There are now more than 30 million small and midsize businesses in the United States, which represent more than 99 percent of all businesses in the country. While 91 percent of consumers prefer purchasing from small businesses when possible, consulting firm Deloitte notes that 80 percent of SMBs are failing to take full advantage of digital tools to drive revenue.
This is despite the fact that “digitally advanced” companies saw double the revenue per employee and quadruple the revenue growth over peer companies with low levels of digital engagement.
“With so many small businesses not fully embracing the digital age, one might expect to find a broad range of barriers that are tough to overcome such as inadequate broadband, a lack of technical skills, or huge financial barriers to investing in technology,” Deloitte notes. “However, the issues are actually much simpler: many small businesses need to be made aware of the benefits of the internet and other digital tools.”
Meeting these evolving expectations starts with infrastructure. Here’s how Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s IT seployment solutions for small business can help.
DISCOVER: Learn more about hoe HPE can help your organization embrace the digital age.
How HPE Overcomes Tech Supply Chain Shortages
Supply chain disruptions were one of the first major economic impacts of COVID-19. Though retail chains have largely stabilized, the technology sector has been hit hard by a prolonged shortage of semiconductors. As noted by Business Insider, the current chip shortage could impact both device and infrastructure production for the next two years.
According to David Gaston, HPE’s senior director of SMB channel sales, HPE has invested in ongoing supply chain component availability to help small and medium businesses bridge this gap. “What we’ve done is look at the most popular server and storage platforms for the SMB market, and we’re stocking those at our distribution partners,” he says, adding that HPE has “put thousands of servers and storage platforms in stock that can ship within 48 hours.”
Platform-Level Security with HPE Servers
HPE infrastructure offerings for SMBs can also help boost business security. “We’re seeing a lot of different vulnerabilities and challenges with security across platforms and software,” says Gaston. “HPE offers a platform-level security approach that’s differentiated by server options made in the U.S., such as the DL360T and DL380T. We’re the only vendor manufacturing them in the U.S. and can provide a dedicated truck and driver for your business.” This offers an additional level of security confidence for small businesses by providing an auditable trail of shipping, manufacturing and design.
Gaston also notes that HPE makes it possible for businesses to know if someone attempts to access their new server in transit. “We have the ability to know if someone has gotten to that box, whether it’s manufactured overseas or in Mexico, even when it’s powered down. We can detect and indicate that upon boot-up using an HPE-engineered chip that’s connected to a sensor on the box lid and to the motherboard, and that runs before the system boots up.”
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Consumption-Based IT Models Provide Flexibility
HPE recognizes the need for small business IT infrastructure visibility. The company’s GreenLake offering provides a cloud that comes to you — wherever your apps and data live.
GreenLake’s pay-per-use model can help SMBs avoid the heavy upfront costs and extra sever provisioning required with traditional server stacks. Gaston also notes that HPE GreenLake Central can easily scale up or down depending on business needs. For example, retailers can quickly ramp up computing resources during busier months of the year and scale back when demand falls.
This flexible approach also offers benefits for businesses’ bottom lines. “We see more and more of our customers moving to consumption-based models,” says Gaston. “With 70 percent of business data still residing on-premises, we’re finding that the financial flexibility with GreenLake is beneficial.”
Seamless Service Access to Environments
Gaston puts it simply: “It’s truly a hybrid world.” The statement speaks to a dual IT evolution: Not only have many SMBs adopted hybrid cloud models to ensure continuous access to apps and services, they’ve also made the shift to partially remote workforces to improve operational agility.
HPE’s secure, cloud-native platform makes it possible for staff to access the apps and services they need, when they need them, to deliver both speed and security on demand.
HPE solutions for small office deployment give you everything you need to deploy a complete, hybrid cloud-ready office IT infrastructure in one secure, simple and affordable solution.
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