Business Insight

Companies are on the path to cloud adoption. According to a recent report, 28% of U.S. organizations are using cloud computing today, with 73% reporting their first step was implementation of a single cloud application. Yet while 84% of organizations say they have employed at least one cloud application, most do not yet self-identify as "cloud users" who are "implementing or maintaining cloud computing."

The great Irish poet and playwright, William Butler Yeats, once made the astute observation that we should “Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people”.

The new product called Confirmed Capital, offering funding for businesses starting from $1 million up to $10 million.

ARN recently conducted a comprehensive study into the state of the IT channel revealing intriguing information on management strategies, technology directions and challenges ahead

With news of the recent earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, my mind jumped not only to the poor individuals involved in the disaster, but also to the technology devastation that will have occurred. What do I mean by that? The fact is the majority of SMBs will not have planned to deal with this type of event.

How to retain profitability within the channel is an issue vendors, distributors and resellers have to constantly stay focused on

Virtualisation is dominant in the enterprise market today, but how is it faring in the SMB space? ARN brought together a collection of channel players and vendors to discuss the opportunities and challenges for virtualisation technology in the smaller end of town.

ARN recently held a roundtable on selling virtualisation to SMBs. Attached are highlights from the recent event.

One highly-debated topic raised during the roundtable was whether resellers were investing in building managed and cloud services to meet increased customer demand.

One of the questions raised by Dell’s Jon McBride was how resellers were taking virtualisation in their customer base to the next level. While many clients claim to have deployed virtualisation extensively, a bit of digging shows many only have about 10 per cent of their environment on virtual technology.

It’s not new technology, but to SMBs, virtualisation can still be a scary unknown quantity. MATTHEW SAINSBURY investigates ways partners and vendors can allay those fears to the profit of everyone.

It's a great time to set up a small business. The Web gives even the littlest operation enormous reach, while vendors now sell small-business technology that delivers unbelievable bang for the buck.

At a time when most businesses are looking to cut costs and leverage existing resources, channel partners may feel discouraged in the marketplace. But according to Lora Gernon, senior director of Microsoft Canada's partner group, there's actually no better time than now for partners to start having conversations with their customers.

Whether they're in branch offices or home offices, workers are increasingly telecommuting instead of working in a traditional centralized office environment.

Continual advances in processor technology have enabled server manufacturers to generate ever faster, more powerful, smaller and less power hungry offerings to cater for a demanding and dynamic IT market.

In an interview with IT veteran, Kaz founder and Hostech executive chairman, Peter Kazacos, discusses why businesses need to prepare for the NBN, opportunities in regional Australia and the integration of all the acquired business.

Ingram Micro was caught in a whirlwind of economic forces this year, and its newly installed Australian vice-president and general manager, Jay Miley, found himself quickly anchored in the middle of it.

When it comes to his success, Anittel founder and CEO, Peter Kazacos, does not dwell on former glories. And why would he? The three year-old services company is successful in its own right, nabbing ARN’s SMB Reseller of the Year gong two years in a row.

XSI CEO, Glenn Gray, has been a stable force within the storage integrator since it was established 20 years ago. He speaks to MATTHEW SAINSBURY about a start in accounting machine sales, the growing importance of ROI, and the pointlessness of GPS systems in golf.

Adopting more service-orientated architecture (SOA) products are just some ways business software vendor, Infor, is trying to achieve its goals this year despite stiff competition from SAP and Oracle. Senior vice-present for global strategy, Rick Parker, met up with JULIA TALEVSKI to discuss what role the channel has to play in Infor’s plans, the significance of SOA and how the market is shaping up.

Sarah Hillier is the managing director of marketing and consulting organisation, RAW Consulting. shillier@rawconsulting.com.au

Fifty cents. That's how much U.S. businesses could save by shutting down all their PCs at night and on weekends, according to a study released last month (download file) by the Alliance to Save Energy. Of course, that's not how the report headlined it. The alliance's number was US$2.8 billion per year.

One of the most common questions I’m asked by all representatives of the IT industry is how the rest of the market is faring. It’s not surprising this issue keeps cropping up in conversation, given the economic situation.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there were two basic models for selling IT: Equipment vendors sold hardware or software. Services vendors sold maintenance contracts, professional services or connectivity. And IT practitioners didn’t sell at all – they delivered infrastructure, applications and support that their organisations (hopefully) found useful.

John Grant is the managing director of Data#3 and chair of the Australian Information Industry Association.

In sports, successful athletes narrow their focus during crunch time. They may concentrate on footwork, technique or increase their margin for error. Technology providers must do the same thing during tough economic times. You must focus on your customer and nothing but your customer, whether the customer is a consumer, another business, or internal departments needing technology and support.