Why Small Businesses Need to Spring for Business-Class Internet Access

Google is being accused of violating the FCCs Open Internet Order as a result of its policy toward servers. Essentially, if you run a server from a Google Fiber Internet connection, you’re technically violating the terms of service, and you could find your Internet access shut down. Google stands by that policy, but the reality is that this is only one of many reasons that small businesses should not run a server from a consumer-grade Internet connection.

The issue with Google Fiber stems from a clause in the terms of service that reads, “Unless you have a written agreement with Google Fiber permitting you to do so, you should not host any type of server using your Google Fiber connection.”

Google has been a proponent of net neutrality, but some were quick to note that Google seems to have changed teams now that it’s also in the Internet provider business. Google’s response to the FCC includes this explanation: “The server policy has been established to account for the congestion management and network security needs of Google Fiber’s network architecture, particularly given that Google Fiber does not impose data caps on its users.”

Bottom line: Google believes it has a right to ban someone from hosting a server on it’s Google Fiber network because of the potential impact it could have on the bandwidth for all of the rest of the customers. That seems reasonable.

You don’t really want to host your business server on a consumer Internet service anyway. Granted, Google Fiber delivers a 1Gbps connection for a very low cost compared to any other consumer or business service. However, Google Fiber is only available in a few select cities, and there are other reasons to choose a business-class Internet provider.

First, Google states explicitly that it doesn’t impose a bandwidth cap, but many consumer Internet services do. Comcast used to have a 250GB per month cap, but switched to a tiered-pricing plan last year for heavy users. The cap is now 300GB, after which Comcast charges $10 extra per month for each additional 50GB.

Another benefit of business-class Internet service is that you generally have a dedicated, static IP address, which makes it much easier to host and manage a server. Consumer Internet services use DHCP to randomly assign IP addresses, so your website or FTP server might be on one address today, and a different one tomorrow.

Most consumer Internet services block various TCP ports—for example port 25. It’s blocked as a measure to guard against or limit spam, based on the assumption that no consumer customer is hosting an email server (because it would violate the TOS). You want to have full access to all of the ports for your Internet access—including TCP port 25, so business-class Internet is the way to go.

Tech support is also different. Calling the consumer tech support line when you’re having an issue is typically an exercise in futility and frustration. If your business depends on the Internet connection, it can be that much more stressful. The technical support for a business-class account is generally more knowledgeable and more expedient, so you can minimize down time and keep your business online.

The operative word in the term “small and medium business” is “business”. In other words, regardless of whether your company has one employee, one hundred, or one thousand, it’s still a business, and it still needs to act like one. That is particularly true when it comes to choosing an Internet provider. 

It’s Time for Small Businesses to Move to Windows Server 2012 Essentials

Last week, Dell stated that it has discontinued selling Windows Small Business Server. Microsoft is no longer making the popular small business platform, but thankfully Microsoft didn’t just pull the plug and leave small business customers with nothing to fill the void.

Windows Small Business Server (SBS) may be coming to an end, but it’s not really dead—just rebranded. Microsoft officially moved it into the Windows Server family, and changed the name to Windows Server 2012 Essentials. It’s basically the entry-level offering for Windows Server 2012.

For Loyal fans of SBS, though, moving to Windows Server 2012 Essentials is more than just a name change. Customers often balk at change of any kind, but in this case some are upset that major features and capabilities their businesses depend on are lost through the transition to Windows Server 2012 Essentials.
Windows SBS was a great platform because it contained all of the elements a business might need in one box—the server operating system and management tools, along with Exchange Server and SharePoint Server. The problem with SBS, though, is that it maxed out at 25 licenses, and was a dead-end that didn’t provide an easy path for companies once their needs grew larger than what SBS could handle.

The biggest complaint about Windows Server 2012 Essentials is the lack of Exchange and SharePoint. They’re not integrated with Windows Server 2012 Essentials itself, but Microsoft enables customers to run applications on premise on a separate server (physical or virtual), or connect with the services online using Office 365 or a hosted version.

Windows Server 2012 Essentials running on the right hardware can provide small business customers with everything they need to continue managing an entire IT infrastructure in one box. It may not be as simple to set up, but Windows Server 2012 Essentials offers greater flexibility for small business customers to choose on premise or cloud-based solutions, migrate from one to the other, or rely on a hybrid of both. The management is still done through Windows Server 2012 Essentials, though, so administration is still simple and doesn’t require an entire IT department.

The move to Windows Server 2012 Essentials recognizes that small business customers often turn into medium business customers, and some even eventually become large enterprise customers. Windows Server 2012 Essentials lays the foundation, and gives customers the freedom to grow smoothly from 10 users to 10,000 and beyond. 

Surface RT can help small businesses reduce IT costs

Microsoft caved to market pressure and sagging demand this week by slashing the price of the Surface RT tablet by 30 percent. The Surface RT is better-equipped for business than rival tablets, and at $350 ( $470 once you add a Touch or Type keyboard cover, which it requires to be truly functional) it straddles the line between tablet and PC, and could help business customers rein in IT costs.
The Surface RT isn’t for everyone. It can’t run traditional Windows software, so businesses or users that depend on specific applications or custom software can’t just toss out their PC and use a Surface RT. For a variety of use cases, however, a device with email, Web access, and Microsoft Office is sufficient.

The Surface RT can replace a Windows PC for many users. The Surface RT includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. With Windows 8.1, the Surface RT also gets Outlook, and Microsoft just updated the OneNote MX app to allow it to connect to Office 365 accounts. Microsoft has also made many of its tools available across iOS and Android, but the integration of the Surface RT with Microsoft software and services sets it apart from other mobile devices as a business tool.
It's true a business can supply users with standard Windows laptops—with the full Windows operating system, more internal storage, a real keyboard, and possibly a DVD or Blu-Ray drive—for roughly the same money. But when it comes to weight and battery life, no $500 laptop can come close to what the Surface RT has to offer.
Many businesses are purchasing tablets for users to use in addition to their standard desktop or laptop PC. In that case, you have to consider the cost of both the PC and the tablet. A Surface RT, on the other hand, can conceivably function as both and allow the business to cut IT costs while giving employees greater flexibility and mobility at the same time.
Let’s face it, small and medium businesses need professional-grade networks and PCs, but most don’t have dedicated data centers and many don’t even have full-time IT staff. They rely on simple, cost-effective technology. The Surface RT can augment a Windows PC better than other tablets thanks to Windows 8 and the tight integration with Microsoft software and services, and—for the right users—the Surface RT can be a primary device that fills the role of both PC and tablet in one. 

Ransomware targets smaller businesses, security CEO warns

Trending cyber attacks such as ransomware may be typically overlooked by small and midsize businesses, but the CEO of security firm Lumension warns that they are actually in the line of fire.

Pat Clawson
Around the world, ransomware has been proved to be effective in midsized business environments and below, mainly due to the lack of tools available to deal with the attack, said Pat Clawson, chairman and CEO of Lumension, which is based in Scottsdale, Arizona.

"Most corporations have the means to deal with that outright from a technology and people perspective," he said. "However, if it is a ten person business environment, it is going to cost them a lot of money to get the issue resolved."

Clawson admits that it is not uncommon for these smaller businesses to even consider paying the ransom with the hope all of the stolen data returns.

"For that reason, ransomware is more effective when it targets SMBs that do not have the ability to fight it by themselves with technology or people," he said.

The benefit that bigger companies have is access to the necessary tools and manpower to take care of the problem, as well as prevent it from happening in the first place.

"The guys who create the ransomware are also smart enough to know where the money is to be made," Clawson said. "Instead of corporations, they tend to target SMBs and individual people that may fall prey to the attack."

In addition to having the necessary tools to combat ransomware, Clawson said corporations have a culture where staff are more aware of the pitfalls of ransomware, if it manages to get through at all.

"Their technology is already catching the ransomware at the gateway," he said. "However, if something does get through, their ability to undo the ransomware is significantly easier than for a private business or single user on their own."

Forrester: File-sync-and-share use heats up for businesses

In another example of the consumerization of IT, people have embraced cloud storage and file sharing services like Dropbox both at home and at work, and CIOs better take notice about this trend, according to a Forrester Research report.

“There is huge business value in these types of services,” said Rob Koplowitz, co-author of the study “File Sync and Share Platforms, Q3 2013. “They solve a bunch of business problems.”

Dropbox and similar services, with their intuitive and user-friendly interfaces, make it easy and convenient for people to sync files across multiple personal and enterprise devices, including tablets and smartphones, and share these often large files with colleagues, clients and partners, he said.

The problem for enterprise IT leaders is that this is yet another technology product that employees are using outside of their companies’ controlled IT environment.

“Most CIOs are reacting to the fact that their people are already using this,” Koplowitz said.

Unsurprisingly, vendors large and small are moving to respond to this demand, and in the study the authors outline 26 criteria to evaluate the many providers out there.

Some key decisions that CIOs must make include whether the service and security architecture will be housed on their company premises or on the vendor cloud, whether they prefer a large vendor or a small specialist, and how much the company can spend.

In the study, Forrester evaluated products from 16 vendors, using elements like their current support for mobile devices, deployment flexibility, administration controls, security features, sync capabilities, integration with third-party systems and document viewer capabilities. Forrester also took into account the vendors’ strategy and how well it positions them for future improvements and growth. Vendors’ market presence was also factored into the evaluations.

Forrester concluded that Box’s eponymous service stands as the leader, closely followed by EMC’s Syncplicity and by IBM’s Connections enterprise collaboration suite, which has a file sync and share component based on the vendor’s FileNet architecture.

Although Box is a much smaller player than rivals like IBM, EMC, Google and Microsoft, it has been focused on this technology since its founding in 2005, and has thus now spent about eight years developing and honing its service, which is designed for workplace use.

Box has raised more than US$300 million in funding from investors including Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Andreessen Horowitz, and has more than 150,000 customers with more than 15 million end users. Customers include more than 90 percent of the Fortune 500.

A notch below Box, IBM and EMC are products from Citrix, Accellion, Egnyte and WatchDox. Also considered “strong performers” but ranking slightly below are offerings from AirWatch, Alfresco, Dropbox and Salesforce.com.

Rounding out that “strong performer” category are Acronis, Hightail, Google’s Drive and Microsoft’s SkyDrive. Novell falls into the “contender” category.

More vendors

Koplowitz cautions that the market is very active, and that vendors are moving in aggressively, so the universe of options is far from limited to the 16 vendors evaluated in this study.

In addition, the right product for one company may not be the best one for another company, as that will depend on each company’s unique needs, technology priorities and business goals, he said.

What is not in question is the popularity of file sync and share products and the need for enterprise IT leaders to be informed about that market, so they can give employees the appropriate functionality while addressing their company’s security, business and compliance requirements, according to Koplowitz.

“This has sneaked up on all of us,” he said. “It’s happened so quickly.”

Businesses, UK government team against cyber attacks

Lockheed Martin, BT, and BAE Systems are among a group of defense and security companies that have pledged to support the U.K. government in bolstering the security of the country against sophisticated cyber attacks.

By pooling their experience of operating under constant threat of attack, the so-called Defense Cyber Protection Partnership (DCPP) says the alliance will identify and implement actions that have a real impact on the cyber defenses of the members of the partnership and the U.K. defense sector as a whole.

The DCPP model is intended to lead the way in industry collaboration and action on cyber security and to act as a template which can then be followed by commercial sectors to improve resilience across U.K. industry.

"I'm absolutely delighted by the level of commitment shown by the participating companies in helping us to build our national resilience against cyber attack, and I look forward to more of our key contractors coming on board," said Minister for Defense Equipment, Support and Technology Philip Dunne.

"This is a clear demonstration that government and industry can work together—sharing information, experience and expertise—to make sure we do everything we can to protect these critical networks, ensuring that the business of Defence is robustly protected."

A total of nine companies will work alongside the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI), Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the Ministry Of Defence (MOD) to offer their expertise. These include BAE Systems, BT, Cassidian, CGI, Hewlett Packard, Lockheed Martin, Rolls-Royce, Selex ES, and Thales UK.

Throughout the rest of 2013, the partnership will focus on three specific areas: increasing awareness of cyber risks across the supply chain; defining risk-driven approaches to applying cyber security standards; and sharing threat intelligence.

Organisations within the DCPP will also share threat intelligence and wider expertise on tackling cyber threats with other industry sectors and government through the recently announced national Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership.

"This is an issue which demands a concerted and coordinated approach between Government and Industry and the DCPP is a critical component of this," said Vic Leverett, DCPP chair. "Collaboration between industries and with Government has been first class, reflecting the joint commitment to succeed with our 2013 objectives. The whole is proving to be significantly better than the sum of the parts."

The U.S. Department of Defense has warned of coordinated cyber attacks that could harm industry as well as governmental operations.

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