Business Insight: Features

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.

A group of companies that build products to ease the integration of Macs in the enterprise had been separately championing a heterogeneous IT environment where both Macs and Windows can co-exist. Combining those efforts into an umbrella organization seemed like a good idea.

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.

There are few people in the IT industry that would gloat about servicing a company of less than 50 people to their global peers. There are even fewer that would do it for a 10-seat operation. But in reality, the SMB market is the backbone of the Australian economy and deserves its time in the spotlight.

IDC research manager IT spending, Jean-Marc Annonier, claims there is a growing focus on services aimed at the mid-market.

Running a small business has never been easy; it needs time, emotional, financial and physical commitment that many find overwhelming. The hours are long, the pace of progress is often frustrating and the results can be mixed.

It might sound funny, but nobody should be in any doubt that small business is big business in Australia.