{"id":28558,"date":"2015-01-07T19:04:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-08T00:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015---mark-shaw.html"},"modified":"2015-01-07T19:04:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T00:04:00","slug":"economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic Outlook 2015 – Mark Shaw"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"markshaw.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 of
\nchanges to the IT industry.
\nTwo items that are easy to pick off the top
\nare the ending of support for Windows Server
\n2003 and “Capex” versus “Opex” when choosing
\ntechnology services and solutions for your
\nsmall 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 seen
\ntwo major platforms for businesses (Windows
\nXP and Server 2003) both come to end of life
\nwithin a year of each other. This will push
\nbusiness to decide on the best replacement
\npath for them for the hardware and software they are using.<\/p>\n

Many small businesses for the first time in a
\ndecade will have real choices in how to spend
\ntheir IT capital. This is why Capex and Opex
\nwere picked as the second largest economic
\noutlook indicators in 2015.<\/p>\n

So what is Capex and Opex as it pertains to
\ntechnology solutions? Simply put, it is the ability
\nto take what used to be a capital expense
\nlike buying new servers, software and networking
\ninfrastructure that have to be depreciated
\nover a set about of time, and convert it to an
\nexpense item that can be seen as a monthly service fee and deducted fully in the period in
\nwhich they occurred.<\/p>\n

Small businesses in the past have simply
\nreplaced older servers for new servers and
\nupgraded software and solutions to make them
\ncompliant, add new features or provide better
\nproductivity. These capital upgrades often
\nrequire a “rip and replace” of the old hardware
\nand applications.<\/p>\n

Since the introduction of the “cloud,” a term
\noften overused but whose value is never understated,
\nbusinesses are able to stop the cycle of
\nreplacing hardware and software at set times
\nand move the costs to an expense model where
\nthey can pay for the services and the hardware
\nas a service fee.<\/p>\n

This removes the need for much of the
\nserver and storage hardware and places the
\napplications and services with a vendor who
\ntakes responsibility for the upgrades, updates,
\nall the hardware and maintenance for the line
\nof business application.<\/p>\n

An easy example of how this can save your
\ncompany capital and provide a better ROI
\nwould be the most basic service most organizations
\nhave moved to Opex and that is email.<\/p>\n

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

1: Buy a new server, pay for new software
\nlicenses for the email and the operating system,
\nhire a consultant or pay staff to upgrade and
\nrip\/replace the old servers. This is a capital
\nexpense for many companies and will require
\na similar exercise in 5-7 years.<\/p>\n

2: Move to a cloud-based email system like
\nMicrosoft Office 365 or Google`s Business Apps
\nand pay a monthly fee for the services. This
\nbecomes an operational expense item. Many
\ntimes less than the maintenance required
\nfor the systems purchased in Option 1 alone.
\nMany ROI calculators exists to show the value
\nin moving your email to the cloud.<\/p>\n

Option 2 has become the norm for many
\npeople today. They remove the hardware,
\nreduce their technology footprint and all that
\nit entails (think power, cooling, service and
\nsupport) and in return simply let someone
\nelse handle all the back end work required to
\nrun the email service for them. They use the
\nservice, enjoy the upgrades that come as part
\nof the package without any additional costs and
\nit works anywhere.<\/p>\n

This Capex vs Opex experience will drive the
\neconomics of IT in 2015. Organizations today
\nare working hard to reduce the amount of overhead
\nit takes to run their networks, allowing
\ntheir technology staff to work on driving the
\nbusiness forward by solving technology problems
\nand not working hard on the non-value
\nadded back end maintenance. Productivity
\ngains and end user\/client satisfaction increases
\nare also side effects of this Opex model.<\/p>\n

This year will hold all of its normal surprises
\nfor the technology sector, but from an economic
\nimpact nothing will be driving businesses to
\nnew ways of thinking more than the forced end
\nof life to their servers and the new options for
\ncloud-based solutions to the old standard of
\nhardware and software refreshes. Small businesses
\nin particular are the biggest winners as
\nthe costs of these services continue to drop and
\nthe number of players continue to increase.<\/p>\n

As a small business owner, it’s worth understanding
\nand considering any and all options
\nwhen making a needed change to your technology
\nsystems.<\/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. Two items that are easy to pick off the top are the ending of support…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":20313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-28558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","tag-business-news"],"yoast_head":"\r\nEconomic Outlook 2015 - Mark Shaw - Saratoga Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Economic Outlook 2015 - Mark Shaw - Saratoga Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mark Shaw, president, Stored Technology Solutions (StoredTech) BY MARK SHAW The year 2015 will bring about a number of changes to the IT industry. Two items that are easy to pick off the top are the ending of support...\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Saratoga Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-08T00:04:00+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2014\/10\/markshaw.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"172\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"210\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Saratoga Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Saratoga Business Journal\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/\",\"name\":\"Economic Outlook 2015 - Mark Shaw - Saratoga Business Journal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2014\/10\/markshaw.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-08T00:04:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/ddf5fd6df8c43505ff3a5fb93e64871d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2014\/10\/markshaw.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2014\/10\/markshaw.jpg\",\"width\":172,\"height\":210,\"caption\":\"Mark Shaw, president and CEO of Stored Technology Solutions Inc. (StoredTech) Courtesy StoredTech\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Economic Outlook 2015 – Mark Shaw\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/\",\"name\":\"Saratoga Business Journal\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/ddf5fd6df8c43505ff3a5fb93e64871d\",\"name\":\"Saratoga Business Journal\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1ba402a238e359969bec40757b031230a02e1b4065fbc669f6b28ebacf90f75f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1ba402a238e359969bec40757b031230a02e1b4065fbc669f6b28ebacf90f75f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Saratoga Business Journal\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/author\/saratogabusinessjournal\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Economic Outlook 2015 - Mark Shaw - Saratoga Business Journal","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Economic Outlook 2015 - Mark Shaw - Saratoga Business Journal","og_description":"Mark Shaw, president, Stored Technology Solutions (StoredTech) BY MARK SHAW The year 2015 will bring about a number of changes to the IT industry. Two items that are easy to pick off the top are the ending of support...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/","og_site_name":"Saratoga Business Journal","article_published_time":"2015-01-08T00:04:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":172,"height":210,"url":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2014\/10\/markshaw.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Saratoga Business Journal","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Saratoga Business Journal","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/","url":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/","name":"Economic Outlook 2015 - Mark Shaw - Saratoga Business Journal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2014\/10\/markshaw.jpg","datePublished":"2015-01-08T00:04:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/ddf5fd6df8c43505ff3a5fb93e64871d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2014\/10\/markshaw.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2014\/10\/markshaw.jpg","width":172,"height":210,"caption":"Mark Shaw, president and CEO of Stored Technology Solutions Inc. (StoredTech) Courtesy StoredTech"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/01\/economic-outlook-2015-mark-shaw\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Economic Outlook 2015 – Mark Shaw"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/","name":"Saratoga Business Journal","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/ddf5fd6df8c43505ff3a5fb93e64871d","name":"Saratoga Business Journal","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1ba402a238e359969bec40757b031230a02e1b4065fbc669f6b28ebacf90f75f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1ba402a238e359969bec40757b031230a02e1b4065fbc669f6b28ebacf90f75f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Saratoga Business Journal"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/author\/saratogabusinessjournal\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}