In Part One of this series I discussed some of the key technology trends small businesses should be ready to embrace as part of their strategy for continued competitiveness.
To recap, the article listed the following areas of emphasis as one source’s “SMB technology market predictions for 2013”:
- Social Media
- Big Data
- Mobility
- The Cloud
- Data Protection
Today on ZDNet.com is an interesting article in which the author discusses his vision for what the future “personal computer” will look like. He touches on two of the above-listed points of focus: Mobility and The Cloud.
He writes, “… it is unlikely that we will end up using powerful, expandable systems with large amounts of localized processing and storage in ten years. Much, if not all of the things we think about as ‘localized’ computing resources will be instead distributed into the Cloud.”
Clearly, the age of office staff working on local PCs with data segregated on individual users’ hard drives is quickly coming to an end. Mobility will be the driving force behind this shift, in which the author sees “… a matched set of smartphone ‘brain’, 10″ tablet touchscreen and keyboard/docking station costing around $500, with an expected system lifetime of two to five years.”
Not only should small businesses pay close attention to such trends, but they should also be prepared to become early adopters of any and all technological advantages that provide new ways of getting more work done faster and from any location. Make the right shift at the right time and you could benefit from a critical leg up on your competition.
Directly related to this specific technological evolution is our recently launched Xerox ConnectKey™ platform. Multifunction printers built on ConnectKey provide a critical advantage to small businesses and enterprise customers alike, especially in the areas of mobility and Cloud computing. See for yourself by visiting our ConnectKey page.
