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Small Business Speaks Out
Spiceworks recently surveyed 1,250 small businesses on their IT spending habits and budget plans for technology refreshes, moving to the cloud, and whether they plan to hire new workers. Here’s what they said.
Budget Increases Planned
Spiceworks: Overall, year over year, those surveyed plan to increase IT spending by 9 percent.
Smaller Businesses Plan Bigger Increases
Spiceworks: Companies with fewer than 20 employees plan the largest IT budget and staff increases among all SMBs.
Hardware Refresh Coming
Spiceworks: Close to half of SMB IT budgets this year are allocated to hardware, mainly to replace legacy assets that have long overstayed their expiration dates.
Desktops Past Their Prime
Spiceworks: Nearly a quarter of desktops in an SMB IT network are more than 4 years old.
Most SMBs to Buy Hardware
Spiceworks: 80 percent of IT pros in the SMB will buy some type of new hardware in 2010.
Cloud Computing Plans
Spiceworks: 25 percent of participants said they plan to use cloud computing in the next six months.
Virtualization Investments Coming
Spiceworks: 21 percent expect to invest in new virtualization software in 2010.
Workforce Sizes Likely Steady
Spiceworks: 70 percent of SMB IT departments will make do with the same or fewer staff members in 2010.
CompTIA Looks at Midmarket
Another survey conducted by CompTIA among 400 midmarket companies showed the kinds of premiums these companies are willing to pay for new technologies.
Immediate Payback Wanted
CompTIA: 80 percent of SMBs are looking for solutions that "deliver immediate payback in terms of minimum disruption of business continuity and seamless integration with existing solutions.”
Proven ROI More Valued
CompTIA: 71 percent of SMBs are willing to pay more for new solutions with proven ROI
Server Virtualization in the Works
CompTIA: 37 percent of SMBs plan to adopt server virtualization in the next year
VOIP Plans
CompTIA: 25 percent of SMBs plan on adopting VoIP in the coming year
Open Source Gains
CompTIA: One-fifth of SMBs have plans to use open source software in the next 12 months
Managed Services Heats Up
CompTIA: Small businesses on average report that they'll increase the use of managed services by two- to threefold
Storage Concerns
CompTIA: Keeping up with storage demands is a top priority for SMBs, cited by 55 percent of them as their biggest concern
Microsoft Partner Survey
Microsoft and ABI Research recently surveyed over 500 Small Business Specialist partners to discover their predictions for 2010 based on customer feedback
How Much?
Microsoft: Respondents expect SMBs to increase spending this year by an average of 16 percent
How Many?
Microsoft: 63 percent of respondents expect some sort of IT spending increase among customers in 2010
Hot Technologies
Microsoft: Key areas where spending will ramp up most quickly are virtualization, SaaS and CRM
Cloud Planning
Microsoft: 19% of respondents believe their customers will use some sort of cloud-based systems in the coming year
Top Opportunities for 2010
Microsoft: Upgrading OS, Backup, Hardware, Virtualization, Server Consolidation and Migration of Server OS are the lead areas of opportunity identified for 2010
SMB Partner 
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