Irish Small Business Tech Trends

IN A SURVEY of Irish IT infrastructure, Business Plus magazine finds "technologies that used to be out of the range of SMEs are now coming within their orbit." [1] After asking a wide range of solutions providers what they're recommending to improve their clients' business functions [2], no Irish business consultant interviewed recommended a blogging platform (unless you count Sharepoint), the establishment of a presence on a social network (i.e., Twitter, LinkedIn, IGOpeople), and obvious Irish cloud computing solutions (i.e., OnlineMeetingRooms, PutPlace) also go unnoticed. Those interviewed normally flog their expertise and their paid services. When viewed year-on-year, these kinds of stories show readers where the engine of Irish enterprise (the SME sector) is placed. Here is a cursory listing of "technology trends SMEs should be aware of:"

-- Unified Communications (Sharepoint)
-- Software as a Service plus hosted Exchange (cited as the way to sync mobile devices), Sharepoint and online backup.
-- Digital Media Solutions (as in conference rooms).
-- Virtualisation (but Cisco gets no mention).
-- Cloud computing.
-- SQL Server 2008.
-- Microsoft Hyper V.
-- BizSpark.
-- Small Business Server 2008 to sync with Blackberries and PDAs. "iPhones are coming on stream now as well."
-- Office Communications Server.
-- Windows Vista.
-- Pay-as-you-go online conferences.
-- CRM, even if is only MS-Outlook.
-- Data Management, especially Backups.
-- Anti-virus and e-mail anti-spam.

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1. Brian Skelly -- "Tech Trends 2009" in the BP Survey, Business Plus, January 2009.
2. Chris Sparks -- "Expert Counsel" in the Business Plus survey, January 2009.

Bonus Link: VirtualBox OpenSource virtualisation.

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