Since many IT solution providers who poke around in this blog are themselves small businesses, it will not be a major shocker to hear that a recent survey shows that smaller companies are latching onto the benefits of Web 2.0 less quickly than larger ones. Then, again, I’d bet that many of those same companies ARE using some aspect of Web 2.0 — which I count as blogs, software as a service, social networks, online collaboration services, and “presence” applications — without realizing it.

Here’s the data I’m referring to, courtesy of CDW, which polled 1,060 IT decision makers about Web 2.0 between March 27 and April 4 of this year. Read more »

I have become so hopelessly addicted to my Apple iPhone for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is that it has saved my butt on more than one occasion when I have been unable to get to my notebook to update this and my other way-to-many blogs. Indeed, when my laptop crashed a few weeks back on a trip for TechTarget to Chicago, I even submitted the repair request using the built-in Safari Web browser.

Needless to say, I am HUNGRY for the July 11 update iPhone software, which will mean that I can download e-mail from my work accounts transparently. But I am dreading the onslaught which MUST becoming of security threats released by both the nefarious and naughty. Data from the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) suggests that my feeling of dread is not unfounded. Here’s the blog entry that I wrote last month.

Read more »

This one is for those of you, dear readers, who remember Mike Homer, who contributed some great marketing ideas to both browser pioneer Netscape and personal computer pioneer Apple Computer. Those outside Silicon Valley may not be aware that Homer was diagnosed last year with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which is a degenerative brain disease.

I really liked talking to him when I was covering Netscape and, amazingly, Go Corp., an ill-fated long-ago pen computing start-up. So even though this information isn’t strictly channel-related, some moral imperative compels me to blog about the new YouTube site that was launched this week in honor of Homer’s plight. Read more »

What the heck does a network integrator intend to do with a interactive multimedia company?

That was my first reaction when I heard the news that network integrator and managed service provider Atrion Networking (based in Warwick, R.I., and a company I know well), is buying Shazamm (a company I’ve never heard of—but one that is apparently an Atrion neighbor in Providence, R.I.) I have no idea what Atrion paid, but after thinking about the whole situation for a few minutes late tonight and checking out the Shazamm Web site, I think I do know what Atrion is after: Shazamm’s digital signage management and distribution application called Z-One and a Web asset management system called Z-Media. Read more »

Intuitively, I think we all knew this was coming. But now, there’s some research out of the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) that validates the notion that many companies are still seriously unprotected when it comes to their notebooks and handheld computers.

CompTIA just conducted a survey of more than 2,000 people responsible for information security within their organization. More than 50 percent of them said mobile security threats had grown dramatically over the past 12 months. But while 71 percent of these companies allow employees to tap into their networks from a remote location, only 39 percent have provided any kind of security awareness training about what they should worry about, or why. Another 19 percent said they DO intend to provide this sort of education before the end of the year.

Because there hasn’t been a seriously malevolent virus on cell phones or smart phones, we tend to be kind of blase about the threat. But compliance has got people downright spoked about the notebook thing.
Ironically, I just wrote a story earlier this week for Entrepreneur magazine about mobile whole disk encryption, which is being used increasingly to protect data on a notebook in case it is lost or stolen. Some 45 percent of companies of all sizes now are evaluating or planning to buy disk encryption software to protect against this, according to some recent Forrester Research data.

The take-away is pretty simple: Disk encryption is definitely a growing mobile security area, although there are some pretty big downsides — like your data isn’t recoverable if your hard drive dies. While the handheld market is less developed, the iPhone has got people evaluating handheld computers in ways that IT departments are wholly unprepared for. So, a VAR with expertise in this area, such as D&D Consulting in Albany, N.Y., stands a good chance to differentiate themselves.

Heather Clancy is a business journalist and strategic communications consultant with SWOT Management Group. She can be reached at hclancy@swotmg.com.

Digimerge Technologies. JDSU. Lorex Technology. On-Net Surveillance Systems. Videolarm.

Do you know any of these companies? If you don’t, Tech Data is hoping to change that. The distributor has established a new Physical Security Specialized Business Unit, which will focus on carrying products that fall into the security surveillance and network testing solutions categories. The group, which falls under Chuck Bartlett’s direction, will carry these sorts of products: digital video recorders, monitoring systems, software, IP cameras, lenses, enclosures and so on. The distributor sees a convergence of new digital surveillance solutions with tradition network integration practices.

Other vendors that are part of the unit are:

• 4XEM
• Axis Communications
• Bosch
• Computar
• D-Link
• Cisco
• IPX
• ISONAS
• Milestone
• NetBotz
• NUUO
• Panasonic
• Q-See
• Sony
• Toshiba
• United Digital Technologies
• Vivotek

I’ve included the link for the companies that I didn’t know, that I could find on the Web!

The reason I find this all really interesting is because of some side conversations I had last month at the 1NService Interchange conference. Many of the member companies (integrators all) are mulling how to handle video surveillance and physical security systems atop their customers’ existing networks. The idea, for example, that the network will know when you’ve entered the buiding and its OK to allow access to your computer. Or not.

This requires, as you might imagine, a whole new set of technical skills. And lo and behold, there is a whole network of integrators already doing work on the physical security front, some of which are part of a group called PSA Security Network. I think we’re facing the same sort of channel convergence problem that we used to talk about five years ago surrounding data networks and telecommunications networks. Collaboration between the two worlds seems logical. And yet. … Bill Bozeman, president and CEO of PSA, says this will be tough, given the dynamics of the physical security market and the reluctance of that community to collaborate.

So, while I’m excited about the idea of tying the cyber and physical security worlds together, it will probably be way harder than we imagine. It’s great that someone like Tech Data is getting involved. Let’s hope they have the staying power necessary to get this thing off the ground.

CDW recently released the results of what it’s calling the 2008 CDW Small Business Driver’s Seat Study, which taps more deeply into the motivations of technology buyers. The data is provides a fascinating snapshot of how an executive’s personal comfort levels with technology might affect the strategy of his or her company. They also provide some intriguing demographic insights, which I’ll get to in a moment.

For grounding, CDW’s survey covered 555 small-business executives in companies with five to 99 employees. Of those, approximately 127 responses came from African American-owned firms, 117 responses were from Hispanic-owned businesses, 152 responses were from non-minority-owned companies, and 159 responses were from woman-owned organizations.

So, one of the first things that’s worth pointing out from the data is that minority-owned businesses with five to 19 employees were more likely to hire an IT professional than the broader community of small businesses. Another area where minority-owned businesses tended to be innovators or technology leaders was in business continuity or disaster recovery planning. About 35 percent of Hispanic owners with busineses in the five-to-19 employee range reported that they had a plan, compared with 23 percent of all other businesses. Among companies with 50 to 99 employees, 67 percent of African American owners had invested in a disaster recovery or business continuity strategy, compared with 50 percent of the Hispanic owners and 48 percent of all owners.

On the flip side, though, minority-owned companies were less likely to have a server or remote access capabilities. Here’s just one illustrative statistic: 56 percent of all owners with five to 19 employees said they have invested in one or more server, while only 46 percent of Hispanic-owned or 47 percent of African American-owned companies said the same thing.

Here are some stats that might make for selling ammunition when you’re considered new approaches for your small-business clients:

• Small businesses that considered IT as a strategic investment generally recorded faster growth than the average. Close to 70 percent of owners who reported they felt this way about technology said they posted annual growth of more than 10 percent, compared with 36 percent of owners who were more conservative about technology.
• Minority-owned companies have an edge over the average when it comes to thinking about technology as a business driver.
• Only 29 percent of the respondents currently employ a dedicated IT professional.
• More than one-quarter of the small businesses surveyed said they regret not taking full advantage of the technologies they already own. Sounds like a great services opportunity to me.
• When asked where technology has had the most impact on their bottom line, the small-business owners sited marketing and customer relationship management functions more often than other tasks. Which makes for an interesting self-searching question for VARs and resellers out there reading this that haven’t looked at these sorts of things for their own companies. Another top area where technology had impacted the bottom line for respondents was production/project management.

And, finally, here are the top five priorities that the surveyed small-business owners planned to achieve in the next three years.

1. Have a formal business continuity plan (47 percent of respondents)
2. Have a data warehouse and business intelligence tools (42 percent)
3. Acquire off-site data storage and back up (37 percent)
4. Provide industry-specific applications for staff (37 percent)
5. Support mobile computing devices (36 percent)

Long-time business journalist Heather Clancy is a strategic channel communications consultant with SWOT Management Group. She can be reached at hclancy@swotmg.com.

This seems to be my week for rambling about training. In the blog I write for my employer, SWOT Management Group, I coughed up these thoughts about whether or not vendors should tier their training and favor their most committed VARs. This post here for TechTarget falls more along the lines of suggesting where you might consider spending your own training budget.

CompTIA reports that in all but two of 14 countries surveyed, wireless and radio frequency technology implementation and service skills will dramatically increase in importance over the next five years. Wireless skills were actually the second most important skill set for future hiring in South Africa (behind security) and France (where it came after Web technologies.) The countries covered by the survey included the aforementioned nations plus … Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

When it comes to specific industries, healthcare managers and IT teams in the education sector were more likely to say wireless would be critically important three years from now.

What does this all mean? For starters, this just plain makes sense in emerging countries, where the investments in data communications infrastructure have been less substantial than in the United States. Why on earth wouldn’t you look to advanced wireless first in some of these countries? Meanwhile, the radio frequency movement, believe it or not, is gaining some momentum from all of the green technology and sustainability efforts going on. One big growth area will be wireless sensors: for home energy management applications, in the so-called smart grid (on your electric meters) and within data centers, where they’ll be used to track energy efficiency.

Here’s some more data on where IT managers surveyed by CompTIA see future potential skills gaps.

Heather Clancy is a channel communications consultant for SWOT Management Group, where she focuses on simplicity and seeing eye to eye. You can e-mail her at hclancy@swotmg.com.

Slowly but surely, some of the big high-tech vendors have started pulling their channel partners into their “green technology” efforts. As Barbara Darrow blogged earlier this week, Sun is the latest to put a formal stake in the ground. Actually, honestly, they’re the first high-tech vendor that I can think of that really has made a public effort to include its VARs in this green thing.

So, in case you’re wondering just how much opportunity exists for services related to green technology rationalization, I wanted to share some statistics that were recently released by Forrester Research as part of a report called “The Dawn of Green IT Services.”

First, the bottom line: Forrester believes that overall services related to helping companies rationalize the energy efficiency and sustainability profile of their technology will peak at $4.8 billion in 2013, with roughly half of that spending coming from European businesses. (The services revenue for this year is expected to be around $500 million.) Much like the Y2K wave, green tech services will begin to taper off after this point as the practices become more a standard part of running an IT infrastructure, Forrester concludes. Another note: North America companies will be slower on the uptake than those in Europe, with spending peaking around $2.1 billion in 2013, the firm reports.

You can compartmentalize the opportunity for green tech services into three different buckets: the assessment phase, the planning and development phase, and the implementation phase.

As you might expect, assessments present the shortest-term opportunity, running between two and 10 weeks and costing $30,000 to $100,000. Only about 50 percent of companies will proceed to the next phase: detailed planning. But, Forrester figures that those that do should be willing to spend between $50,000 and $400,000 on roadmaps for any number of initiatives such as server virtualization and consolidation, an enhanced power infrastructure, and more energy-efficient servers and other gear.

Need more convincing that green tech isn’t just a boondoogle?

The big jackpot will go to those VARs and integrators that become involved in making green tech plans become reality. The implementation phases of these projects will take from 30 weeks to more than 100 weeks, according to Forrester. They can cost from $300,000 to $2 million — for the services alone.

By the way, here are some efforts that Forrester considers to crowd under the green IT umbrella:

• Green procurement policies
• E-waste recycling
• Data center optimization
• Supply chain optimization
• Building automation projects
• Collaboration and conferencing initiatives
• Managed print services

Heather Clancy is a high-tech journalists and strategic communications consultant with SWOT Management Group. She can be reached at hclancy@swotmg.com.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t report in this week from the Cisco Partner Summit, where I’m helping the company’s Industry Solutions Partner Network team with some breakout panels and communications activities.

The themes I’m about to recount were plucked from the main keynote address hosted by Worldwide Channel Muckety-Muck Keith Goodwin and featuring Goodwin’s ultimate boss, Cisco CEO and Chairman John Chambers. For those of you who aren’t/weren’t here, some highlights:

1. Partner to Partner Collaboration: This topic gets a big-time boost with the introduction of something called the Cisco Partner Exchange. Basically, this is a social network where approximately 8,500 Cisco Certified Partners, managed services providers, distributors and application partners can search for other partners that might be able to extend their reach on a particular project. Cisco is backing up this introduction with a channel survey it conducted with Illuminas Research that found collaborative projects between Cisco partners accounted for approximately 31 percent of revenue within the partner ecosystem. Another very compelling case for collaboration: 78 percent of the resellers who responded to the survey (about 500 in call) reported that collaboration helped them increase deal/project sizes. Partner Exchange is meant to support collaboration in cyberspace by letting partners create skills profiles that include not only info about their Cisco specializations but about other technologies they might support.

2. Data Centers: Cisco is upping the ante with both a new set of Nexus switches (developed by Nuova Systems) as well as incentives for VARs investing in a data center practice.

The Nexus 5000 Series are meant for consolidation projects. It supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet PLUS Fibre Channel over Ethernet Data Center Ethernet and virtualization. The new switches are supposed to start shipping in May starting at $36,000 for a fixed configuration, 40-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch. Cisco also evolved its Value Incentive Program and will start rewarding VARs that invest in a data center practice starting in August.

3. Software: This one is a bit of a surprise, given how other vendors are supporting and selling their software as a service (Saas) offerings. That is, by selling them direct. But, Keith Goodwin says Cisco is creating a referral program for its WebEx offerings that will not only reward partners for the initial deal but for recurring activity on the service. You can expect this program to emerge in the next two to three quarters. What’s more, WebEx will continue to morph to allow for more and more different types of connections (and collaborative settings) that are independent of device. Hmmm. Is Cisco becoming a software company?

John Chambers was his usual prophetic, evangelistic self, focusing on developments that are drivin where he is asking Cisco to place its bets. The company now has 22 priorities, which range from very broad initiatives such as mobility to very specific ideas, such as “routers in space.” Talk about an emerging market! Collaboration and Community are the two big themes underlying most of Chambers’ thinking. Focus on markets in transition, Chambers advises partners, if you want to increase revenues. “If you focus on your competition, you are already behind,” he said.

I buy most of this, certainly, but the one thing that niggles at me as I write this is the big push that Cisco is putting on collaboration through tools such as social networks, video conferencing, instant chats and so forth. It’s not that I don’t believe this is the way to go, it’s just that I think many people are overwhelmed about how to handle many of these services – many of which currently reside in different silos. I believe in the power of the individuals, but collaboration in chaos could actually result in a decrease in productivity. My two cents.

More later this week from (poor me) Hawaii.