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You’ve heard the buzz words — Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Software as a Service. Are they important to maintaining — and gaining — a competitive edge? Or are they just for enterprise players who can afford the bill?

Fortunately, as the internet and technology continue to evolve, there are more and more ways for growing companies to reach business goals with affordable and cutting edge technologies. Here are five IT trends that savvy companies won’t ignore.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing describes a way that companies and people access and manage digital information. In the not-too-distant past, people passed around floppy disks when they wanted to share a document with someone who was outside of their network. Then the internet burst onto the scene and decentralized computing became a possibility. Personal computers could exchange data via the web with just about anyone.

And today, growth in high-speed data lines, wireless networks and web-enabled handheld devices – coupled with affordable storage options—have made it easy to store, access and share data from any location, whether using a desktop, laptop or handheld device. To visualize this new reality, think of hardware and software components residing in a ‘cloud.’ You can’t really see them, but they are there, being orchestrated to work together and ready to be applied and managed as needed.

The business benefits of working via cyberspace are obvious. Expenses are reduced through shared resources that previously had to be replicated and maintained in multiple locations. Bottlenecks are minimized. Work process consistency is enhanced. Companies can tap team members with specialized skills in distant locations. Proprietary software can be easily shared with remote teams.

Research shows that more and more of us are headed into the cloud. According to the Pew internet & American Life Project, 69% of internet users have either stored data online or used a web-based software application. And the number is growing, leaving cloud computing poised to change the landscape for IT. Technical professionals may soon be doing less hardware and software management, and more strategic thinking about the best way to maximize the potential of working in the cloud.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Under the Software as a Service, or “SaaS” model, applications are hosted by a provider and accessed by remote users. You probably already tap into SaaS, but may not realize it. Think about your email application – do you use Yahoo!, Gmail or another web-based email service? Then you’re using a remote application.

You only have to think about your personal computer to realize the benefits that SaaS offers. No need to acknowledge “updates are available” messages. No inability to share documents with someone who runs a newer version of your software. By ‘renting’ web-based applications, updates and version control are automated, which saves time, money, and unnecessary IT headaches. The beauty of SaaS is that users simply access the application. They don’t have to worry what kind of hardware or platform it’s running on or how the system is being maintained. They forego traditional IT worries.

If SaaS sounds like cloud computing, it’s not surprising. They’re related. To avoid getting too technical, it’s easiest to think about SaaS as a segment of cloud computing, with a cloud computing architecture being the best platform for delivering SaaS. This description might madden IT purists, but for the layman, it’s simple enough.

Unified Communications

Unified Communications (UC) has been a popular term for the last few years, and now is getting even more attention because of increasing competition in the UC space. An easy definition of UC is the simplification and integration of multiple forms of communications, often in real time. For example, a UC platform will allow users to send messages on one medium and receive them on another. Voice mail messages can be read in email boxes, and faxes can be sent from a laptop instead of a separate fax machine.

Gains in efficiency from a UC implementation can result in lower overhead costs and more efficient and responsive business processes. UC also frees teams to work from different locations without losing touch with clients and staff. Phone calls can follow road warriors to any location. Contact databases can be shared and synched across multiple platforms. Real-time collaboration is simplified.

The reason UC is a trend to watch is that Google is making moves in the UC space that are bound to make these solutions more affordable and powerful. Using a Gmail account, users can now access voice, email and fax messages and synchronize messages across devices. They can send faxes from their Gmail account, manage live calls from their desktop and even conduct video chats. The best part? These Google-enabled capabilities operate “in the cloud” and are free – an attractive alternative to on-premise solutions that may cost thousands of dollars.

Virtualization

The trends above underscore the importance in today’s business climate of having an IT infrastructure that is nimble, efficient and resilient. This often requires IT simplification, especially for companies that have built complex systems over the years. Enter virtualization. This IT strategy juggles resources to build system efficiency, reduce operating costs, enable better security and enhance user experience. In essence, the system manages resources based on perceived and/or necessary activity, which improves efficiency, availability, disaster recovery, testing and server administration.

There are different flavors of virtualization available to businesses, which can make it a confusing concept to grasp.

• Server virtualization can consolidate the workloads of under-utilized servers to fewer machines, reducing money spent on hardware and administration, and paving the way for better data management and security. Fewer machines also brings along environmental benefits.
• Desktop virtualization delivers operating system (OS) software from a centralized server, but looks seamless to end users who many never realize their OS is not housed locally. This offers benefits like centralized upgrading and maintenance.
• Application virtualization delivers specific software applications to users virtually, yet the user experience feels as though the application is operating from his or her desktop. This also helps with upgrading and maintenance, and can help to serve employees or subcontractors who work from remote locations.

Virtualization has implications for where IT dollars will be spent over the next few years. PCs will have a longer shelf life as investments go to servers that can emulate the user’s desktop experience. Ultimately, it is expected that the majority of servers and applications will be maintained in central locations, and delivered to end users using the virtualization model.

Managed Services

It’s easy to see how the decentralization of technology described above is going to change the role of IT in an organization. It will continue to evolve into a strategic role, which is really where it belongs. IT mindshare has its greatest value when it’s applied to technology’s role as a strategic business tool.

This is one of the reasons that there’s a trend toward using managed services providers (MSPs). MSPs offer growing companies a cost-effective model for managing and protecting their networks, systems and applications. Their depth of IT knowledge can make them a valuable resource for planning IT strategy.

MSPs handle IT services for other companies via the web and monitor and maintain IT infrastructure proactively. Because they use the internet to manage the majority of a company’s IT needs, businesses do not incur the expense of travel and the disruption of office visits. In addition, companies benefit from an MSP’s depth of experience in a wide-range of technologies, as well as its staff’s exposure to new IT trends like the ones mentioned in this article. It can be difficult to find the menagerie of skills in one employee that an MSP can deliver.

Common services provided by MSPs include remote network maintenance, desktop and security monitoring, remote data back-up, as well as end-user helpdesk via phone, instant messaging, email, or an online portal.