SMB IT | Curtis Franklin » TAG: Today in SMB Tech

February 04, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Virtualization: The SMB Take

TAGS: Today in SMB Tech

I'm at InfoWorld's Virtualization Forum in San Francisco today, and much of what we're hearing is aimed squarely at the largest IT organizations. I'm beginning to see more vendors and analysts talked about virtualization for SMB organizations, and they're making good points.

This morning, I heard a keynote address that had a line talking about the dangers of success -- the significant hit to an IT infrastructure that a huge number of web hits can produce. It leads to a good question: are you ready for success? I can't tell you how many times I've had discussions with companies in which they talked about the success they wanted, but when I asked them about what would happen if everyone answered their ad or responded to their marketing program, they had no idea.

I'm not saying that you need to over-build everything on the assumption that you'll be the next Google by sometime next month, but you should make sure that your IT infrastructure is up to the task of supporting your customers and partners even if they all decide to respond to your marketing. It's tough to think about success as an instigating incident for your disaster-recovery plan, but you should have those plans in place -- with any luck at all, you'll actually get to use that particular plan.

What would happen to your IT infrastructure if your business really started to take off? Are you ready? Let me know what you have to think about this one -- leave a comment or drop me an e-mail message.

Posted by Curt Franklin on February 4, 2008 10:46 AM

December 11, 2007 | Comments: (0)

SMB Blog This Week

TAGS: Today in SMB Tech

A quick entry as I get ready for the rest of the week -- the return of the Emerging Enterprise Podcast is set for late this week, and a review of Microsoft Small Business Accounting is coming soon.

In the podcast, I've got an interview,some news, and (with a little luck) a bit of listening enjoyment for small business IT folks.

The review is interesting because I'm finding that I'm quite impressed with a product that can be had (in a limited version) at no charge from a company not known for its free products. I'm in the middle of testing Microsoft Small Business Accounting and I have to say that I'm impressed so far -- the feature set and ease of use are both far better than I was expecting. That's the best sort of surprise, and one I'll give you the details on very soon.

Happy Tuesday!

Posted by Curt Franklin on December 11, 2007 10:26 PM

April 16, 2007 | Comments: (0)

SMB Tech News Today; 4/16

TAGS: Today in SMB Tech

* CA upgrades small biz security software. This refers to the company's Protection Suites, includes Windows-only AV, anti-spyware and desktop storage. Now has an SMB version priced at $325+ for 5-user packages. (Source: PC World)

* AOL founder to get into med site. Stephen Case is set to unveil his new consumer health site, RevolutionHealth.com. Should be big competition for WebMD--not just for content but for ads, too. (Source: New York Times)

* Businesses getting into SaaS. Software as a Service is becoming more and more popular for businesses of all sizes, mainly for its flexibility as a software delivery model. (Source: InformationWeek)

* Dell does low-power servers. They just announced the PowerEdge Energy Smart 2970 which uses the company's new Dual Dynamic Power Management capability. Does better power for quad-core CPUs. (Source: NWC)

Posted by Oliver Rist on April 16, 2007 06:42 AM

April 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)

SMB Tech News Today; 4/2

TAGS: Payment processing, Payment processing, SMB Tech & The Law, Today in SMB Tech

* April Fools jokes from Google. Something about a free print-and-deliver service for GMail and a hi-speed Internet service being offered through your toilet, called Dark Porcelain. Hee hee. Ha ha. Couple more hee-hee's from Phonescoop (Samsung's switchblade phone) and ThinkGeek (the WiiHelm) (Source: San Jose Mercury News)

* Game not over for US Internet gambling. Congress may have passed its anti-Internet gambling law within the US, but the results haven't been as expected. Not only has this spawned an off-shore Web gambling boom, now the World Trade Organization has declared Congress' action illegal. Web gambling may be coming back to the US after all. (Source: BetaNews)

* PayPal wooing SMBs with new services. This is an April 1 story, so I'm hoping it's not a hoax, but if it is it's a pretty boring one. If it's not, then it's a good way for smaller businesses to manage payment processing with their own branding on the front and PayPal's processing services on the back. (Source: PC World)

* Could be an H1-B visa rush today. Today's the day that the US government begins accepting H1-B visa applications. Given the immigration boom, analysts are expecting a glut of applications. Get in line early. (Source: ComputerWorld)

Posted by Oliver Rist on April 2, 2007 06:47 AM

March 14, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Today in SMB Tech; 3/14

TAGS: Today in SMB Tech

* Want Linux? Tell Dell. Seems Dell is taking user requests about Linux seriously and querying users to see if it really is a viable move. If you want to let them know how you feel, take the survey here. (Source: InfoWorld)
*Samsung boosts mobile phone storage to 8GB. Pretty much says it all: big memory boost. Though the article says this means your phone could store over 2000 songs. Then again, there's no comparable improvement in battery technology, so you still can't play more than 45 minutes worth of music before your phone hangs up on you. (Source: PC World)
*Microsoft announces winner of Ultimate Challenge. In case you missed it, Ultimate Challenge was Microsoft's challenge to small biz entrepreneurs to come up with the best/coolest small biz technology idea. The winner is the Mayhem Poets who now get $100K towards starting their combination social site and performance art venue. (Source: Microsoft)
* Red Hat looking to lead Linux again. Red Hat is officially intro-ing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. It's been about two years since Red Hat really did anything with RHEL, so it'll be a welcome upgrade. And, one worth checking into for SMBs interested in virtualization--though Red Hat is adding license limitations here that will curtail how many VMs a basic RHEL5 machine can run. Not sure how that's going to go over in the Penguin community. (Source: CNET)

Posted by Oliver Rist on March 14, 2007 10:01 AM

March 13, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Today in SMB Tech

TAGS: Today in SMB Tech

* Microsoft gets closer to Dynamics. Get set for a load of SMB (with an emphasis on 'medium-sized') announcements from Microsoft regarding its Dynamics line. Products a'comin, Office 2007 integration, and user communities, too. (Source: InfoWorld)
* ERP still not dead. Did you think ERP was dead? Nope. The concept remains alive in versions like Dynamics as well as more vertical jobs. AND it's moving into SMBs according to a new Aberdeen report. (Source: TechTarget)
* Novell reveals RedMojo buyout. Novell just can't market themselves. They build cool stuff then hide it. Now they're making moves in virtualization, and we only found out because they leaked it in a quarterly report. Seems they've bought virtualization management firm RedMojo, so we can look for that to be integrated into Novell's virtualization offerings by end of year. (Source: NetworkWorld)
* OneCare still in trouble. Not only does it finish dead last behind its competitors in a recent Austrian anti-virus study, now users of Microsoft's much-maligned OneCare platform are saying it's STILL deleting emails despite Microsoft having issued a fix for this problem. (Source: ComputerWorld)

Posted by Oliver Rist on March 13, 2007 09:53 AM