SMB

Of the 760 data breaches in 2010, two thirds involved small business. The risk isn't just hackers, though. It's regulations, fines, the cost of upgrades plus investigation, litigation, notification and lots of other costly -ifications if it happens to you.

A new survey from Microsoft highlights cities where cloud computing is most popular, but overlooks the fastest growing segment.

Cloud computing gives small and mid-sized businesses--even wineries--IT-enabled capabilities that they otherwise couldn't begin to afford. The tradeoff with SaaS solutions for the midmarket, however, is that customers usually have to accept relatively generic implementations and a small number of providers for their specific industries, says IDC research analyst Ian Song. Customization costs can add up.

Small companies have allocated almost a fifth of their software budgets to SAAS and begun to give up hardware purchases because they can get what they want, cheaper, in the cloud.

68 Percent to Buy New Laptops, Desktops and Servers; 51 Percent Plan New Software Purchases; and 33 Percent to Invest in IT Services

There's a lot more to monitoring Samba than checking whether the daemons are running. The smbstatus command can tell you who's using it and show you what files they're updating.

There are certain things that are hard to sell during a recession. RVs, for example. The Midwest RV show was in town, and not surprisingly, nobody's buying the house-on-wheels these days. Okay, I hear you, we're not in a recession. Only a "mental recession", right? Things are better than they've ever been? You work for Exxon?

The tips below are designed to help small companies determine if server virtualization is right for them and how to prepare to ensure a successful initial implementation.