SMB location(s), location(s), location(s)

Mark Wojtasiak

Mark Wojtasiak

November 20, 2009

Got this chart in my inbox today from Applied Computer Research.

Number of Business Locations Supported by IT
All Respondents in all Vertical Markets
Source: Inside IT Departments: Comparing Organization Size to IT Infrastructure and
Usage Traits, by Applied Computer Research, Inc.

Number of Business Locations Supported by IT (All Respondents in all Vertical Markets)

ACR-IT_Locations

If I’m reading this right, of the companies with 1-499 PCs, less than half (47.6%) have just one location supported by IT professionals. Does this propose a trend towards more and more SMBs have multiple locations?  Is this accounting for home offices as a location? What pains do SMB IT Professionals face supporting multiple locations?

Of course, does this mean that islands of data are growing, or are all of these SMBs taking advantage of centralized storage (NAS, SAAS, etc) and remote access capabilities thus allowing them to “branch” out.

I don’t have all the answers, but I am sure ACR will provide some additional insight.

What’s your take?

Source: Inside IT Departments: Comparing Organization Size to IT Infrastructure and Usage Traits, by Applied Computer Research, Inc.

By Mark Wojtasiak | Posted in Market Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

(Timelines) Storage catalysts: TV

Mark Wojtasiak

Mark Wojtasiak

November 19, 2009

Just for fun -

Timelines are cool – you can see how technology has evolved over the years in pictures. Check out Gizmodo’s  Sony’s Trinitron timeline… do you see where storage played a key role in their evolution?

Trinitron-Timeline2

By Mark Wojtasiak | Posted in Just for Fun, Timelines | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Backup – the next entitlement?

Mark Wojtasiak

Mark Wojtasiak

November 18, 2009

billofrightsRecently, in the US the House passed healthcare reform by a slim margin, and now it heads the Senate.

People on both sides of the debate are passionate about topic. When it comes to your personal health, how can you not be?

It made me think, what else are people passionate about, what is critical to your business’ survival?

Check out Pete Steege’s post on Fortune.com on why information is the new currency. It’s a great read.

It really made me think how valuable information is to us. Whether on a personal scale, it’s our music collection, photos, family videos; or on a business scale, our financial records, or customer data.  The amount of time and money invested in creating our collection. The level of privacy we need to protect.

Obviously, your information is probably not worth more to you than your health, but I wonder, if healthcare is viewed as a right by some, why wouldn’t something like backup? Aren’t we all entitled to protection from data loss? After all, backup is “insurance” for your information. What if you cannot afford “insurance”? What if you choose not to carry “insurance”? Is that your fault?

Okay – this is crazy talk and not on the same scale as healthcare, but I thought, why not apply some of the same thinking to what’s going on with the healthcare debate in Washington DC to something as critical to small business as data protection.

Unlike health insurance, there are endless options for small business data protection…the question is, who do you, or would you trust most with insuring your data?

By Mark Wojtasiak | Posted in Backup, Laws and Regulation | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Data never dies – how to protect yourself

Mark Wojtasiak

Mark Wojtasiak

November 16, 2009

tomorrow-never-diesThe data security topic has been a hot one for what seems like years.

Today, SMBs have to consider data security practices like backup and compliance as well as physical security to protect your business from stolen laptops or even worse –  “smash and grab” thieves that make off with your servers and storage.

In addition to drive theft, you need to consider security for decommissioned drives.  In most cases, drives that are decommissioned still hold valuable company data on them. Just because a drive is no longer in use doesn’t mean it’s no longer worth potentially millions.

Data can live on the platters of a drive for a very long time, and today’s data recovery services are capable of retrieving data from nearly any drive, no matter the condition it’s in.

There are resources available to physically destroy the drive, or 3rd party software that may claim to fully erase the drive, but both comes with added expense to your business.

One way to protect your drives’ data when it’s in your hands, or someone else’s is with Self-encrypting Drive (SED) technology, and what’s even better is that its automatic and completely invisible to the day to day operations of your business and is an available option for all enterprise SAS drives from drive makers like  Seagate.

What you need is a compatible controller that can harness the drive’s TCG compliant encryption intelligence.  LSI is the first to offer this on their SAS controllers, and they even have a very helpful whitepaper and video that explains more.

Check it out and protect yourself from data immortality.

By Mark Wojtasiak | Posted in Best Practices, Storage Solutions, System Builders | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Free hard drive shipping?

Mark Wojtasiak

Mark Wojtasiak

November 13, 2009

Just for fun -

1956:  IBM 5MB hard drive – warranty returns must have really sucked back then.

HDD-advancereplacement

Image by: http://yoga108.org/blog/posts/466-ibm-5-megabyte-hard-drive-from-1956

By Mark Wojtasiak | Posted in Just for Fun | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Marketing that works for small biz resellers

Mark Wojtasiak

Mark Wojtasiak

November 11, 2009

marketingAre you increasing your investments on marketing?

eMarketer.com says (according to Hurwitz & Associates)…

“Almost two-thirds of small businesses that expected increased revenues had raised or planned to raise marketing spending, compared with just 32% to 36% of businesses with flat or declining revenues.”

It’s no surprise small businesses are spending time and money to enhance their web presence while building revenue and finding new customers through activities like email, social networks, newsletters, and search.  Entrepreneur.com also provides some great marketing tips to selling small like leveraging local press and community organizations.

It’s all to familiar to me.  Prior to my current position with Seagate, I was the marketing guy for a small system builder/VAR.  With limited budget and resources, we had to rely heavily on our vendor partners for help.  Many vendors offer all kinds of tools and resources to help you market your business. Many of them are free – like email templates, banners, images, and logos. Some also let you leverage rich media they create like Flash or video on your website.

You may also want to develop a close working relationship with your vendors’ marketing people. Share plans, ideas, successes, and failures. How you go to market is crucial information to vendors that rely on the channel to grow their business.  If the vendor believes in VOC, many times your voice helps craft the tools they provide.

If your convinced you need to invest more time and money into marketing…what tools do you need?

By Mark Wojtasiak | Posted in Best Practices, Market Trends, Resellers & Vars | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Seagate & Microsoft – a match made in heaven?

Mark Wojtasiak

Mark Wojtasiak

November 10, 2009

heavensSeagate’s i365 and Microsoft announced a partnership to shake up data protection in the midmarket.

i365 eVault backup solutions
+ Microsoft Data Protection Manager
= Channel opportunity

i365 benefits from the marketing muscle and reach Microsoft has into the mid-market, and Microsoft benefits from a platform (eVault) that enables them extend Data Protection Manager to clients with mixed environments.

A match made in heaven?  …well at least in the cloud.

Since this is targeted at the midmarket, this posts a great opportunity for solution providers in the channel. Both i365 and Microsoft are hungry to “rattle a few cages” in the midmarket, and who predominantly serves the midmarket…the channel.  Knowing Microsoft, I expect the i365 and Microsoft collaboration will be packed with all kinds of benefits and incentives like training, marketing, lead generation, and pricing programs.

We also expect to see some Seagate powered storage appliances in the mix as well.

Looks like Seagate is bringing a lot more value to the channel than just hard drives.

By Mark Wojtasiak | Posted in Backup, Resellers & Vars | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Calling the right plays when solution selling

Mark Wojtasiak

Mark Wojtasiak

November 5, 2009

avnetCheck out what Avnet is providing resellers and solution providers who want to get into new markets but lack a game plan.

Avnet calls them SolutionsPath Playbooks, and it may be just what you are looking for to ride the latest technology waves. For storage they include playbooks on:

  • Application Optimization
  • Data Protection & Recovery
  • Storage Infrastructure Design & Management
  • Storage Utilization

They also feature playbooks for vertical markets like Healthcare, and technology apps like virtualization and security.

Valuable stuff for channel partners.

Are you tapping this resource?

By Mark Wojtasiak | Posted in Resellers & Vars, Storage Solutions, System Builders | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Partnerpedia – Facebook meets Salesforce for the channel

Mark Wojtasiak

Mark Wojtasiak

November 3, 2009

seagate_blogs_partnerpedia_logo
This is cool…if you haven’t, check out Partnerpedia.

Facebook meets Salesforce.com… a true lead generation and collaboration community where you can:

  • Create a company profile
  • Share and promote your content and programs
  • Find partners to work with on opportunities
  • Build your own partner network
  • Collaborate with partners to close deals
  • Track and manage leads

Looks like a great way to market your business and hook up with other solution providers on business opportunities, or even take that first step into a new solution offering.

Have you created a profile?  How is it working for you?

By Mark Wojtasiak | Posted in Resellers & Vars, System Builders | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Worlds largest hard drive

Mark Wojtasiak

Mark Wojtasiak

October 30, 2009

Just for fun.

What would you say… petabyte, exabyte?

http://www.thisweekontheinternet.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/new_hard_drive.jpg

Check it out.

By Mark Wojtasiak | Posted in Just for Fun | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (1)

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