When attendees were asked to name their top concerns going forward, the list included security, backup and data recovery, wireless networks, VoIP implementations, server upgrades, spam, storage, spyware, securing and encrypting mobile data, management of remote locations, growth, changing laws, storage management, data and voice convergence, authentication services, Web server application tuning, and remote monitoring of servers. Sound familiar?
“Is perimeter protection really becoming unnecessary?” “Is there a single tool that can monitor data and voice traffic?”
“How can smaller businesses protect themselves and their users from pharming attacks?”
“What suggestions does the panel have for small to mid-size businesses [SMBs] regarding data encryption?”
“In an SMB, if you take into account ALL the intangible costs [for voice, upgrading the network for QoS] and factor in long-distance charges in the 2-cents-a-minute range, where is the cost justification for VoIP?”
Those were just some of the thoughtful and important questions raised this week by IT execs during the first leg of the Network World Technology Tour on IT Strategies for Small to Mid-Sized Business .
The event in Chicago was well attended and demonstrated that IT pros at SMBs face the same issues as their large-enterprise peers. After all, a security breach at a 500-person company can be as devastating as a security breach at Citibank. Spam and spyware and phishing and pharming are just as much of a nuisance. Data backup and recovery are just as vital. And a major architecture change, such as moving to VoIP, can be just as big a deal.
When attendees were asked to name their top concerns going forward, the list included security, backup and data recovery, wireless networks, VoIP implementations, server upgrades, spam, storage, spyware, securing and encrypting mobile data, management of remote locations, growth, changing laws, storage management, data and voice convergence, authentication services, Web server application tuning, and remote monitoring of servers.
Sound familiar? One difference between the big guys and the smaller companies is that the little guys don’t have the resources that larger companies can muster. This is why keynoter James Gaskin’s advice to SMBs seems so valuable:
Don’t try to reinvent the technical wheel.
Leverage the experience of outsiders.
Share knowledge inside the company; create searchable databases.
Protect company data with authentication, encryption, backup and disaster recovery.
Invest in VoIP.
Prepare for a distributed workforce.
Manage, focus and train employees.
Come to think of it, that’s not bad advice for companies of any size.
Oh, and the answers to the five questions posed by conference attendees above are: no; no; see story on page 39 ; yes, wherever possible; and see last week’s story on the ROI of VoIP .
