Business Technology Roundtable

Thousands of small businesses in the United States have already embraced managed services. Now, thousands of additional businesses across the globe are climbing aboard the managed services bandwagon. Consider the following data points: Asia Pacific organizations will spend more than $10.25 billion on hosted and managed services by 2010, up from $6.47 billion in 2007, according to Frost & Sullivan. Australia's managed security market will grow roughly 20 percent annually through 2013, the same research firm predicts. Small and mid-size enterprises will drive nearly half of Europe's managed services revenues -- jointly spending nearly 11 billion euros in 2008, estimates Forrester Research. Small business managed services spending will reach $5.4 billion in 2008, according to Techaisle. The data covers the US, United Kingdom, Australia, China, Brazil and India. In the US alone, small business managed services spending will hit $1.5 billion this year, Techaisle predicts. Ques...

My brother is chief operating officer for a real estate company in Manhattan. He's running a small business facing some very familiar challenges: Rising energy prices, unpredictable operating costs, and tenants who are facing rising unemployment. In addition to those first-hand business challenges, people like him worry about Wall Street's financial mess spilling over into Main Street USA. The flood of bad financial news from AIG, Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch will force small business owners to rethink their financial bets in the months ahead. Some entrepreneurs may wind up cutting their IT budgets in order to conserve cash. Fact is, they don't want surprise bills for emergency server repairs or break-fix services. A Smarter Strategy Instead of saying no to new technology investments, my brother is pursuing a far wiser IT strategy. He's reaching out to so-called managed service providers (MSPs). Generally speaking, MSPs charge...