PCs, servers and other hardware change by the minute, and keeping
up with them or just maintaining the status quo isn't easy. Small
and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) need to make careful decisions
with any purchases or upgrades, because as with any size company,
you want to get the most for your dollar.
But smaller companies can also be at an advantage. You might be
able to take more risks on new technology than larger enterprises.
It all comes down to research and knowledge. The more questions you
ask, the more you know, and the better your decisions will
be.
This month's IT Management Guide focuses on hardware advice,
news and trends as they relate to SMBs.
For free advice and resources on more IT and business topics,
visit our main
SMB IT Management Guide section.
Table of contents
HP unites on SMB strategy
SMBs rarely use laptop-tracking technology
Blade servers: Check IT List
Storage: More than cheap hardware
More resources
[Kate Evans-Correia, Senior Director, News]BOSTON -- Hewlett-Packard Co.'s (HP) foray into the SMB market
is hardly a secret. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company is already
a dominant player in that space, with its Proliant servers and its
line of printers. But the SMB market is practically sizzling in
terms of vendor opportunity, and like all other major server
vendors, HP is setting an aggressive strategy to get a bigger piece
of that SMB pie.
It's basically getting its act together in terms of putting out
a unified message, said Mary Johnston Turner, an analyst at Ovum
Summit in Winchester, Mass. HP has always had products for the
midmarket, but now it has to pull that all together and solidify a
strategy it can bring to customers. "They're getting the word
out."
HP faces stiff competition from the likes of EMC Corp., IBM and
even Dell Inc., all of which have been coveting this market for
some time. But with IDC predicting the market will reach $5.7
billion by 2010, the market is ripe for the taking.
Learn more in "
HP unites on SMB strategy." Also:
[Shamus McGillicuddy, News Writer]Laptops get ripped off all the time. Just ask officials from the
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) district. Earlier this month, CPS
reported that
two of the district's laptops, which
contained the names and Social Security numbers of about 40,000
current and former employees, were stolen from one of its
downtown administrative offices. The school district is ready to
pony up a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest or
the recovery of the computers.
It's almost epidemic. The average business loses about 5% of its
laptop inventory to theft. Top law enforcement agencies aren't even
immune. The FBI reportedly experiences
three to four laptop thefts a month.
Even more alarming: From 2005 to 2006 there was an 81% increase
in the number of companies reporting stolen laptops containing
sensitive information, according to Ponemon Institute LLC, a
research think tank dedicated to advancing privacy and data
protection practices.
Given that experts contend laptop thieves are opportunists after
hardware rather than the sensitive data found on them, wouldn't a
technology that can track that stolen hardware be helpful? Oh, wait
-- there is one, and it's most likely installed on your laptop.
It's probably just not activated.
Learn more in "
Laptop-tracking technology rarely used among SMBs." Also:
- CIO disillusioned with Windows PCs, tests
Macintosh computers (SearchCIO.com)
Fed up with the inflexibility of a Microsoft-centric shop, one CIO
is tossing around the idea of swapping out his PCs for Macs. It
isn't necessarily a great idea, say some experts, but it isn't
entirely unreasonable. - Startup debuts safer notebook battery (CNET
News.com)
Boston-Power Inc. plans to show off a battery Tuesday that it
claims is a lot like conventional lithium ion batteries but with a
difference: It is less likely to blow up.
[Greg Schulz, Contributor]Blade servers are increasingly finding their
way into small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) as cost and
space-saving benefits are realized. Whether you need to
consolidate servers for more physical space, save energy or
both, blades have a lot to offer -- if you know what to look
for.
SMBs most commonly use blades for packaging multiple servers
into smaller, denser enclosures while sharing some common
infrastructure items such as power, cooling and a keyboard, video
and mouse (KVM) switch to take up less space.
Blade servers are beneficial to SMBs because of their
modularity, which allows growth and flexibility without
compromising processing capabilities. With the growing focus and
awareness around power and cooling, blade servers can also provide
advantages for physical server consolidation to reduce your energy
footprint.
Learn more in "
Blade servers: Check IT List." Also:
- VMware coaxes SMBs with low-cost management
tool (SearchSMB.com)
SMBs that have downloaded VMware Server for free now have the
option of buying a low-cost virtualization management product from
VMware. - Virtualization: SMBs go all the way
(SearchSMB.com)
Research shows larger companies are more willing to experiment with
virtualization. But smaller companies, if they give it a chance,
are more likely to take full advantage of it. Once SMBs give in,
they go all the way.
[Shamus McGillicuddy, News Writer]SMBs risk being caught without the means to manage their storage
if they let themselves be lured by enterprise-class products with
entry-level price points.
Nearly 45% of SMBs recently surveyed by Stamford, Conn.-based
Gartner Inc. named storage as a top hardware purchase initiative in
2007. Many will buy high-end systems in an attempt to get a handle
on their exploding storage demands. But experts warn that a
high-end system alone, without services support, can leave some
businesses with systems they can't afford to manage.
"If you look at the volume of information that companies are
storing -- and it's been growing by 30% to 50% per year the last
seven or eight years -- even small businesses are acquiring amounts
of information that would have been difficult for a large
organization to deal with just a few years ago," said Charles King,
principal analyst at Hayward, Calif.-based Pund-IT Research.
King said SMBs just don't have the resources or IT skills to
manage their data storage needs.
As a result, King sees an explosion of the IT services business
as more SMBs demand products that will "take the management burden
off deploying all this stuff."
Learn more in "
Storage: SMBs need more than cheap hardware." Also:
- SMBs reject tape for online backup
(SearchSMB.com)
SMBs looking for fewer server backup headaches are turning to
remote services instead of tape. - HP renews SMB storage campaign
(SearchStorage.com)
With the launch of the new All-in-One 1200 and the shifting of
executives to a new SMB business unit, HP is focused on its low-end
products in an effort to boost growth.