15 Oct 2014 Technology Strategies for Small Business
Chris Coleman Area9 Director Technology 30+ years working in IT 15+ years in 2 of my own small businesses Area9 7 years old with ~50 staff Professional approach to IT Services for SMB High level of vendor accreditation & staff technical certification Strong investment in the NT, including a highperformance & high-availability Datacentre Philosophy of A great company to work for and a great company to do business with Introduction
A quick review of Traditional IT What s changed? Things to think about What s available now? Some strategies Summary
PCs that are standalone or in a Windows Workgroup network Software licensed per-pc File sharing? No patch or virus management (configured per-pc) No backups or simple backups Hosted Email from Google, Hotmail etc (Cloud email!) Email addressed using hosted email domain. Eg fred.flintstone@gmail.com Internet access via simple ADSL router Phones with PSTN lines & a simple key system (PABX) IT support from a Managed Service Provider such as Area9 Traditional IT A few staff
PCs networked with Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) Software licensed per-pc or through license agreements such as Microsoft Open Value Possibly additional servers, such as a Terminal Server for remote access to applications & data Possibly virtualised, running on one or more physical servers in the office Automated deployment of Microsoft patches/updates & anti-virus updates Backups to tapes or USB disks etc SBS provides email Email addressed using business email domain. Eg fred.flintstone@slate.com.au Internet access via an ADSL router Phones with ISDN lines and a key system IT support from a Managed Service Provider such as Area9 Traditional IT 5 to 30 staff
PCs networked with separate servers for authentication/security, email, databases, business applications, terminal servers etc Software licensed per-pc or through license agreements such as Microsoft Open Value Probably virtualised, running on one or more physical servers in the office or in a hosting environment such as Area9 s Datacentre Automated deployment of Microsoft patches/updates & anti-virus updates & possibly other vendors patches/updates Backups to tapes or USB disks etc Dedicated email servers. Email addressed using business email domain. Eg fred.flintstone@slate.com.au Internet access via a proxy server, a firewall and an ADSL/EoC/etc router Phones with ISDN lines and a key system or PBX IT support from own IT staff and/or a Managed Service Provider such as Area9 Traditional IT 20+ staff
Availability of Cloud Computing & Services Vendors moving from traditional licensing to subscription licensing Tablet & mobile device usage increasing PC-based applications being replaced by Web-based applications. Eg Xero Tablet Apps. Eg ServiceM8 Mobility more people working from home & outside the traditional office Internet speeds up & prices down NBN, Amcom etc Data Security threats increasing CryptoLocker, icloud hacked, etc What s changed?
What s important to your business? Cost Cost Reliability Availability Capital Recurs every 3-5 years + Upgrades inbetween Infrastructure Operating Power, space, license renewal, maintenance, services Read the contract Impact on your business if system is unreliable. Reputation, customer service, financial Where can you access your data/systems from? Impact on your business if not available or have trouble fixing a problem Things to think about
What s important to your business? Security Security Security Performance Impact on your business if your data is deleted or destroyed Fire/Floor/Theft Virus/Malware Malicious Employee How long do you have to keep your data? Where does your data have to be stored? Legal Actions Recovery Impact on your business if your data becomes public icloud hackers Legal Action Impact on your business if the systems are slow Long wait Complaint Financial Customer Service Things to think about
71% APJ companies experienced electronic data loss or system downtime in previous year 81% IT decision makers are not very confident they could fully recover after a disaster Top 3 causes of data loss & system downtime: 44% Loss of Power - 49% Data Corruption - 60% Hardware Failure The top 3 ways it hurts business 36% Loss of employee productivity (~ 2 days downtime) - 40% Loss of revenue - 39% Delays in product/service development Data growth over the next decade 50x Data Volume 75x Number of files EMC APJ Disaster Recovery Survey 2012
Waiting for trouble 52% Review backup & recovery plans after a disaster 52% Increased spending on backup & recovery after a disaster 47% Increased spending on digital security after a disaster Spending decisions for backup & recovery 10% of IT budget goes to backup & recovery 31% Don t think they are spending enough 9% Aren t aware how much they spend 55% Businesses are obligated by insurance policy or regulations to adopt recovery plan 39% Businesses qualify for reduced insurance premiums based on backup and disaster recovery strategy EMC APJ Disaster Recovery Survey 2012
Cloud - your systems or data in a Datacentre owned by someone else, managed and maintained by them Eliminates a lot of CapEx Opex is scalable based on monthly usage or allocation Performance is dependent on network (Internet) links, as well as the Datacentre infrastructure and its location (distance matters) Understand what metrics such as availability mean to your business 99.9% availability = 43 minutes downtime per month! 99.999% availability = 26 seconds downtime per month Beware of hidden / unexpected charges! Cloud
Owning what you can (<10 Staff) Onsite infrastructure PCs NAS or Windows Essentials Server for file storage USB Hard drives for backup UPS for clean power to NAS or Server Traditional (perpetual) licensing for software Cloud Services Email via Office365, Area9 Hosted Email etc Business apps such as Xero, ServiceM8 etc. Optional - Offsite data replication / backup for disaster recovery Area9 Replication / Backup Service High CapEx, Low OpEx Technology Strategy #1A
Owning what you can (10+ Staff) Onsite infrastructure PCs Virtualised servers on one or more physical servers NAS or tapes for backup UPS for clean power to physical servers, NAS etc Traditional (perpetual) licensing for software Cloud Services Email via Office365, Area9 Hosted Email etc Business apps such as Xero, ServiceM8 etc. Optional - Offsite data replication / backup for disaster recovery Area9 Replication / Backup Service High CapEx, Low OpEx Technology Strategy #1B
Owning as little as you can (<10 Staff) Onsite infrastructure PCs or Thin Clients connected to an Internet router (ADSL etc) Cloud Services Applications & data accessed from Terminal Server sessions on hosted servers Microsoft Azure, Area9 SMB Hosting, Area9 IT as a Service, Area9 Infrastructure as a Service Hosted backup part of Area9 s services above Business apps such as Xero, ServiceM8 etc. Email via Office365, Area9 Hosted Email etc Low CapEx, Scalable OpEx Technology Strategy #2A
Owning as little as you can (10+ Staff) Onsite infrastructure PCs or Thin Clients connected to an Internet router (ADSL, EoC, FibreOptic etc) Cloud Services Applications & data accessed from Terminal Server sessions on hosted servers Microsoft Azure, Area9 SMB Hosting, Area9 IT as a Service, Area9 Infrastructure as a Service Hosted backup part of Area9 s services above Business apps such as Xero, ServiceM8 etc. Email via Office365, Area9 Hosted Email etc Low CapEx, Scalable OpEx Technology Strategy #2B
Public Cloud Onsite infrastructure PCs connected to an Internet router (ADSL, EoC, FibreOptic etc) Cloud Services Applications & data accessed from Public Cloud Services Office365, OneDrive etc Business apps such as Xero, ServiceM8 etc. Email via Office365, Area9 Hosted Email etc Must have a reliable high speed Internet connection! Low CapEx, Scalable OpEx Technology Strategy #3
Focus on your business Engage Area9 to: Design an IT Solution that meets your business needs, using their knowledge of what s current and what s changing in IT Procure & implement IT hardware, software & services cost effectively Manage your IT Systems proactively, whether onpremise, in Area9 s Cloud Datacentre or elsewhere in the Cloud. Technology Strategy #5
www.area9.com.au I 8984 2500 sales@area9.com.au Questions?