SMB-friendly IT solutions are needed

Your business deserves more than a cut-down enterprise offering

In the 2020s, businesses of all sizes depend on their IT systems more than ever. However, the number of skilled staff available to install and manage those IT systems frequently remains constant, or even shrinks. This is especially true for small and midsized businesses (SMBs), which if you are an SMB, makes it essential that the IT systems you use be well suited to your requirements.

Historically, many of the IT systems made available to SMBs by vendors were either built using less-capable components or were simply cut-down versions of systems sold to larger enterprises. This approach is no longer viable, however. As an SMB today, you need IT systems that are simple to procure and straightforward to manage, but which have the same resilience and security capabilities as enterprise systems, only on a smaller scale. Ideally, you want to have excellent, up to date technology at an affordable cost.

But how can you find that, and what questions should you be asking, both of potential suppliers and of yourself and your staff? In this paper we will compare, at a high level, the solutions offered to SMBs with those routinely delivered to large enterprises and consider how and where they should differ – and indeed where overlaps and similarities should exist.

We will cover the key requirements that you should look for in IT systems. In addition, we will discuss the characteristics you might look for in the vendors and channel partners who sell and support them.

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Tony Lock

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Tony is an IT operations guru. As an ex-IT manager with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, his extensive vendor briefing agenda makes him one of the most well informed analysts in the industry, particularly on the diversity of solutions and approaches available to tackle key operational requirements. If you are a vendor talking about a new offering, be very careful about describing it to Tony as ‘unique’, because if it isn’t, he’ll probably know.