Archive for category: Blog

If you are in the area and can leave work a little early, please join Horizon Info Services at the Corridor Nine Chamber’s Open for Business Expo.

It is a great opportunity to see our Cloud Computing solutions first-hand, including Google Apps Premier Edition, Google Security and Compliance Solutions, and our industry-leading online backup and recovery solutions.

WHERE: Doubletree Westborough, MA
WHEN: 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM
COST: FREE

We hope to see you there.

Google has released an improved “Find and Replace” toolbar in Google Docs. Available in all editions, you can more easily search and replace text. The toolbar adds more options for controlling your search, such as case-sensitive matching and regular expressions.

Learn more …

In the first edition of an anticipated annual survey and report, the 2009 Microsoft SMB Insight Report confirms key trends in virtualization and Software as a Service. Key findings from the survey of more than 600 companies and Small Business Specialists from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and Brazil identified the following technologies more likely to drive SMB growth and profitability in 2009.

• 50% of the surveyed Small Business Specialists identified virtualization or IT consolidation through a small or mid-size server as the technology most likely to reduce operating costs
  
• The Small Business Specialists expect a 20% increase this year in the use of Software as a Service
  
• More than 35% percent of the Small Business Specialists considered
  customer relationship management (CRM) the best investment
  for maximizing business growth in a down economy
  
• Nearly 40% expect an increased interest in business intelligence and identified it as a critical tool for helping improve a customer’s experience and increase loyalty
  
• Over 50% expect an increase in the number of SMB remote workers, and nearly 60% expect that the shift to more remote workers also will lead to bigger roles and more responsibilities for those individuals working remotely.

While “Small Business Specialists” are resources from within the Microsoft community, the report confirms broader trends towards more efficient computing solutions.

If you are interested in a macro view of cloud computing and the emerging industry, this blog post from Gregg Ness is a great place to start. Gregg looks at three key factors from a network perspective (network automation and management, capacity, and security) and provides a context for understanding reality versus vendor hype.