What are the key technology lessons that small and mid-sized businesses can learn from large enterprises?

Be proactive. Be prepared. Take security concerns seriously. Always watch for ways to cut costs.


But what are some specific technology lessons that smaller fry can learn from the big fish? We asked the experts, and here’s a partial list:


Get an IT tuneup.
Don’t wait until things go wrong with your systems to look under the hood. Have someone come in and do a vulnerability assessment to identify what’s working, what isn’t, and where your security risks are. “Proactive maintenance and support is something that the enterprises do and small businesses don’t,” notes Tim Brennan, founder and managing partner of Rockville, Md.-based SysArc, an IT support firm that counts many small businesses among its clients. A good assessment can cost as little as $1,000, and can save a business much more, notes Brennan.


Be prepared, even for a disaster.
“Small businesses tend not to do much with disaster recovery,” notes Brennan. Storing your backup on-site, or never testing your backup system, is not going to protect you if there’s a fire, earthquake, or theft. There are many options, from low-cost online backup products like Mozy or Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3). “It’s all about the investment you want to put into it,” says Brennan. “But at very least, back up off-site.”


Even better? Do what the big firms do and document a complete disaster recovery plan with a Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C, adds Steve Hilton, vice president of small business research at Boston-based Yankee Group. “Disaster recovery and business continuity are top IT needs,” says Hilton. “You don’t need to go to a crazy level with this like the enterprises, but think about how your company would survive, function by function….sales, customer service, finance.”


Security concerns: yes, they’re real.
Perhaps big firms have more at stake, and are more likely to have government contracts that demand tight security plans. But many small firms don’t take security risks seriously enough, experts say. “A lot of smaller firms view security as a techie thing that’s too expensive,” notes Kevin Beaver, IT author and founder of Acworth, Ga.-based Principle Logic, an IT security consulting firm. “It’s like not having auto insurance, and then having a big wreck, and realizing they needed it.” Simple steps like encrypting laptops and installing power-on passwords onto PDAs and cellphones -- even personally-owned ones that are used for business -- are steps companies should be taking, Beaver says. Hilton adds that cheap cloud computing options like Google messenger with Postini secured email and archiving make securing networks easy for even the smallest staffs.


Go with a virtual private network (VPN).
In today’s business environment, every business, regardless of size, should be using a VPN to link their office with remote workers in a secure, cost-efficient fashion, says Beaver. “It’s important that your business supports telecommuting,” Beaver notes. Bigger companies have found VPNs to be the cheapest, most effective way to link workers across the country or across town.


Slash your telecom costs.
Bigger companies are all doing it -- looking at their telecom plans line by line for ways to cut costs. Smaller businesses can get in on the act, too. First, look into switching over to a corporate plan for your cell phones instead of having individual employees each expensing their own personal cellphone, suggests Yankee Group’s Hilton. “If 50 people in the office are each expensing their cellphone charges, your costs could be highly variable,” he says. Also, corporate plans offer corporate-sized free-minute plans, too -- another savings. Finally, contact your telecom provider and see if you can renegotiate any old plans -- in this tough economy, telecom providers are willing to strike new deals to keep business, experts say.


To be sure, there are many other lessons smaller companies can learn from enterprise-grade IT shops. But follow these steps and you’ll be well on your way to swimming with bigger fish.

Adobe will release a patch on Thursday for a critical hole in Reader that was disclosed at the Black Hat conference late last month, the company said on Wednesday.

Adobe had announced on August 5 that the emergency fix was coming this week, in advance of the next quarterly security release, scheduled for October 12.

The security update will resolve an undisclosed number of critical issues in Reader 9.3.3 for Windows, Mac, and Unix; Acrobat 9.3.3 for Windows and Mac; and Reader 8.2.3 and Acrobat 8.2.3 for Windows and Mac, according to Adobe's advisory.

The flaw, which could be exploited to take control of a computer, is related to the way Adobe's PDF (portable document format) reader software handles fonts, said Charlie Miller, principal analyst at Independent Security Evaluators who disclosed the hole at the security conference.

The vulnerability is an "integer overflow in CoolType.dll in Adobe Reader 8.2.3 and 9.3.3, and Acrobat 9.3.3, (that) allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a TrueType font," according to the description in the National Vulnerability Database.

"Net neutrality is about preventing high-speed Internet providers from discriminating against certain sorts of providers or users of their network. For a hundred years, we've treated communications providers like sidewalks. The sidewalks can't choose between different walkers and have them travel at different speeds."-Alan GreenBlatt

Network neutrality (also net neutrality, Internet neutrality) is a principle proposed for user access networks participating in the Internet that advocates no restrictions by Internet Service Providers and governments on content, sites, platforms, on the kinds of equipment that may be attached, and no restrictions on the modes of communication allowed.

The principle states that if a given user pays for a certain level of Internet access, and another user pays for the same level of access, then the two users should be able to connect to each other at the subscribed level of access.

Neutrality proponents claim that telecom companies seek to impose a tiered service model in order to control the pipeline and thereby remove competition, create artificial scarcity, and oblige subscribers to buy their otherwise uncompetitive services.

Opponents of net neutrality characterize its regulations as "a solution in search of a problem", arguing that broadband service providers have no plans to block content or degrade network performance.In spite of this claim, certain Internet service providers have intentionally slowed peer-to-peer (P2P) communications.

Critics of net neutrality also argue that data discrimination of some kinds, particularly to guarantee quality of service, is not problematic, but is actually highly desirable.

A server computer is a computer, or series of computers, that link other computers or electronic devices together. They often provide essential services across a network, either to private users inside a large organization or to public users via the internet. For example, when you enter a query in a search engine, the query is sent from your computer over the internet to the servers that store all the relevant web pages. The results are sent back by the server to your computer.

Many servers have dedicated functionality such as web servers, print servers, and database servers. Enterprise servers are servers that are used in a business context.

The server is used quite broadly in information technology. Despite the many Server branded products available (such as Server editions of Hardware, Software and/or Operating Systems), in theory any computerised process that shares a resource to one or more client processes is a Server. To illustrate this, take the common example of File Sharing. While the existence of files on a machine does not classify it as a server, the mechanism which shares these files to clients by the operating system is the Server.

Similarly, consider a web server application (such as the multiplatform "Apache HTTP Server"). This web server software can be run on any capable computer. For example, while a laptop or Personal Computer is not typically known as a server, they can in these situations fulfil the role of one, and hence be labelled as one. It is in this case that the machine's purpose as a web server classifies it in general as a Server.

In the hardware sense, the word server typically designates computer models intended for running software applications under the heavy demand of a network environment. In this client server configuration one or more machines, either a computer or a computer appliance, share information with each other with one acting as a host for the other.

While nearly any personal computer is capable of acting as a network server, a dedicated server will contain features making it more suitable for production environments. These features may include a faster CPU, increased high-performance RAM, and typically more than one large hard drive. More obvious distinctions include marked redundancy in power supplies, network connections, and even the servers themselves.

A dual core processor is a CPU with two separate cores on the same die, each with its own cache. It's the equivalent of getting two microprocessors in one.

In a single-core or traditional processor the CPU is fed strings of instructions it must order, execute, then selectively store in its cache for quick retrieval. When data outside the cache is required, it is retrieved through the system bus from random access memory (RAM) or from storage devices. Accessing these slows down performance to the maximum speed the bus, RAM or storage device will allow, which is far slower than the speed of the CPU. The situation is compounded when multi-tasking. In this case the processor must switch back and forth between two or more sets of data streams and programs. CPU resources are depleted and performance suffers.

In a dual core processor each core handles incoming data strings simultaneously to improve efficiency. Just as two heads are better than one, so are two hands. Now when one is executing the other can be accessing the system bus or executing its own code. Adding to this favorable scenario, both AMD and Intel's dual-core flagships are 64-bit.

A dual core processor is different from a multi-processor system. In the latter there are two separate CPUs with their own resources. In the former, resources are shared and the cores reside on the same chip. A multi-processor system is faster than a system with a dual core processor, while a dual core system is faster than a single-core system, all else being equal.

An attractive value of dual core processors is that they do not require a new motherboard, but can be used in existing boards that feature the correct socket. For the average user the difference in performance will be most noticeable in multi-tasking until more software is SMT aware. Servers running multiple dual core processors will see an appreciable increase in performance.

Multi-core processors are the goal and as technology shrinks, there is more "real-estate" available on the die. In the fall of 2004 Bill Siu of Intel predicted that current accommodating motherboards would be here to stay until 4-core CPUs eventually force a changeover to incorporate a new memory controller that will be required for handling 4 or more cores.