The Confident SMB

Feeling the pinch? These days, all of us are looking for ways to trim budgets and our operating expenses. After all, who doesn’t like to save money? One pain point that consumers, enterprises and small businesses share is their energy consumption.  But it’s not just the heat of summer or the cold of winter that ratchets up the kilowatts. If you are an SMB, your IT systems have a significant impact on your energy consumption. The good news is that there are things small businesses can do to make their energy bill more bearable year-round. 

Most SMBs don’t realize just how big of a footprint their IT equipment has on the environment and how much they could save by reducing it. You can make laudable changes without compromising the quality and performance of your equipment or processes. In fact, it’s not hard to have the best of both worlds: high product performance and low energy use.

Below are some tips for fostering energy-efficient...

Is freeware really free?  That is the question small businesses should be asking when it comes to protecting their customer and other proprietary information, such as bank and credit card account details.

Small businesses are looking for the best deal in security software due to tight budgets.  We’re all looking for ways to do more with less.  However, how does a small business owner explain to a customer that their personal data was breached due to the fact that the “free” security solution that the business installed didn’t protect them against the latest threat?

The best analogy I have heard in the “to use or not to use freeware” debate is from Symantec’s Janice Chaffin.  Chaffin recently said, “Free AV is very basic.  It's like wearing a light windbreaker in a snowstorm....