous success. Here's a fearless prediction from your humble blogger: Some of the folks being cut loose from large companies in our current non-recession will end up building killer success stories on a good idea, a few contacts, and the computing resources they buy on-demand from Google or Amazon. The largest enterprises have always been able to buy computing resources (OK, who's old enough to remember when time-share computing was a big deal?), but now that ability has filtered down to small companies that can really take advantage of the service. I'm very, very excited about this one.
4. What you do is more important than what you do it on
As applications move into the cloud and their interfaces move more completely to the browser, the end-user platform matters less and less. Agnostic computing, in which the network and the application doesn't care what the supplicant interface runs on, is the wave of the future. I'm not just talking about the basic Windows v. Mac argument here –- the user might be, at any given moment, on a desktop machine, a laptop computer, a smart phone, a PDA, or a wireless handheld tablet. On one level, this sort of flexibility creates a security and support nightmare: on another, it's the perfect opportunity for IT to finally demand the sort of standards-based infrastructure they've known was the best answer for years. I spend a lot of time working from strange places, and I'm very excited about the growing capabilities of computing from the road. Small businesses will lead much of this migration because small businesses tend to have the larger majority of their employees working away from the office. The front seats (and hoods) of pickup trucks and high-mileage sedans will be the scenes of real IT progress in the next couple of years.
5. Small business is the heart of future IT
Every vendor I talk to these days wants to build their SMB market size. Many of them have only rough ideas about how to go about doing that. The result is going to be some confusion in the market, as products and marketing campaigns run ahead of sales channels for the next few months. Be a little patient -- whatever the service or product you need, the odds are good that you'll be able to get it before too long. If you're in the business of providing IT services to small businesses, your life is going to get much more exciting in the coming months -- you should be able to carry just about any line you want (and can show any sign that you’re able to sell). The fact is that small and midsize businesses will drive the economy out of the current problems, just as they have in the past. The difference this time is that the computing tools will be helping to an unprecedented degree.
I've started to get some response to my earlier queries about the tools and services that you're using to make your small business a success. If you haven't already, please take the time to drop me a note about what you're doing, and why. I know that there are some truly great SMB IT stories out there.
Posted by Curt Franklin on June 19, 2008 06:20 PM
May 05, 2008 | Comments: (0)
So I'm back in the office and thinking about what I saw and heard at Interop. What do I think you should be thinking about?
1. Splunk
I've just begun really looking at this data-center correlation, indexing, and search tool, but I'm already excited about the possibilities. If you're trying to figure out how to get a handle on the data your IT processes generate, you should check out the free version of Splunk. It's a great tool, and the company has built a strong community to help you figure out how to use Splunk in your operations. I think I'm going to be blogging about this again in the future...
2. Ruckus
Watch the Test Center for a full review of Ruckus Wireless ZoneFlex products, but do check out this system. You'll see details when you read the review, but...dang. They do an awful lot right, especially for the SMB looking for a good wireless networking system.
3. NAC 2.0
I know why vendor companies are big on proprietary technologies, but good standards (note the word "good" in that last phrase -- it's critical) can make life so much easier for IT professionals trying to build a working system. NAC 2.0, from the Trusted Computing Group, promises to make life dramatically better for IT professionals who want to create a security system, as opposed to those who are stuck just trying to make an unrelated collection of components work in the same room. Several vendors have already begun building NAC 2.0 into their products, and I strongly suspect that the open source projects will be getting up to speed with this in the next couple of quarters. You may be a small company IT professional, but you can have some pull with vendors -- so use that pull to start asking when NAC 2.0 is going to show up in their software. You'll really like the results when it appears.
4. Unified Communications
A lot of the unified communication products I saw were aimed at the larger enterprise, but not all...I saw systems from companies like Cisco, Netgear, and D-Link that are aimed squarely at the SMB market. Further, I'm convinced that unified communications will have a much greater impact on the small business than on the huge enterprise, because they can completely change the way you deal with customers and partners. When you don't have to choose between working on-site and talking to prospects, your sales can truly skyrocket, and the impression that you give can change dramatically for the better. Watch this space, and don't be afraid to experiment -- things are going to move quickly, but the direction overall is great for SMBs.
There will be more this week -- there was a lot to see in Las Vegas, and a feeling at the conference that made me very optimistic about the state of the IT world right now.
Posted by Curt Franklin on May 5, 2008 12:37 PM
October 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)
One of the simple facts of my job is that I get a lot of press releases. Really. Tons of the things. Even before I got the opportunity to work with SMB IT, I started noticing an awful of press releases talking about one of two things. The first was services aimed at SMB customers -- various office productivity applications, security, or mobility enhancement hosted by a service provider so the SMB doesn't have to fool around with setting up and maintaining even a small appliance on their own premises. The second was small, essentially plug-and-play appliances that provide e-mail, security, mobility enhancement, or any of a number of other services to the SMB. The two sides of this broad issue presents a basic question: To host, or not to host?
Both sets of solutions are based on the (very reasonable) assumption that an SMB doesn't have a big IT staff sitting around ready to take on the care and feeding of expansive self-hosted applications. I get that. What I'm curious about is where you draw the line on whether you want to have an application (or service) running on a box you can touch, or on a maintained server somewhere else.
In my case, I'm happy to let someone else manage the servers for my e-mail and web services. In general, I figure a large provider will have an ISP that treats them better than I'm treated, and I really want to be able to get to those services wherever I am. On the other hand, I want my office productivity apps on my workstation. I know this is a throwback point of view, but there are still times when I can work on my laptop even without an Internet connection, and I'd like to keep it that way.
What do you think? Please drop an email to me and let me know how you get your applications. I'm curious, and I'll use your answers to guide some of the coverage in this column.
Posted by Curt Franklin on October 8, 2007 11:59 AM
May 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)
* More SMB declarations from IBM. IBM's CEO, Sam Palmisano, said in a keynote speech that he expects Big Blue's SMB business to become its biggest industry focus in the next few years. 'Course IBM defines SMB as "1000 employees and down" so I don't think SOHO businesses will see to much action off this for a while. (Source: InfoWorld)
* T.J. Maxx SNAFU to top out at $4.5 billion. Security expert IPLocks says T.J. Maxx's problems will amount to $100 per compromised record. Sucks for T.J., but hopefully a message to beef up security. (Source: InformationWeek)
* Verizon offers VoIP assessment service. So it's for their MPLS customers (mostly larger bizzes, but some SMBers there) and it allows them to better quantify their voice quality. For the prices they charge, Verizon ought to do that themselves. (Source: NetworkWorld)
* Next big bets for VCs. The business school mind set is that venture capitalists are bouncing back from the post-bubble depression. With the Googlers and similar companies dropping a couple of billion every few months, they seem to feel better about their ability to cash out--at least for certain segments like SaaS. Gotta love greed. (Source: Knowledge@Wharton)
Posted by Oliver Rist on May 2, 2007 10:32 AM
April 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)
First, our sincere condolences to the victims' families of yesterday's senseless violence at Virginia Tech.
* Vonage customers better have a backup. They'll most likely figure something out, but for now, SMB Vonage customers are working without a net. The company has admitted it has no workaround on continuing operations without continuing to infringe on Verizon patents. Means a shutdown unless they come up with something fairly fast. (Source: InfoWorld)
* Google CRM out and about. CRM for Google was built by Etelos and attempts to combine CRM features with Google Apps and Google Desktop. It's got 1500 beta customers, but is going commercial as of today. Should be an enterprise version in the works, too. (Source: PC World)
* Windows Live Hotmail going live in US next month. The new mail client that's supposed to put Microsoft back on top of the Web 2.0 cool list. It's going to be leaking in a few features at a time, starting in Europe and India. But it should be fully available in the US by mid-May. (Source: BetaNews)
* Talk again about Internet sales tax. In case your SMB is a Web e-tailer, this is for you. Senatorial legislators and the National Governors Association have formed a powerful alliance arguing that out-of-state Web retailers shouldn't be immune to state sales taxes. Gonna be a fun fight. (Source: CNET)
Posted by Oliver Rist on April 17, 2007 08:58 AM
April 13, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Q1 Tech Wages Breaking Records
The Yoh Index of Technology wages is a quarterly index apparently used by a number of big 'ole Fortune 500 companies to determine salary levels. Overall, the Yoh-Yoh-ers are saying that hourly tech wages rose an average of 5.5 percent in Q1. Presented a table that looked like this:
.NET Developer $53.40
Aerospace Engineer $48.41
Clinical Research Associate $59.83
Database Administrator $59.80
ETL Developer $66.52
Hardware Engineer $75.68
Java Developer $57.27
Project Manager $60.73
SAP® Functional Consultant $76.67
Technical Consultant $83.72
I love how 'technical consultant' is worth more than anyone with a specific skill.
Posted by Oliver Rist on April 13, 2007 12:11 PM
April 03, 2007 | Comments: (0)
SMBs: Think About Buying an Office Condo
BusinessWeek just did a feature on a burgeoning trend in the SMB space: buying an office condo. The trend here in the Big Apple area is similar, but, affected by high urban pricing, has evolved into larger companies creating more joint office campuses to ease expansion needs. Prices are good and the ability to cash in on an office sale allows you to view the office as an investment rather than simply another liability.
But office park condos aren't the only ways you might cash in like this. Small businesses and new businesses, especially, can look at other options, including residential condos and houses. The upsides are similar to those in an office park or building scenario, though there are a few additional gotchas you need to consider:
1. Check the real estate forecasts for your potential buying area. Make sure you're not looking at a possible loss. The nice thing about this approach is that you can resell the property to either another business or a residential consumer.
2. Make sure the property is in a live/work zone. This becomes especially important if you wind up needing any remodeling that requires subsequent inspections -- electrical, plumbing, etc.
3. Business-class broadband services. Important if you're hosting a few servers yourself. Not so important for folks who aren't hosting machines, especially if a large chunk of your employees are virtual. In my experience, however, you're going to bump your head on residential bandwidth limits with more than 5 users. Best to make sure you can upgrade to higher-end business DSL or T-1 services, just in case.
Frankly, I really like the idea--as long as you've got the disposable income at present. If I had a limited budget, I'd definitely opt for cheaper rent or virtual environments and spend my money on more critical areas of the business. But if you've got the spare dollars, then real estate is a solid investment.
The BusinessWeek article points out that should your company fall on hard times, the property might become a burden; and, similarly, if you suddenly hit a windfall and require a quick bump in available space, a real estate purchase might be unduly constraining.
Frankly, I don't agree with either of those. My company is in tight-budget mode right now, and if we had an internal real estate investment to draw upon I can't think it would be anything other than positive. You can borrow against it or move out, go fully virtual, and rent the space to someone else, creating an additional revenue stream. And if you're suddenly successful and need more space, I still don't see the advantage of this over renting an office.
In the renting scenario, I suppose you could talk your landlord into exchanging your lease for something larger in the same complex or simply adding the next condo over onto yours. That's still available to you in the purchase scenario--just a different way of planning. And if direct expansion isn't feasible, there are so many technologies designed to tie two office sites together virtually, I can't imagine a business that couldn't be divided that way with a little planning.
Posted by Oliver Rist on April 3, 2007 11:38 AM
April 03, 2007 | Comments: (0)
* Vista gets new licensing options. The Redmondites just issued two new licensing options for Vista Enterprise customers. Option one covers diskless computers, option two covers a client version of Windows on servers so users can run them elsewhere virtually. (Source: InfoWorld)
* Online ads to surpass radio. This is good news for both SMBs and InfoWorld, which just went online-only as of yesterday's last print issue. Meantime, a study from ZenithOptimedia is forecasting that Internet advertising will grow another 28.2% in 2007 which will put it ahead of radio--though I think those are UK numbers. (Source: PC World)
* Spam soars and targets SMBs. MessageLabs just issued numbers stating that spam levels have jumped 76.3% just in Q1 of 2007. And guess who most of it is aimed at: that's right, we hapless SMBers. I hate those guys. (Source: InformationWeek)
* Deepfish followed closely by Minimo. Actually, Deepfish is following Minimo, because the latter is actually being released while Deepfish is only an early beta. But Minimo is definitely behind in terms of press. But it is available and does support Windows Mobile 5 or higher, so give it a shot. Available here. (Source: PC World via Yahoo)
Posted by Oliver Rist on April 3, 2007 06:40 AM
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