While the client continues to be a device that becomes increasingly small, smart, connected and powerful, the server and network are becoming less visible as they progressively move offsite both physically and from a management perspective, and simultaneously serve more computing, storage and bandwidth.

The history of the IT Industry includes increasing levels of integration at the hardware, software and network levels: the move from mainframe to minicomputer involved re-packaging the processing, storage and network hardware and software into a smaller footprint – and today’s rack mounted server systems have become smaller versions of these; Lego blocks with built-in standard processors and other components that allow them to function as standalone nodes within the larger system, or together as supercomputers. This integration trend will continue resulting in an increasingly integrated platform, especially the networking component governed by software rather than by hardware. And these trends are the benefits for SMBs.