Drew Robb

The Storage World Conference (SWC) took place last month in Long Beach, Calif., and there were plenty of new tools on display that will appeal to the SMB market. For example, EMC Corp’s collaboration software — eRoom SMB Edition — is designed to provide secure, Web-based workspaces to help teams share information, manage projects and […]

With the size of modern hard drives now exceeding 40 GB, it’s no surprise that many people carry their business files and customer databases around on their laptops. While this may be incredibly convenient, there is a major downside. All it takes is one hard drive crash and all your data is history. And unless […]

A longstanding complaint from many small and midsize businesses is that they receive scant attention from server vendors. Traditionally, their needs are an afterthought, and products “tailored” to their requirements in reality are often “lite” versions of the enterprise-class models. “It’s a mistake to think SMBs are different — they are just smaller,” says Steve […]

Imagine all the storage you could ever use in a device the size of a small Zippo lighter or a box of Tic Tacs. The good news is that it’s not your imagination; it’s the WD Passport Pocket Drive. Made by Western Digital Corp, the Pocket Drive accommodates up to 6GB and costs a mere […]

Storage technology can be a daunting and complex subject, especially for very small businesses with the basic need to safely store and backup files. Hard drives and backup gear can be expensive. Storage Area Networks (SANs) can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Simple storage servers can cost a few thousand. And backup […]

Red tape can cause a lot of red ink, both for the government demanding compliance with an ever-growing list of regulations and for the companies trying to follow the rules. When it becomes too burdensome, some people conduct their business under the table. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service, for example, calculates that it loses more […]

America’s love affair with wireless connectivity continues to grow with no end in sight. The FCC reports that U.S. cell phone usage now exceeds landline usage, with close to 200 million American cell phone lines in operation. Notebooks outnumber desktops these days and most laptops come with wireless as a standard feature. As a result, […]

In part one of our series on storage strategies, we looked at the various types of storage available and the solutions used by two small businesses with very different needs. In part two, we look at how storage vendors have courted small businesses with products originally designed for bigger companies. In some cases the products […]

Over the past year or so, vendors have issued a steady stream of press releases announcing their dedication to the small business market. HP, EMC , Network Appliance (NetApp), Computer Associates (CA) and many others have released SMB (small and mid-sized business) or SME (small and mid-sized enterprise) versions of existing storage products, or products […]

Business continuity is relatively easy for large enterprises. They have the IT staff and the deep pockets to be able to spend millions of dollars implementing redundant data centers, instantaneous mirroring of all information and a host of other disaster recovery (DR) technologies. On September 11th, for example, several financial services firms situated in and […]

Over the last few years, a growing number of hosted data backup services have emerged. The idea is simple. Rather than small businesses wrestling with backup software and backup tapes, they upload their data over the Internet to an online backup service. While such services can be a godsend, there are certain questions you should […]

You’re business doesn’t have to be big in order to make a big impression. Armed with desktop publishing software, a digital camera and a color laser printer, even one person working from a home office can create professional looking promotional pieces. And many companies are making that choice. According to analyst firm Gartner, Inc. of […]