According to the latest Sensis e-Business Report, 95% of Australian small and medium businesses (SMBs) are Internet-connected and 34% do online procurement. Other research shows that they allow their employees to work from home and are highly mobile, with 34% of the staff spending more time away from the office than in it and 46% using smartphones with e-mail and Internet access. The Dynamic Business reported how digital technology has changed the way SMBs do business. They asked Dr. Hugh Bradlow, Telstra’s chief technology officer, his predictions for this year’s information and communication technology for SMBs; to which he replied: unified communications, faster networks, videoconferencing, cloud computing, and mobile comparison shopping.

Information Week’s latest report:

most data centers are not fully upgraded to the higher-speed networks ... networks bring a bit of unpredictability to performance depending on their own level of congestion. Here are a couple of solutions to the networking latency problem. One is to build a private server-to-server network that integrates storage at an extremely high speed. The other solution is to establish another tier of storage, a server-based tier

stresses the importance of getting the most active data to the server through the fastest performing storage.

To ensure that your business can keep up with the demands of the times, you have to check the capabilities of your technological infrastructures, whether it’s sturdy and huge enough to cater to the upgrades or installations needed for your business.

When Choosing Servers for SMBs

In this technology age, information is even more vital and coveted so data should be stored and secured at the least possible risk. Large corporations usually establish their own IT group, using their own UPS network, for their complex systems. For SMBs, they can invest in a third-party UPS server, which is the trend now because it’s cost saving for the small businesses. With the introduction of cloud computing, virtual networks, and remote servers, SMBs have the opportunities to enjoy the technological resources as that used by large businesses, but within a limited budget. The current trend within the SMB culture, as stated above, is more of an on-the-go type focussing on a more mobile and Internet-based approach towards work and business transactions.

Here are some relevant facts about and functions of remote servers that encourage more SMBs to utilise this service.

• Cloud Storage

o Security – transmitted through an encrypted tunnel to a secured data centre

o Recovery time – instant recovery of files, without downtime associated with retrieving and downloading

o Reliability – faster upload options so more data can be processed daily

o Cost – no additional expense for hardware maintenance, personnel, etc.

o Backup – automated, no need for user interaction with the backup process

• Online Remote Storage

o Data storage – automated backups on scheduled intervals

o Data recovery – recovery of lost or damaged backups of previous versions

o Retrieval – based on your personal needs, quick and easy online accessibility

• Dedicated Remote/Virtual Server

o Reliability and availability – no traffic clusters, server downtime or server errors

o Control and accessibility – can use all disk space and bandwidth available, can be accessed anywhere through the Internet

o Security – higher control levels, can be customised

When it comes to your business, invest on security, accessibility, storage and recovery of data because your business success largely depends on it.