You might not know it, but you (and I) have been working in the cloud for quite some time.  For instance, raise your hand if you were one of the masses hanging in chat rooms in AOL in the 90s.  (You can put your hand down now). You’ve probably been sending and receiving email longer than you can remember, too. We’ve all been working in the cloud to one extent or another, even before it was referred to as a cloud—as was discussed on a recent Science Friday program on NPR. And by the way, you’re still working (or playing) in the cloud—if you are on Facebook, or Yelp, or Spotify, or if you use Dropbox. What differentiates current cloud from early cloud is that what we can do today is much more sophisticated, and giving us more power to be productive.

Essentially, cloud is the central power station that extends productivity and enables greater interconnectivity. In fact, in today’s environment, we’re seeing SMB customers serving as the early adopters of public cloud applications and services and mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. In fact, there was a great blog recently on how to move to working in the cloud.

One of the more compelling aspects of cloud is how it actually helps even the playing field for businesses, rendering labels such as SMB or Enterprise irrelevant at times. Need evidence? The New York Times recently reported on Cycle Computing, a 20-person company that makes supercomputer software. By grouping a massive supercomputing cluster, with 50,000 processors, on Amazon Web Services (read: Cloud) to do drug compound simulations, it used its software as an operating system, and utilized resources from several Amazon data centers. Joining forces with two other small companies, they used up the equivalent of 12.5 processor years, but completed their mission in fewer than three hours. According to the article, the computing cost was less than $4,900 a hour. “This enables small companies and any researcher that has a grant to do science that they could never do before,” Jason Stowe, chief executive of Cycle Computing, said in an interview.

As our reliance on the cloud grows, our expectations for speed and ease of access accelerate. And when you add mobility to the equation, you find new ways to work and drive business results: to make it easier for employees to be productive, partners to collaborate, and for customers to become more engaged—the potential opportunity is unlimited.

If you’ve got a good story that shows how you’ve been able to advance your business through cloud, let us know—we’d love to hear it.

Small business switches with auto-deployment features remove the complexity of rolling out IP-based voice systems

If you’ve decided to upgrade your legacy phone system to a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) solution, you want to make sure that installation is as smooth and trouble-free as possible. A good place to start is with your network switch. As the traffic controller of your network, the switch connects different devices and allows them to communicate with each other. To make rolling out IP-based voice easier, you can choose a managed or smart switch with integrated automatic deployment features and built-in configuration tools.

Several of Cisco’s small business switches are designed to simplify VoIP deployments as well as make day-to-day network operations easier. The Cisco 200 Series Smart Switches, the Cisco Small Business 300 Series Managed Switches, and the new Cisco 500 Series Stackable Managed Switches include auto-deployment features that remove most of the complexity of installing voice equipment. Each of these small business switches include four integrated, easy-to-use configuration and management tools and integrated features: Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) and Link-Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP), Auto SmartPorts, Voice Services Discovery Protocol (VSDP), and Cisco Configuration Assistant (CCA) Used together, these tools can result in zero-touch deployments of voice equipment.

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Tags: networking, small_business, switches, Voice_over_IP

Learn how you can make employees more productive with their mobile devices

Smartphone usage—and the expectations around smartphones—are changing rapidly. Average smartphone usage nearly tripled in 2011, and by the end of 2012, the number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the number of people on earth. By 2016 there will be an estimated 1.4 mobile devices per person. Given the rise of smartphones, it’s not surprising that people rely on their mobile devices for more and more of their daily interactions, including business communications, whether at work, at home, and on the road. In a Cisco report, 46 percent of people surveyed expect to be able to access their corporate network from their personal mobile device.

However, there’s more than just flexibility accompanying the BYOD trend. These shifting expectations about connectivity also come with a host of decisions for small business. For example, do you have the network infrastructure in place to enable your employees to use their mobile devices for business communications? Do you have a wireless device usage policy? Are your VPN connections secure? And when your employees do connect to the workplace via a mobile device, do they have access to products and tools to help them do their jobs?

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Tags: business tools, byod, mobile device, productivity, small business, smartphone

The right service plan can maximize network uptime and minimize lost revenues

New products and technologies, increasing mobility among employees, the need for round-the-clock access to company data and resources—these are just some of the factors driving small businesses’s growing dependence on their networks. This makes network downtime costly for any small business. According to Infonetics Research, unplanned network downtime costs companies an average of 3.6 percent revenue per year. And that doesn’t include the incalculable cost of damage to your business’s reputation caused by the downtime.

To minimize network downtime and ensure your network is available for employees to connect, collaborate, and communicate with customers and partners as well as each other, you may want to consider a support contract. A service plan will not only help protect your company’s technology investment, but it can also help save lost revenue and customers. Read More »

Tags: minimizing network downtime, service plan, Small Business Support Service, small_business, SMARTnet, support contract

Look around at most tech news lately and you’ll find four consistent trends: Cloud, Mobility, Social Media, and Big Data. Talk to analysts and you find that those four actually break into pairs: Cloud and Mobility; Social Media and Big Data. And what becomes apparent is that each second half of the pairs is responsible for accelerating the combination of the two.

Essentially, mobility has sparked the cloud imperative and the cloud has given mobility greater value. One of the more compelling aspects of this is how cloud actually helps level the playing field for businesses, rendering labels such as SMB or Enterprise irrelevant at times.

Enter social media. Social media has evolved to become a necessary tool for SMBs. Yelp is now the de facto standard of rating businesses; Twitter has become an effective marketing tool to spread news quickly and Facebook lets businesses develop communities. So, while Cloud/mobility is interesting on its own, social media makes cloud/mobility imperative.

At the same time, cloud/mobility has an accelerant effect on social media. It’s what enables happy customers to recommend your place of business while on the go. Similarly, to take advantage of point-of-sale customer enthusiasm—and build on the momentum—the best way to do that is to offer wireless access so your customers can Tweet, Facebook, Yelp and employ any other number of social media to give props to your business.   

But it doesn’t end there. If all you do with all that great data is conclude that your business is popular, you’re missing a big learning opportunity. “Big Data,” which refers to the wealth of information that’s flowing out there, is yet another important way for you to identify the key differentiators that can help your business grow.  It’s no longer enough to simply say that your business has 3.5 stars on Yelp. You need to understand that customers that give your business 4 stars, speak glowingly of your dinner ambiance and wait staff while your 2-star customers complain about long lines and grumpy staff at lunch. It’s this color inside the lines that really helps you see the big picture—with its details.

According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, last year’s mobile data traffic was eight times the size of the entire global Internet in 2000. Mobility, Cloud, and Social Media are all fueling the data explosion. Remember: Each can push your business to new levels—by helping you operate faster and more cost efficiently with greater reach, while gaining a greater understanding of market segment. Plus, these key elements put greater power in the hands of employees to get their jobs done and in the hands of customers to deepen their relationship with your business. It’s up to you to harness that power.

Time to level that playing field.

New and updated Cisco voice products simplify communication, improve productivity

Communication: It’s critical to any small business. Your employees need to be able to communicate effectively and clearly with customers and partners as well as with each other. But with employees often away from their desks or working in dynamic office arrangements, communication has gotten more complicated and that can impact their productivity.

Cisco recently expanded and updated its IP voice and UC solutions with features and functionality that simplify small business voice communications and improve employee productivity. New products include SPA512G and SPA514G IP phones, SPA112 and SPA122 Analog Telephone Adapters, and Wireless-N Bridge for Phone Adapters as well as an updated version of the Cisco UC320W unified communications solution.

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The new Cisco RV180 and RV180W VPN Routers provide fast, secure access for local and remote employees

When it comes to fundamental networking components, few devices are as important as your router. The router connects your business to the rest of the world, linking your local network to the vast resources on the Internet. It allows everyone in your office to share a single connection to the Internet, and it may also help protect your business from online threats, as well as give employees remote access to your network. Before you can choose the best router for your small business, you need to know what you want it to do for your network. Now that the Internet has become crucial to most companies’ day-to-day business operations, you need to know how your company uses its Internet connection. Here are some questions to consider: Read More »

Tags: networking, routers, RV180, RV180W, small_business, vpn

A wireless network has become almost mandatory for every small business. A wireless network is relatively easy for non-technical people to install, and it’s convenient for users, who can use it to connect to the network and the Internet from anywhere in the building. But Wi-Fi does present a challenge that’s unique to the radio signals it uses to transmit data: interference. In this Mythbusters post, we’ll clear up the misconception that there’s no interference on the 5GHz channel.

A Wi-Fi network can use one of two frequency bands to send and receive radio waves: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. These frequencies are much higher than those used for other radios, like cell phones and walkie-talkies, so the Wi-Fi signal can carry considerably more data. All Wi-Fi networks use the wireless 802.11 networking standard; the difference is in which band you set your wireless router or access point to transmit on. 802.11b and 802.11g operate at the 2.4 GHz band, while 802.11a transmits at 5 GHz. Unlike the other variations of the standard, 802.11n can operate at both bands.

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Tags: dual-band wi-fi, selectable band, small_business, wireless_networking

An advanced switch with performance, security, and availability features is the heart of every high-availability network

Most of today’s advanced communications and business applications have been scaled for the small business. Smaller companies are using technologies like cloud computing, mobile computing, and IP voice to grow their business and connect more personally with customers. Unfortunately, these data-hungry applications can quickly slow down small business networks, which aren’t always built for such a demanding environment. To keep these applications—and your business—running continuously at top speed, your network must be built for high availability, performance, and security.

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Tags: 500 switches, high_availability, networking, small_business, switches

Extend the reach and speed of your wireless network

A small business makes big demands on its wireless network. It must be fast, so users never have to wait to connect to the local network or the Internet. The wireless network also needs to be able to run the demanding new communications applications that small businesses now rely on. It must even provide a blanket of reliable Wi-Fi coverage within the building premises so that users don’t have to be tied to their desks. And for a small business, high performance isn’t enough—because many smaller companies don’t have on-site IT staff, wireless access points (WAPs) must not only be easy to use and set up, but should also secure their network. The only way to meet these demands is with modern Wireless-N access points that are designed for the small business.

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Tags: AP, networking, selectable –band, small_business, WAP, wireless –N access_points, wireless-N, wireless_networks

Calling all small sized businesses owners, and resellers – is your network ready for the growing mobility and cloud trends?

Considering that the number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the world’s population in 2012,[i] and that wireless device traffic will exceed wired device traffic by 2014, we say it’s a great time to make sure you are.  In fact, mobile data traffic has doubled in the past four years and tablets are making their way into the office with more than 3.4X the traffic than a smart phone. Businesses are recognizing these upward trends, as a matter of fact; cloud adoption for small businesses is growing quickly with 72-percent of small businesses using the cloud in 2011 to 98 percent in 2015[ii].  So are your networks built to support the growing use of mobility and cloud in the SMB workplace? Cisco’s new lineup of small business solutions could be just the ticket to get you there.

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Tags: RV180W, small business, WAP121, WAP321, wireless

Oscar Wilde wrote, “One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age.” I’m good with that. So, let’s just say I’m not 20-something. But I do share that generation’s expectation to be able to work from anywhere with whatever device I’m using.  Just because I’m mobile, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have access to people or information. So, that’s me as an employee. But what about as a consumer? If I can’t easily make a reservation, order a product, get directions, or call with a click of my iPhone, my interest quickly plummets. And when something rocks my world, I usually share that in my social media circles.

I’d say that’s standard operating procedure for most people I know, regardless of age. For businesses to stay relevant in today’s wired-cum-wireless world, the network has to be able to handle secure, remote access, and provide a satisfying customer experience for those who operate on the fly. And that’s where the intersection of mobile, cloud, and social media come into play. You can learn more about this at the 2012 Small Business Tour, which kicks off in Seattle on April 12. Cisco and its partner will discuss how you can take advantage of mobility, cloud, and social media to take your business to the next level. 

While I might not represent the target demographic for all small- to medium-sized businesses, the point is this: As technology and wireless becomes more and more ubiquitous, expectations are growing by leaps and bounds—for employees and for customers. Are you ready?

The WPA data encryption protocol you choose depends on your wireless network’s needs

It’s critically important to secure your wireless networks, but security can be complex, particularly when it comes to configuring each network component appropriately. A smart place to start is with the wireless router, which connects your local area network (LAN) to the Internet. Routers allow you to encrypt data as it travels in and out of your network, making it much more difficult to be read or altered by hackers trying to steal confidential information. Most small business routers let you choose which data encryption protocol you want to use, but in order to make the best choice for your network, you need to understand the differences between encryption protocols.

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Tags: data_encryption, networking, security, small_business

Daily, we read about and experience the increasing importance of mobility and cloud offerings in the SMB market—and inherent in these trends is the capacity to configure appropriate switches. Tablets, smartphones and laptops are prevalent in the workplace and as SMBs often forgo funding an IT department, it is crucial that their hardware and solutions scale as business transforms.

That said, a recent testing report conducted by Miercom details how Cisco SMB Ethernet switches outperform those of HP and D-Link across the board. From overall performance and price to security, ease of use, and energy efficiency, Cisco’s switches are raising the bar. Highlights from the report include:

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Tags: ethernet switches, Miercom, small business switches

Cloud computing gives you a new way to access many different types of software, no matter how small your company

It seems that everyone’s talking about how cloud computing is the answer to all your technology problems—and, depending on your problems, it may be. But before you can use the cloud, you need to understand what it is.

Cloud computing is not a product that you purchase; cloud computing is a deployment model. It is a new way to access and use software for your small company; it is also a new way for vendors to sell their products. How you use cloud computing is up to you.

Simply put, cloud computing allows you to use a vendor’s software over the Internet. Though the software is hosted on the provider’s server, it functions on users’ computers in the same way as installed software—your employees simply connect to it online. You do not purchase and install the application on your server or your desktops; depending on the cloud-based software (also referred to as Software-as-a-Service or SaaS), you might install a specialized client that people use to connect to the service or users might simply connect through their Web browser.

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Tags: http://blogs.cisco.com/smallbusiness/is_cloud_computing_right_for_your_small_business/