The cloud has found its way into the homes of many large enterprises, but there is one segment of the market that perhaps cloud has not been able to break into yet – small and medium businesses (SMBs).
“The guys who need it most are SMBs; cloud is absolutely unbelievable for them,” George Grabowich, managing director of wireless for Broadview Networks (News - Alert), told TMCnet at Cloud Expo East 2011 on Wednesday. “They are far more fertile for cloud computing.”
Broadview, a network-based business communications provider serving customers nationwide, provides total solutions for business communications, including all distance voice communications, premises-based and patented hosted VoIP systems and data services encompassing VPN- and MPLS-enabled applications, traditional telephone hardware, high-speed Internet services, a full suite of managed services and a range of professional service, according to company officials.
The company has also found a sweet spot in the SMB space after it recently launched a cloud offering in March that can be of great benefit to this group. Broadview now offers Cloud Computing Services, a suite of fully-managed enterprise-grade business software and infrastructure applications hosted in the cloud and tailored for SMB market.
“We turn the cloud into something real on a tangible level that people can relate to,” Grabowich said, noting that Broadview works to present cloud in a less abstract way to SMBs.
Broadview’s cloud services include a full suite of back-up tools for desktop and server data, enabling a complete solution for disaster avoidance and rapid recovery. In addition, both virtualized and dedicated server solutions are available and capable of supporting most business applications. Broadview will deliver these infrastructure services in either a traditional client/server configuration or a virtualized environment.
“We are confident that cloud-based services will deliver unparalleled benefits to our customers. They will have the benefit of the most advanced technologies, highly reliable and available networks and scalability on demand. In addition, our cloud services will enable secure access to applications, solid disaster recovery capabilities and vastly improved economics,” said Brian Crotty, chief operating officer at Broadview Networks in a statement. “By moving communications, software and infrastructure services to a cloud environment, SMBs can keep the focus on running their business without having to invest scarce capital in IT, telecom, additional technical personnel and back office operations.”
In fact, Broadview is doing such a good job of bringing the cloud to SMBs that in just two months Broadview’s sales team was able to collect 1,400 leads after the team went out and started talking about its cloud offering.
“SMBs are starting to scratch their heads and ask is this for me,” Grabowich said. “SMBs are the ripest group for broad scale adoption.”
At Cloud Expo, Broadview also had the chance to talk with TMCnet's CEO Rich Tehrani (News - Alert). Click below to watch the interview.