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Do Small Businesses Have Their Heads in the Cloud?

Topics

General Management

Information Technology

Cloud Computing

This event took place on July 14, 2011

Highlights

Cloud computing introduces new challenges and rewards for small businesses, which are different than those faced by enterprises. In this roundtable, we defined small businesses as companies with 50 employees or less. These top Experts discussed scenarios unique to the small business and advise how those scenarios influence decision making.

Topics included:

What factors should small businesses consider when making decisions about cloud computing?
Small businesses may be tempted to use free cloud services. What criteria should be used when evaluating cloud providers offering free versus for-fee services?
How does "problem solved"-type thinking influence small business cloud decisions?
What trends should small businesses consider as cloud computing services evolve?

Speakers

Founder, Principal Analy...

Grey Consulting

details

Krishnan Subramanian

Industry Analyst

details

President

Hurwitz & Associates

details

Senior Product Marketing...

ServiceNow

details

Participants

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@shipraalam tweeted

I'm attending @Focus Roundtable: Do Small Businesses Have Their Heads in the #Cloud? on 7/14 at 11am PT http://t.co/U1av24C #FocusRT714

@BrianMcCallion tweeted

RT @briellenikaido we tend to hold cloud providers to a higher level of accountability than the people that staff our own data centers @mgrey #focusrt714

@BrianMcCallion tweeted

RT @briellenikaido #Focusrt714 question Is the business risk of depending on a thin internal IT staff greater or less than Cloud provider? http://bit.ly/qO7oQW

Brielle Nikaido asked a question

What are some of the specific companies or offerings SMB decision makers should definitely look at?

What are some of the specific companies or offerings SMB decision makers should definitely look at – or definitely avoid – as they try to navigate the hype and buzz surrounding cloud computing right now?

July 14, 2011

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Brielle Nikaido asked a question

What cloud business offerings do you view as being most valuable to most SMB decision makers?

Given that cloud computing encompasses many different things, what business-focused offerings & companies do you view as being most immediately valuable to most of the SMB decision makers?

July 14, 2011

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Brielle Nikaido asked a question

What are the top 3 things SMB decision makers should think about or re-think when considering cloud?

July 14, 2011

1 Answer · Answer this Question

Brielle Nikaido asked a question

What's the one thing most decision makers at small businesses misunderstand about cloud computing?

What's the one thing that you think most decision makers at small businesses misunderstand about cloud computing most consistently?

July 14, 2011

2 Answers · Answer this Question

@rswurth tweeted

RT @briellenikaido "Collaboration is in the DNA of the cloud.' <critical when thinking about what work loads to move to cloud @krishnan #focusrt714

@itgEvangelist tweeted

RT @briellenikaido "@jhurwitz says cloud computing is the way will we all be computing in the future #focusrt714

@briellenikaido tweeted

don't think about cloud computing as a panacea, but as a force-multiplier @DortchOnIT #focusrt714

@briellenikaido tweeted

"@jhurwitz says cloud computing is the way will we all be computing in the future #focusrt714

Brian McCallion asked a question

What are the Cloud services SMBs are most interested in?

CRM seems to be pretty successful in the SMB space. What new business capabilities are SMB business leaders interested in that may be viable for an SMB via a Cloud service provider that might not have been viable prior to the popularization of Cloud Computing?

July 14, 2011

1 Answer · Answer this Question

@briellenikaido tweeted

#Focusrt714 question Is the business risk of depending on a thin internal IT staff greater or less than Cloud provider? http://bit.ly/qO7oQW

Brian McCallion asked a question

Is the business risk of depending on a thin internal IT staff greater or less than Cloud provider?

It certainly depends on which Cloud service provider one chooses. But what is the internal risk, so as to make the comparison between internal and external services. If a fifty person SMB has two internal IT people, what happens if one of these people becomes ill, finds a better job, or otherwise leaves the firm? Are we painting the internal infrastructure as more controlled and rational that it actually is? When analyzing the price of Cloud services are all the risks being fairly apportioned given the expectations?

July 14, 2011

2 Answers · Answer this Question

@tquila_ruskin tweeted

RT @briellenikaido we tend to hold cloud providers to a higher level of accountability than the people that staff our own data centers @mgrey #focusrt714

@briellenikaido tweeted

#Focusrt714 question: What is the approximate per user cost of an email system for an SMB? http://bit.ly/nc4jog @BrianMcCallion

Brian McCallion asked a question

What is the approximate per user cost of an email system for an SMB?

When discussing Cloud Computing with SMBs I'd like to be able to understand what their internal costs are. Does the panel have a sense of what the internal costs of running a 50 per email would be? Does anyone have uptime stats for shops running very small email systems?

July 14, 2011

1 Answer · Answer this Question

Timothy Simmons added a comment

When considering Cloud companies, please, please, please ensure that they have muitiple locations in different regions with a stable, provable, documented backup and recovery time. This must be included in any service level agreement that you sign. Also, ask questions about their disaster recovery program and the testing thereof. Remember, you are trusting them with your business life-source and need to be covered or at least know this before you sign the contract.

July 14, 2011

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@briellenikaido tweeted

we tend to hold cloud providers to a higher level of accountability than the people that staff our own data centers @mgrey #focusrt714

@briellenikaido tweeted

“What are the risks of the "Status Quo" to SMB?” <your competitors are not standing still. can jump on new opps faster @jhurwitz #focusrt714

@briellenikaido tweeted

"@itgEvangelist Must have 5 things: On-demand self-svc, Broad net access, Resource pooling, Rapid elasticity, Measured Svc #focusrt714

Brian McCallion asked a question

What are the risks of the "Status Quo" to SMB?

I consider the service level agreement discussion a good question and certainly an item to cross off the checklist. Yet I feel that in the SMB space the internal infrastructure is so poor, that for SMB the focus should really be on the competitive advantage of Cloud technology, and I consider the real risk to SMB remains the status quo.

July 14, 2011

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@brendonswisher tweeted

RT @briellenikaido Most important part is doing your due-diligence. Are you going to be able to get the support you need? #focusrt714

@briellenikaido tweeted

Most important part is doing your due-diligence. Are you going to be able to get the support you need? What are consequences? #focusrt714

@briellenikaido tweeted

#FocusRT714 question: When considering Cloud service providers, should one consider using multiple providers (why)? http://bit.ly/oT1fwO

@robertkeahey tweeted

#FocusRT714 free is never really free!

Timothy Simmons asked a question

When considering Cloud service providers, should one consider using multiple providers (why)?

July 14, 2011

Be the first to answer

@briellenikaido tweeted

Should we use free cloud services? When do we decide when to use for-fee cloud services? Look at sensitivity of the data @mgrey #FocusRT714

@briellenikaido tweeted

SMBs should think about: Do they charge you extra for taking your data out of their system? What are data retention policies? #FocusRT714

@briellenikaido tweeted

Data ownership - your data belongs to you. SMBs want a cloud provider that doesn't take the ownership away from them. @krishnan #focusrt714

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