IT Business Net, 11/8/2011 (Terence Hall)

Why IT Drives Success in Business. Combine all the belt-tightening in a down economy with an increasing shift toward the cloud, and you might think IT isn’t as relevant today to small business as it was just a few years ago. But in fact, IT is a critical component to driving success, especially given the growing number of malware and other threats, an increased reliance on mobility, and adoption of more consumer devices into almost every business.

“Not investing in IT infrastructure or applications is a mistake,” says Terence Hall, communications coordinator and senior network engineer at BDPA New York, a nonprofit organization for professionals in computer science and IT. “There can be a large expenditure for maintaining IT, but many companies are now offering lower-cost solutions for SMBs. And if software licensing is an issue, open-source software is a great solution.”

Read the rest of the IT Business Net article.