{"id":16194,"date":"2015-01-15T12:44:34","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T17:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015---paul-l-dowen-1.html"},"modified":"2015-01-15T12:44:34","modified_gmt":"2015-01-15T17:44:34","slug":"economic-outlook-2015-paul-l-dowen-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-paul-l-dowen-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic Outlook 2015 – Mark Shaw"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n\"mark_shaw.jpg\"\n<\/div>\n
Mark Shaw, president, Stored Technology Solutions (StoredTech)\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

BY MARK SHAW<\/p>\n

The year 2015 will bring about a number
\nof changes to the IT industry.
\nTwo items that are easy to pick off the
\ntop are the ending of support for Windows
\nServer 2003 and “Capex” versus “Opex” when
\nchoosing technology services and solutions
\nfor your small business.<\/p>\n

Server 2003, the Microsoft flagship server
\nproduct for almost 12 years, finally comes to an
\nend. In an unprecedented move, we have
\nseen two major platforms for businesses
\n(Windows XP and Server 2003) both come
\nto end of life within a year of each other.<\/p>\n

This will push business to decide on the best
\nreplacement path for them for the hardware
\nand software they are using.
\nMany small businesses for the first time
\nin a decade will have real choices in how to
\nspend their IT capital. This is why Capex
\nand Opex were picked as the second largest
\neconomic outlook indicators in 2015.<\/p>\n

So what is Capex and Opex as it pertains
\nto technology solutions? Simply put, it is
\nthe ability to take what used to be a capital
\nexpense like buying new servers, software
\nand networking infrastructure that have to
\nbe depreciated over a set about of time, and
\nconvert it to an expense item that can be
\nseen as a monthly service fee and deducted
\nfully in the period in which they occurred.<\/p>\n

Small businesses in the past have simply
\nreplaced older servers for new servers and
\nupgraded software and solutions to make
\nthem compliant, add new features or provide
\nbetter productivity. These capital upgrades
\noften require a “rip and replace” of the old
\nhardware and applications.<\/p>\n

Since the introduction of the “cloud,” a
\nterm often overused but whose value is never
\nunderstated, businesses are able to stop the
\ncycle of replacing hardware and software at
\nset times and move the costs to an expense
\nmodel where they can pay for the services
\nand the hardware as a service fee.<\/p>\n

This removes the need for much of the
\nserver and storage hardware and places
\nthe applications and services with a vendor
\nwho takes responsibility for the upgrades,
\nupdates, all the hardware and maintenance
\nfor the line of business application.<\/p>\n

An easy example of how this can save
\nyour company capital and provide a better
\nROI would be the most basic service most
\norganizations have moved to Opex and that
\nis email.<\/p>\n

If you had an Exchange 2003 server running
\non Windows 2003 that was end of life
\nyou have two options.<\/p>\n

1: Buy a new server, pay for new software
\nlicenses for the email and the operating
\nsystem, hire a consultant or pay staff to upgrade
\nand rip\/replace the old servers. This
\nis a capital expense for many companies and
\nwill require a similar exercise in 5-7 years.<\/p>\n

2: Move to a cloud-based email system
\nlike Microsoft Office 365 or Google`s Business
\nApps and pay a monthly fee for the services.<\/p>\n

This becomes an operational expense
\nitem. Many times less than the maintenance
\nrequired for the systems purchased in Option
\n1 alone. Many ROI calculators exists
\nto show the value in moving your email to
\nthe cloud.<\/p>\n

Option 2 has become the norm for many
\nof people today. They remove the hardware,
\nreduce their technology footprint and all
\nthat it entails (think power, cooling, service
\nand support) and in return simply let
\nsomeone else handle all the back end work
\nrequired to run the email service for them.
\nThey use the service, enjoy the upgrades
\nthat come as part of the package without
\nany additional costs and it works anywhere.<\/p>\n

This Capex vs Opex experience will drive
\nthe economics of IT in 2015. Organizations
\ntoday are working hard to reduce the
\namount of overhead it takes to run their
\nnetworks, allowing their technology staff
\nto work on driving the business forward by
\nsolving technology problems and not working
\nhard on the non-value added back end
\nmaintenance. Productivity gains and end
\nuser\/client satisfaction increases are also
\nside effects of this Opex model.<\/p>\n

This year will hold all of its normal surprises
\nfor the technology sector, but from
\nan economic impact nothing will be driving
\nbusinesses to new ways of thinking more
\nthan the forced end of life to their servers
\nand the new options for cloud-based solutions
\nto the old standard of hardware and
\nsoftware refreshes. Small businesses in
\nparticular are the biggest winners as the
\ncosts of these services continue to drop and
\nthe number of players continue to increase.<\/p>\n

As a small business owner, it’s worth
\nunderstanding and considering any and all
\noptions when making a needed change to
\nyour technology systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Shaw, president, Stored Technology Solutions (StoredTech) BY MARK SHAW The year 2015 will bring about a number of changes to the IT industry. 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