US SMBs Worry about Network Access & Management
Growing use of networks coupled with electronic threats forcing SMBs to upscale network access controls, says AMI
NEW YORK--Are small and medium businesses (SMBs, or companies with up to 999 employees) big enough to warrant network management and network access controls? The answer is yes, at least in the United States.
According to the latest study on US-based SMBs, by Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc., at least half US-based SMBs have installed a local area network (LAN), with a growing percentage of being server-based LANs. Likewise, half of small businesses (SBs or companies with up to 99 staff) and up to 85% of medium businesses (MBs or companies with 100 to 999 staff) have mobile employees.
As a result, demand for virtual private networks (VPN) connections is growing rapidly. An increasing number of application types, from databases to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), are being placed on the network to connect more people, knowledge and ideas.
Other findings were: More than 66% of US SMBs use notebooks and a growing number use handheld devices purchased by the company. These do not include the number of unmanaged mobile devices that are also trying to connect to the office LAN from remote locations. And a majority of US SMBs have already deployed desktop security basics such as anti-virus and anti-spam applications.
"The combination of these factors is putting a strain on the network from a security and manageability standpoint," says Melissa Chong, New York-based Analyst at AMI-Partners. "SMBs face increasing risk on their IT assets too. Controlling who can access the network, and whether the security patches on the devices are up to date are necessary evils of deploying a LAN. This is another challenge for already limited IT resources within SMBs."
AMI's research indicates that "protection from electronic threats" is the number one factor driving security spending. On top of this, "enhancing IT security and privacy" has remained one of the top-of-mind priorities over the past 2-3 years.
"There has been a lot of focus around network access control (NAC) in the enterprise area," Ms. Chong says. "SMBs are aware of the threats and the need for network security due to their own growing reliance on the network. They are looking for more advanced network security options. As a start, about one in three SMBs has deployment plans for intrusion detection/prevention solutions."
Further, SB environments and needs are changing rapidly, and they are increasingly mature in their selection and purchasing behavior. IT vendors, channels and even managed service providers should apply consultative-selling approach to address their concerns.
"Heed SMB concerns to fine-tune your approach," Ms. Chong says. "From a technology standpoint, SMBs progressively seek network access control capabilities. Better still if it goes beyond that and provides a consolidated network management view and how it works with their VPN, back-up and other network functionalities."
Related Studies
AMI's 2006-2007 U.S. Small Business Market Overview and Comprehensive Market Opportunity Assessment and 2006-2007 U.S. Medium Business Market Overview and Comprehensive Market Opportunity Assessment studies highlight these and other major trends in the context of current/planned IT, Internet and communications usage and spending. Products and services covered include established and emerging hardware, software, applications and business process solutions. Based on AMI's annual surveys of SMBs across the U.S., the studies track a broad spectrum of issues pertaining to budgets, purchase behaviors, decision influencers, channel preferences, outsourcing, service and support. Also covered are detailed firmographics and critically important technology attitudes and strategic planning priorities. This data points to key opportunities and messaging hot buttons for vendors and service providers seeking to match their offerings to SB market requirements.
For more information about this study, AMI-Partners, or our global SMB research, please call 212-944-5100, e-mail ask_ami@ami-partners.com, or visit the AMI Web site at www.ami-partners.com.
About Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.
AMI-Partners specializes in IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services strategy, venture capital, and actionable market intelligence with a strong focus on global small and medium businesses (SMBs), and extending into large enterprises and home-based businesses. The AMI-Partners mission is to empower clients for success with the highest quality data, business strategy perspectives and "go-to-market" solutions. Led by Andy Bose, the firm has built a world-class management team with deep experience cutting across IT, telecommunications and business services sectors in established and emerging markets.
AMI-Partners has helped shape the go-to-market SMB strategies of more than 150 leading IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services companies over the last ten years. The firm is well known for its IT and Internet adoption-based segmentation of the SMB markets; its annual retainership services based on global SMB tracking surveys in more than 25 countries; and its proprietary database of SMBs and SMB channel partners in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The firm invests significantly in collecting survey-based information from several thousand SMBs annually, and is considered the premier source for global SMB trends and analysis.
Contacts
AMI-Partners
Media:
Quoted Analyst:
Melissa Chong, 212-944-5100 ext. 523
mchong@ami-partners.com
or
Media Relations:
In US (New York):
Nancy Carty, 212-944-5100 ext. 581
ncarty@ami-partners.com
or
In EU (London):
Claudia Jachtmann, (44) 208 987 2756
cjachtmann@ami-partners.com
or
In Asia Pacific (Singapore):
Diana Ng, (65) 6220 5535 ext. 110
dng@ami-partners.com
or
In India (Kolkata):
Dipendra Mitra, (91) 33 4003 3093 ext. 205
dmitra@ami-partners.com
NEW YORK--Are small and medium businesses (SMBs, or companies with up to 999 employees) big enough to warrant network management and network access controls? The answer is yes, at least in the United States.
According to the latest study on US-based SMBs, by Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc., at least half US-based SMBs have installed a local area network (LAN), with a growing percentage of being server-based LANs. Likewise, half of small businesses (SBs or companies with up to 99 staff) and up to 85% of medium businesses (MBs or companies with 100 to 999 staff) have mobile employees.
As a result, demand for virtual private networks (VPN) connections is growing rapidly. An increasing number of application types, from databases to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), are being placed on the network to connect more people, knowledge and ideas.
Other findings were: More than 66% of US SMBs use notebooks and a growing number use handheld devices purchased by the company. These do not include the number of unmanaged mobile devices that are also trying to connect to the office LAN from remote locations. And a majority of US SMBs have already deployed desktop security basics such as anti-virus and anti-spam applications.
"The combination of these factors is putting a strain on the network from a security and manageability standpoint," says Melissa Chong, New York-based Analyst at AMI-Partners. "SMBs face increasing risk on their IT assets too. Controlling who can access the network, and whether the security patches on the devices are up to date are necessary evils of deploying a LAN. This is another challenge for already limited IT resources within SMBs."
AMI's research indicates that "protection from electronic threats" is the number one factor driving security spending. On top of this, "enhancing IT security and privacy" has remained one of the top-of-mind priorities over the past 2-3 years.
"There has been a lot of focus around network access control (NAC) in the enterprise area," Ms. Chong says. "SMBs are aware of the threats and the need for network security due to their own growing reliance on the network. They are looking for more advanced network security options. As a start, about one in three SMBs has deployment plans for intrusion detection/prevention solutions."
Further, SB environments and needs are changing rapidly, and they are increasingly mature in their selection and purchasing behavior. IT vendors, channels and even managed service providers should apply consultative-selling approach to address their concerns.
"Heed SMB concerns to fine-tune your approach," Ms. Chong says. "From a technology standpoint, SMBs progressively seek network access control capabilities. Better still if it goes beyond that and provides a consolidated network management view and how it works with their VPN, back-up and other network functionalities."
Related Studies
AMI's 2006-2007 U.S. Small Business Market Overview and Comprehensive Market Opportunity Assessment and 2006-2007 U.S. Medium Business Market Overview and Comprehensive Market Opportunity Assessment studies highlight these and other major trends in the context of current/planned IT, Internet and communications usage and spending. Products and services covered include established and emerging hardware, software, applications and business process solutions. Based on AMI's annual surveys of SMBs across the U.S., the studies track a broad spectrum of issues pertaining to budgets, purchase behaviors, decision influencers, channel preferences, outsourcing, service and support. Also covered are detailed firmographics and critically important technology attitudes and strategic planning priorities. This data points to key opportunities and messaging hot buttons for vendors and service providers seeking to match their offerings to SB market requirements.
For more information about this study, AMI-Partners, or our global SMB research, please call 212-944-5100, e-mail ask_ami@ami-partners.com, or visit the AMI Web site at www.ami-partners.com.
About Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.
AMI-Partners specializes in IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services strategy, venture capital, and actionable market intelligence with a strong focus on global small and medium businesses (SMBs), and extending into large enterprises and home-based businesses. The AMI-Partners mission is to empower clients for success with the highest quality data, business strategy perspectives and "go-to-market" solutions. Led by Andy Bose, the firm has built a world-class management team with deep experience cutting across IT, telecommunications and business services sectors in established and emerging markets.
AMI-Partners has helped shape the go-to-market SMB strategies of more than 150 leading IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services companies over the last ten years. The firm is well known for its IT and Internet adoption-based segmentation of the SMB markets; its annual retainership services based on global SMB tracking surveys in more than 25 countries; and its proprietary database of SMBs and SMB channel partners in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The firm invests significantly in collecting survey-based information from several thousand SMBs annually, and is considered the premier source for global SMB trends and analysis.
Contacts
AMI-Partners
Media:
Quoted Analyst:
Melissa Chong, 212-944-5100 ext. 523
mchong@ami-partners.com
or
Media Relations:
In US (New York):
Nancy Carty, 212-944-5100 ext. 581
ncarty@ami-partners.com
or
In EU (London):
Claudia Jachtmann, (44) 208 987 2756
cjachtmann@ami-partners.com
or
In Asia Pacific (Singapore):
Diana Ng, (65) 6220 5535 ext. 110
dng@ami-partners.com
or
In India (Kolkata):
Dipendra Mitra, (91) 33 4003 3093 ext. 205
dmitra@ami-partners.com
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