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© delta_avi_delta

IT Solutions Now is a leading provider of Microsoft Exchange hosting, and the company has recently announced that will be one of the first in the industry to offer free Windows hosting along with the purchase of any hosted Exchange service. This should be especially useful for a starting small business which can benefit from this bundled hosting package at a low price.

The excellent customer support at IT Solutions Now allows their small business clients to spend less time on IT problems and more on their business growth strategies. The combination of web hosting, security and collaboration features provided by the Exchange hosting package represents a great value, especially since it is simple to set up and covers all Exchange email hosting, spam filtering and antivirus, along with web hosting and online file storage with SharePoint.

© ShashiBellamkonda

Virtual desktop infrastructure and other desktop virtualization technologies have come a long way when it comes to the starting small business market. Large companies like Citrix Systems are actively seeking to acquire SMB-focused desktop virtualization software makers like Kaviza. It wasn't too long ago that this area was the domain of big business only, as it was typically a technology that was run from within the data center.

This required robust servers with extensive networked storage that only corporate networks could afford to provide. Kaviza's flagship VDI-in-a-Box technology challenges that notion by taking out some of the complexity. It lets users run a virtual desktop from any standard x86-based server, and is designed to be installed, maintained and supported by desktop IT staff rather then server specialists. One of the reasons why more SMBs may consider desktop virtualization today is the growing trend of users bringing their own computer or other device to work on.

© bisgovuk

The EU-South Korea free trade agreement (FTA) takes effect on July 1, and the Colombia-Canada FTA follows shortly in August. These trade agreements between other countries are creating a competitive disadvantage for US a starting small business in the global market. This fact has put pressure on the US government to negotiate their own FTAs with Panama, Colombia and South Korea, but progress has been slowed by disagreements.

Because US small businesses are already facing higher energy costs and increased federal regulation, coupled with potential tax increases to come, the last thing they need is more uncertainty on FTAs to contend with. When done well, FTAs can help to lower trade barriers and open new markets for small businesses to boost their exports. More exports will help the entire economy to expand and create new jobs, with statistics showing that for every $1 billion in US exports an average of 6,000 jobs are created.