Small Business SDN and the Micro-Enterprise
Enterprises come in all shapes and sizes, but here at Ethica we’re a little concerned with how they’re typically arranged and categorized. This is particularly true of the generic “Small-Medium Business” (SMB) category, which is too diverse to meaningful to anyone but those who traffic in the most abstract of statistics. Thankfully, we happen to have a solution—a typology that breaks up this big category and focuses on the tiny end of the market, which is where CloudAccess, Ethica’s SDN solution, shines. This post will focus on what we’re calling the “micro-enterprise,” businesses that employ roughly 10-49 employees. We’ll start by going through some of the characteristics of these organizations. We’ll then go over some common challenges they face and discuss how CloudAccess to solve their problems. Does that sound good? If so, read on! If not, well, we think you should read on anyway. Who knows, you might enjoy yourself.
The Small Business Micro Enterprise
Your typical micro-entrepreneur has moved beyond the sole proprietor model. His/her business may be in the early stages of scaling or might already be an established pillar of the local community. At 10-49 employees, you could be looking at a restaurant or even a small chain of restaurants, a law firm, a bowling alley, a larger retail store—the list goes on. Thankfully, while any number of organizations fit the 10-49 size bracket, they have a few things in common that differentiate them from their larger and smaller siblings.
CloudAccess Features
SDN for Small Business
Small Business SDN for a Micro Enterprise – A tool like CloudAccess is a godsend for the solo admin
For starters, this is the first tier where the business owner will likely consider it necessary to bring on an IT specialist. To be clear, we’re not talking about a full stack developer or an experienced DevOps administrator—maybe a generalist with a technical background and technical responsibilities. Money still flows through the leadership, but in-house technical advice is likely. A tool like CloudAccess is a godsend for the solo admin. Who wouldn’t want the ability to shape traffic, manage multiple sites, and bond connections reliable and effectively at the push of a button?
A second important characteristic is the existence of a non-SaaS IT infrastructure. Some micro-enterprises will have a server closet or a colocation and will benefit from more SDN features, even if they don’t have advanced networking knowledge. We’re not talking about massive datacenters with rack upon rack of servers, but there will often be an IT infrastructure that is managed entirely or partially in-house. CloudAccess can simplify that management—especially if we’re talking multi-site—and will allow even the leanest organization to focus on more valuable tasks.
The sudden increase in remote workers requires more upload bandwidth
A final distinguishing characteristic is the growing primacy of IT in the micro-enterprise relative to the nano-enterprise. The owner/founder/micro-entrepreneur has likely scaled to the point that twine and chewing gum don’t make sense as an IT strategy anymore. True, you’re not likely to bump into IT optimizers from Deloitte while you’re onsite—wait for the enterprise for that experience—but you are likely to see the early stages of a maturing IT practice in a way that does not exist at most smaller organizations.
How can CloudAccess help?
The title says it all. The below is a list of ways CloudAccess can help most micro-enterprises:
- Inconsistent connectivity—CloudAccess can bond multiple connections to keep the business operating, even if one provider is experiencing an outage.
- Complicated infrastructure—the Orchestrator is a powerful and accessible web-based solution that allows for the management of multiple sites easily.
- High costs—unlike expensive MPLS connectivity or enterprise-focused SDN solutions, CloudAccess is cheap and can be bundled with basic Internet connectivity cheaply. No need to spend a small fortune to maintain basic connectivity.
- Growing cloud footprint—as more services move to the cloud, micro-entrepreneurs may wish to shut down their server closets and migrate everything. CloudAccess is there to help.
Conclusion SDN is not just for Enterprise
Remember, network confidence isn’t just for large enterprise! With CloudAccess technology you can democratize connectivity. Your customers will thank you!
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