SMB Nation Blog

It’s a known fact that the U.S. is producing too few qualified workers in science and technology, and with that being said, a new coalition has issued an urgent call for Congress to address the immediate high-skilled jobs crisis and strengthen the U.S. STEM education pipeline. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

This morning, while doing my usual online news scouring to see what is going on in our industry (and of course what my competitors are up to), I came across a few online posts discussing how Intel is set to leave the traditional desktop PC business. While this is not “new news” with HP last year saying they would do the same (and then backpedaled that it wouldn’t), and also with many speculating that Dell is planning the same path, I felt it was important to bring forth this trend and what it could possibly mean for our industry.

In keeping in tune with our theme of Voice/Mobility Tuesday, we heard yesterday that Dell Quest Software announced the results of a global survey of IT executives to gauge the level of organizational maturity with existing BYOD strategies, along with realized and anticipated benefits and problems. The findings conclude that approximately 70% of companies believe BYOD can improve their work processes and help them work better in the future, while an estimated 59% believe they would be at a competitive disadvantage without BYOD.

Ingram Micro Inc. said yesterday that it has promoted Kirk Robinson to senior vice president, commercial markets and global accounts, North America; according to the distributor, the promotion is effective immediately.

By Harry Brelsford, Founder and Chairman, SMB Nation; and Regina Ciardiello, Editor, SMB Nation

So what’s the buzz on BlackBerry 10? Is it a game-changer? The short answer is that I don’t know (YET). I’m a BlackBerry fan and, full with disclosure, they have been a huge supporter of SMB Nation for many years. I’ve used many of their products (and still do), so that’s why my hope is that the upcoming Jan. 30 launch of BlackBerry 10 will go down as one of the “Top 10 Tech Stories of 2013.” You might say that it’s too early to tell, with 2013 just beginning. However, we have been tracking outlets such as CNBC and others who recently revealed that Apple announced it was cutting its component orders for the iPhone 5 because of softer than expected sales. On the same day this was announced, interestingly enough, RIM (BlackBerry’s parent company) saw a rise in its stock price.

Equinix, Inc. said this morning that it has partnered with DaaS provider Desktone, to enable service providers to deliver a new scalable and profitable cloud services revenue stream via Platform Equinix. By leveraging Desktone software and locating infrastructure in Equinix’s data centers, service providers will be able to quickly provide customers DaaS capabilities, while limiting downtime and geographic-induced latency to improve the end users’ desktop experience.

8x8, Inc. today launched its suite of cloud-based business communications services across Canada. The launch is the first in a series of expansions outside of the U.S. where 8x8 has been ranked as a market leader in cloud-based IP telephony and unified communications by industry research firms including Gartner, Frost & Sullivan and Infonetics.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior.

A reminder that voting has been extended to Feb. 22 for the 3rd Annual SMB Nation 150 Awards; go to www.SMB150.com, to vote for all of your industry favorites…

By Matt Pahnke, Senior Marketing Manager of Storage Products, NETGEAR

Storage and backup solutions are just as vital for SMBs as they are for larger organizations, but because of finite IT resources the acquisition and ongoing management of cutting-edge solutions can be difficult. To address the issue, an entire industry has emerged wholly focused on helping SMBs outsource their storage and backup needs so they can concentrate on the business of doing business – not the IT that supports it.

D&H Distributing said today that because 2013 marks the company’s 95^th year in business, the distributor will commemorate the occasion and thank resellers for their patronage with a special Anniversary Promotion during each quarter of 2013. VARs and dealers are automatically entered to win one of the 95 Anniversary prizes by purchasing $1,000 worth of merchandise from D&H Distributing between now and March 31, 2013. The distributor will also continue to offer additional promotions and enhanced rewards in Q1 2013 through existing offerings such as its Incentives Rewards program.

By Michael Roden, SMB/VoIP Analyst, GetVoIP.com

The small-to-medium business sector represents one of the most demanding groups, for myriad of reasons. Efficiently allocating time, resources, employees, and more is crucial to survival in the tough economic climate we’re all experiencing. Fortunately, there’s an abundance of solutions on the way and in development, designed to incorporate reliability and speed into one compact package.

Artisan Infrastructure yesterday said that it has appointed Mark Spowart as Vice President and General Manager of its newly formed OEM and ISV business unit. This business unit will leverage the success of Artisan Infrastructure’s wholesale only IaaS model by focusing on expanding existing and new relationships with leading equipment and top cloud ISVs.

Parallels said earlier today that Cisco has made an equity investment in the company that supports joint go-to-market activities to deliver cloud service delivery capabilities.

Symform earlier this week welcomed Second Century Ventures (SCV), the venture capital fund of the National Association of REALTORS (NAR), as a strategic investor in the company. SCV joined Symform’s $11 million Series B round of funding from 2012, which included financing from Longworth Venture Partners, OVP Venture Partners, and WestRiver Capital.

We all know that VoIP is an affordable technology that transfers voice and data through the Internet. Unlike traditional phone service providers, VoIP companies accommodate businesses with numerous features at no extra cost. However, as some top VoIP companies provide as many as 40 features in their basic plans, it is sometimes difficult for businesses to fully understand each option and use all of them on a daily basis.

Kaseya has released a new set of software tools delivering enhanced functionality, performance and usability to increase productivity for corporate IT professionals and MSPs. With this latest release comes a new, consolidated network discovery, enhanced policy management for continuous compliance, and personalized custom reporting to time-strapped IT administrators.

Acumatica, a provider of cloud enterprise resource Planning (ERP) and financial software, said today that it has appointed former Microsoft CEO Yury Larichev as CEO, effective immediately.

Earlier this week, ThinkSIS said that it launched a new mobility practice to help businesses and other organizations make their websites more mobile-friendly. With an increasing emphasis being placed on mobility in today's business environment, SIS is now able to design, implement, and manage secure mobile solutions for multiple platforms, including smart phones and tablets.

We heard late last week from our friend Jeff Middleton at IT Pro Experts, that he has expanded his company’s Project Kit Catalog to completely address all established SBS, Windows and Exchange platform infrastructure. Effectively the model of solutions first introduced by SBSmigration.com in 2004, the catalog is now the basis of IT Pro empowered deployment or migration of any Microsoft SMB platform infrastructure.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior.

A reminder that voting has commenced for the 3rd Annual SMB Nation 150 Awards; go to www.SMB150.com, to vote for all of your industry favorites…voting expires soon!

Continuum said today it is now offering Continuum Tech Advantage, a new program that allows its MSP partners to leverage the expertise of more than 200 certified engineers and technicians on a project-by-project basis.

Last week, right after everyone returned to their desks following the holiday break, and in time for the New Year, Ramon Ray (pictured at right), a self-proclaimed Technology Evangelist, and Editor, Smallbiztechnology.com, announced that he sold his popular Small Business Summit and Small Business Technology Tour to BlogWorld. For the last few years, Ray, and his co-host Marian Banker, business growth consultant at Prime Strategies, hosted the Small Business Summit in New York City.

Even though we heard about this late last year, Datto this morning formally announced that it has hired Dana Prestigiacomo as its new Vice President of Marketing. The new hire was in part due to the result of Datto’s 5,554% revenue growth that occurred from 2009-2011.  

Ooma earlier this week announced the launch of Ooma Office, its first product specifically designed to address the needs of small businesses. Ooma Office, shipping Q2 2013, delivers a big business phone service to small businesses with advanced features and service quality typically found in far more expensive options.

By Brian Sherman, Founder, Tech Success Communications

The following blog post previously appeared on CompTIA’s TechVoice Blog. Click here for more information.

While many may not have switched their calendars yet, 2013 is officially here. Before all the New Year’s resolutions have either been forgotten or broken, make sure to take time to review what went well in 2012 and what needs to change to make the next year more successful. What challenges and opportunities do you foresee?

Continuum said today that it is currently offering the immediate availability of Continuum BDR Revive, a quick way to breathe new life into existing backup and disaster recovery (BDR) appliances. Continuum BDR Revive is an easy-to-use BDR re-imaging tool that upgrades Zenith Infotech, Dell AppAssure, Axcient, HEROWare, Chartec and other BDR hardware that meets minimum hardware requirements, into Continuum Vault appliances.

Panasonic today expanded its Toughpad line of enterprise-grade tablets with the introduction of the Toughpad FZ-G1, a 10-inch tablet featuring Windows 8 Pro, and the availability of the Toughpad JT-B1, a 7-inch Android-powered unit. Both devices follow the original 10-inch Android-powered Toughpad FZ-A1 which became broadly available late last year. With the Toughpad family of ruggedized tablets, businesses and government institutions have a single partner delivering a selection of highly reliable and purpose-built devices ideal for numerous operational needs.

This morning, we were informed by AVG Technologies, that the security provider has been recognized as a Best Channel Vendor 2013 in the security technology category by our industry publisher friends at Business Solutions Magazine (BSM). The award is based on votes by BSM’s VAR readership.

AirWatch said today that it is now delivering stand-alone Mobile Application Management (MAM) and administrative flexibility for the complete range of mobile device ownership models, including BYOD. The AirWatch Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solution delivers MDM, MAM, Mobile Content Management (MCM), Mobile Email Management (MEM) and BYOD management.

Small business owners and decision-makers are fairly optimistic about revenue projections, with 92.5% expecting their revenue to be flat or up in 2013, according to the latest Small Business Marketing Forecast by Ad-ology Research.

Cloud Nation today announced the launch of its Cloud Solutions Portal designed to allow MSPs (VARs) to deliver enterprise quality cloud solutions to small and medium size businesses.

Dell SecureWorks is now offering a new Vulnerability Management Service (VMS) and a new Web Application Scanning (WAS) Service for the Cloud. These add-on Cloud security solutions are currently available for purchase by customers of Dell Public Cloud, Dell Cloud Dedicated Service and customers of VMware vCenter 5.0 environments.

Dimension Data New Zealand said this morning that it has partnered with DaaS provider Desktone, Inc., to offer cost-effective, full-featured virtual desktops as a cloud service.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior.

A reminder that voting has commenced for the 3rd Annual SMB Nation 150 Awards through January 18; go to www.SMB150.com, to vote for all of your industry favorites…voting expires soon!

Please take some time to peruse a few snippets of information that we didn’t get a chance to bring you last week. Let us also know if there was something we might have missed, which is not mentioned in this entry…because as you know…we love news!

Investing in a video surveillance system may seem unimportant to businesses that don’t operate in the retail sphere. However, such beliefs are mistaken. Surveillance cameras can protect your business against employee theft and bogus claims. If any of your employees do steal from your corporation, or engage in other activity that is deemed suspicious, you now have the means to spot it. On top of identifying cases of internal theft and fraud, surveillance video can be used to monitor operations and employee productivity. The notion that security equipment is expensive and cumbersome is also false: the advancements in surveillance technology have made it incredibly easy to install, power, and view surveillance footage. Here, let’s discuss in greater detail the positive impact surveillance systems have on your business.

With 2012 coming to a close just last week, I can say, “Oh, what a year it has been” when it comes to the developments that occurred and the new products that were released in our industry. In case you missed out on any of these developments, or need a little refresher course, note my “playlist” below, which outlines SMB Nation’s Top 10 “Greatest Hits” of 2012, as per our blog posts.

Birch Communications kicked off the New Year by announcing that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire select customer and network assets from Covista Communications, Inc.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior. Note that this week’s “5 we missed” is coming to you a couple of days later than usual due to the New Year holiday. SMB Nation’s offices were closed this past Monday and Tuesday, and yours truly has been (for the most part) off the grid since the afternoon of Friday, Dec. 21.

I remember last year, around the same time, there were a whole lotta mergers and acquisitions going down the first week of November—namely when Dave Sobel sold his MSP practice, Evolve Technologies to Network Depot. This year apparently is no different with major announcements being made during the first week of business in 2013: Arlin Sorensen’s Heartland Technology Solutions (HTS) announced this morning that its IT practice has been sold to WesTel Systems, an Iowa-based telecom and computer services company supporting communities in Iowa and Nebraska.