In today’s economically optimistic, but still cautious small business environment, efficiency in information technologies is more important than ever.  And the best way to capitalize on that efficiency is to make sure your small business IT support doesn’t just detect problems in your network, it prevents them.  Here are the five technology initiatives to best ensure maximum productivity.

Virtualization vs physical server management is not particularly more complex and the benefits are well worth the effort.  Following are three simple ways to manage your virtual server environment.

A remote access terminal server which is now called a Remote Desktop Session Host is a great way to both reduce costs and increase revenues through better employee efficiency.  Following are five ways to increase profit in your small business using Remote Desktop Services.

Hyper-V from Microsoft and vSphere from VMWare are the two main virtualization platforms available.  Both are great products, but which is the best fit for virtualizing small businesses?  Below is a chart that attempts to capture the relevant characteristics for small businesses as they consider what to adopt.

Let's take an quick overview all about virtualization - the different types, benefits and how to get there today in your small business.  We have already written quite a few blog posts about it, but this one brings them all together.

I was on vacation recently visiting The Wizarding World of Harry Potter with my family.  Normally, I would not be thinking about the benefits of virtualization at such times, but circumstances dictated otherwise.  First, on the way to Florida, in my haste getting the luggage out of the vehicle at the airport, I forgot my iPad.  More on that later...

Is the IT services department replaced in a small business once we consolidate servers, storage or endpoints through virtualization?  This would be conflating two separate issues.  While server, storage and endpoint virtualization all reduce the number of physical devices needed to serve a small business and ease management of infrastructure, the question of whether to have an in house IT department is orthogonal.

The difference between NAS and SAN for small business owners may be described in 3 key areas below.

Deciding between SATA vs SAS is important when considering the right storage infrastructure for such key projects as server virtualization for small business.  SATA or Serial ATA stands for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment and is the next generation computer bus interface from the parallel interface ATA.  SAS, or Serial Attached SCSI, is a faster and historically more expensive interface.

4 core vs 6 core processors are not typically something that small business owners think about.  That said, as mentioned in Small Business Virtualization Example - How To Do It All On 1 Server, the way that server virtualization works is by using a more powerful processor and more memory to take on the jobs of several less powerful processors in distinct physical servers.  These beefier  servers also cost more.  This increased initial outlay, however, means that your small business will spend less in operating costs as discussed in Will Virtualization Cost More Than A Standard Network Installation?