The Top 5 IT trends businesses need to know.(Biz Ledger)(Company rankings)

Byline: Kevin Doyle

The economy's dark side has completely redefined business today particularly small business IT where working smart is synonymous with survival. With that, gone are the days of relying on quick fix solutions and sheer grit. Companies boasting healthy bottom lines now are taking a completely different IT approach.

After delaying for many months, companies are investing in technology once again with significant business results. After all, the average technology decision affects many other parts of the company. Smart IT can mean more sales, better customer service and greater productivity. These companies are keeping things simple, employing a team approach, equipping their people with on-the-go tech tools and reaping the advantages of cloud computing and virtualization.

And you can too.

Here are the top 5 IT trends small businesses need to know about:

1) Simplicity is King. Keep things simple. Many companies patch their business together through different applications. Consequence? Employees are forced to learn multiple systems and key data into each of them. Worst of all, applications don't "talk" to each other. This undermines access to vital data that could help your management staff make better decisions. Consolidating technology keeps it simple, minimizes costs and makes for happier employees. Pick one or two applications that can run your entire business and go for it.

When it comes to purchasing hardware, software, apps or services, talk to references and make people bullet- proof their product or service. It's normal to feel like you have to fix technology problems immediately. Short-term fixes, however, always cost more. Look at the big picture and anticipate growth for at least the next five years.

2) Understand the Cloud. Everyone is talking about cloud computing, a term synonymous with the Internet. Public clouds afford access to multiple people while private clouds are exclusive to a company's proprietary data centers. Moving your services from your office to a subscription cloud-based service turns capital purchases into operating expenses. Cash is king in the new economy, and cloud computing responds by charging companies for only what they use on a monthly basis.

So, should you move your entire business to the cloud? Consider your phone system, backups, SPAM-filtering, website hosting and web-based applications. Yes, everything will eventually move to the cloud. As ultra-high speed bandwidth and fiber become more available, circuit fees associated to connecting your systems to a public or private cloud will decrease and significantly increase the speed at which cloud computing grows. This concept has already started and Google is leading the charge in Kansas City. Although just a beta test for now, the company is providing a gigabit fiber network 100 times faster than the speed of a T1 line (1.544 MPS) u without added cost. In the same way that the transition from dial-up to broadband made possible the emergence of online video and countless other applications, ultra high-speed bandwidth will drive more innovation u in high-definition

video, remote data storage, real-time multimedia collaboration, and others that we cannot yet imagine.

3) Think Mobile. With 306,554 iPhone apps and counting, the world is going mobile and you should too. In fact, more people are using mobile device apps over their mobile device browsers.

Mobile computing offers tremendous productivity allowing employees to access files, respond to emails and work more efficiently from anywhere Internet access is available. Question: Could you run your company without anyone in the office? During the blizzard in February, we tapped the power of our hosted VOIP phone system; our cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software; and the company's secure Virtual Private Network (VPN). So, while many workers sat in their cars on the highway, we ran our company seamlessly from the comfort of our homes. Without a single person in the office, our business ran like we were all there. Think mobile when you are considering purchasing a new software application, email platform, or

phone system. You will be amazed at what is available in the marketplace today.

4) Team Approach Saves Money. Typically, technology responsibilities fall on one outside expert working solo or someone inside a company. The latter is that one lucky person typically the controller, office manager or even owner charged with knowing everything from workstation management to slaying viruses to dealing with chaos when the computers go down. The problem is that one person cannot be an expert on every IT issue.

For a fraction of a full-time employee's salary, hiring a team of IT experts gives you 24/7/365 network monitoring, an on-site help desk, after-hours support, an annual network assessment, and definitive answers on your hardware/software needs. This proactive approach reduces system downtime, allows you to focus on your core business, and helps you plan and budget for your IT needs year over year.

5) Virtualization. In the recent past a company's server could handle a maximum of 4GB of RAM. Once the server hit this threshold the company would need to purchase another server to offload applications that needed additional resources. As you can imagine this started to get quite expensive. Today, many small businesses are upgrading their IT infrastructure and using virtualization as a means to consolidate the number of physical servers needed to support their network environment. Virtualization is a method of running multiple independent virtual operating systems on a single physical computer. It is a way of maximizing physical resources to maximize the investment in hardware. For mission critical applications virtual servers can be replicated on two physical servers to eliminate any potential downtime. The two servers are constantly in sync with one another and can failover from one to the other in the event of a disaster. For these reasons, virtualization should always be something to consider as a part of every IT upgrade in the future.

*Kevin Doyle is president of 3Points Technology in Countryside.