What Does That Mean For SMB?

One of the most revered NFL coaches in history, Vince Lombardi once said, “If you are five minutes early, you are already ten minutes late.” Although that wasn’t its intended use, this quotation can easily apply to technology. The tech industry is constantly changing, improving, and innovating. Adapting to changes is something all businesses must do to succeed.

To help you and your business look toward the future of SMB IT, we’ve noted a few trends and predictions for 2018 gathered from IT professionals in the United States.

• Significance of Emerging Technology. Of those surveyed, security (81%), mobile device management (51%) and big data (49%) are going to play a significant role in business technology down the road.
  
  • What does that mean for the SMB? Considering the consistent threat of hacking or data loss, it's imperative to take cyber security seriously. A proactive approach should be taken to keep your network as safe as possible. Since there has been a spike in the demand for mobile systems, part of your security should include mobile device management.
    
    
• Security is Priority. 70% say protecting and securing network data will be their top priority.
  
  • What does that mean for the SMB? At its core, this statistic is basically an indication of how important network security is for an organization of any size. Cybercrime is not going anywhere and nearly ¾ of your peers agree that it is a topic that can’t ignored.
• The Link Between Outsourced and In-House Solutions. 54% of responders say that IT will be a mix between internal administration/support and external administration/support.
  
  • What does that mean for the SMB? With the considerably small number of security experts compared to the extremely high demand, it’s difficult for an SMB to recruit and employ a security expert. There are larger businesses with better benefits that will try to poach experienced security technicians. Not to mention, it's unlikely SMBs would need a full-time security tech.
    
    For this task, businesses are looking for external support from a local business that can act as their Chief Information Security Officer and Cyber Security Department. When it comes to managed IT services, outsourcing security means you have access to a team of trained, experienced professionals who you’re able to meet and confer with regularly without having to blow your budget on recruiting and training your own security technicians.
• Virtual Landscape. It’s predicted there will be a 69% decline in installed applications on local machines in favor of virtualization and the cloud.
  
  • What does that mean for the SMB? Today’s digital climate doesn’t have room for complicated infrastructures, let alone the inability to scale alongside change in your workforce or business needs. Your infrastructure needs to be volatile enough to adapt to change. By storing your data in a secure online location, you can easily add user access permissions, create new accounts, or scale services according to your business’ specific needs.
• Software as a Service. 61% predict client applications will become largely browser based and the OS will become irrelevant.
  
  • What does that mean for the SMB? Instead of installing, monitoring, and maintaining software programs and applications manually, software and applications can be accessed using a secure internet connection to access an application or program via their web browser. SMBs simply need to login and then use their software with all of the capabilities they’re used to. Once they’ve completed using the software, the user just logs out. These virtual environments are updated and maintained by the hosting company. Patches and updates are automatically applied as well.

Whatever your companies' goals are, Macro Systems can use technology solutions to help you make your dreams a reality. To learn more, reach out to Macro Systems at 703-359-9211.