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Cloud Computing lets small businesses do business |
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Cloud computing and virtualization - words that promise the world to companies when it comes to reducing expenses and extending computing resources. However, as Cisco has pointed out, although some small businesses can benefit from virtualization, any small business can take advantage of cloud computing, accessing enterprise-grade software that would otherwise be too expensive and too complex for their IT departments.  "The cloud has enabled a lot of new technologies and capabilities that can be delivered to small businesses in a subscription payment model that makes sense for them. Applications in the cloud have been developed with the small business user in mind," says Susan Scheer Aoki, a vice president in Cisco's Small Business Technology group.Cloud computing delivers complex technology, including large-scale business applications, simply and easily through hosted applications and resources accessible over the Internet through a Web browser. Users buy what is needed, and pay for computing resources actually consumed or the number of employees that use the hosted software each month. Since applications and resources in the cloud are scalable, small businesses also benefit from flexible capacities or additional / fewer users, anytime. Three general categories of cloud computing include Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS). Cisco says small businesses have embraced all three types for their ease of use and the ability to access technology innovations that might have been out of reach due to the IT investment required. In a February 2010 survey, Cisco's Internet Business Solutions Group found that of the 510 small companies surveyed in the US, 75 percent currently used a cloud service, with sixty-five percent expected to spend as much as 20 percent of their IT budget on cloud services within the next two years. Another 25 percent of these small businesses thought they may devote almost half of their budget to the cloud by 2012. Rick Moran, a vice president and Chief Marketing Officer in Cisco's Small Business Group, suggests most small businesses are best served by a combination of cloud services and on-premise capabilities. "The cloud services will provide redundancy that is hard for small business to afford," says Moran. Scheer Aoki opines that cloud computing can give small business owners a competitive advantage by making their company's IT more flexible as cloud apps are accessible wherever the employee is, “so those apps can change and evolve and go with them on mobile devices and at home in a parallel office.” The network is fundamental Despite all the benefits of cloud computing, the biggest sticking point is the network connection. Since all cloud services are accessed over the Internet, companies need excellent network functionality. "Small businesses never had to worry about network performance before with casual Internet use. But the network really matters in the cloud, so you need to plan the network interface and have strong security," explains Moran. "It can affect your employees if people can't access the apps in the cloud reliably and quickly." Small businesses can operate almost entirely in the cloud, as long as they have a fast, reliable Internet connection. In addition to email and Web conferencing, small companies are subscribing to cloud services for security, storage and backup, on-demand computing, desktop productivity, business applications (for example, CRM and ERP) and sales and marketing tools. |
LISTS AND RESEARCH
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Global Software Top 100 - Edition 2011
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Software industry trends (2011)
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- Top hardware companies
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- What happens in the hardware industry?
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- Top IT services companies
- A list of the world's largest IT services companies, ranked by annual services revenues. This link will take you to www.servicestop100.org.
- IT services companies: healthy growth
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CRM companies: a short list
- A short list of the leading software companies selling Customer Relationship Management software; aimed at IT managers looking to purchase CRM software.
- Top software companies in the US (2010)
- A list of the largest software companies in the United States, ranked by annual software revenues. 2010 Edition, posted 15 December 2010.
- U.S. software industry trends (2010)
- A research publication discussing the trends and the key players in the software industry in the United States. Posted 15 December 2010.
- Top companies in the world (not just software)
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- Top IT companies
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