ConnectIT 21-March-2006 desktopsites serves up SMB access by Dave Chappelle desktopsites Konect is server software designed to allow companies to centralize their applications, files, data, and web applications, and to "publish" these resources to employees where and when they are needed is a small privately-owned and operated business in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. "We're committed to helping other small and mid-size businesses compete anywhere, anytime, with technology solutions," said Alex Bethlehem, CEO and president, desktopsites. "Our competitive advantage is that businesses can use Konect to significantly reduce their software licensing and support costs, simplify their IT environments, and focus on doing the business they were created to do." Konect is designed to run on Microsoft Server 2000, and runs better on Server 2003. It will run on Small Business Server, but as Microsoft limits the Terminal Server Client Access licenses, it's not recommend. A single server can become a drawback, especially within multiple servers in a domain, and scalability. Konect has no limitation that way. Working with smaller businesses has helped desktopsites understand that solutions like PC Anywhere and GoToMyPC are indirect competitors. The company considers its largest competitor to be the use of Terminal Services as the status quo. "It may not provide what SMBs want, but until Konect there hasn't been a solution that met their functional needs at a price point they can realistically justify and afford," said Bethlehem. "In most cases, our customers have gone with those types of products because their price points made sense even if their functionality is limited. To be blunt though, we are David in the 'David versus Goliath' analogy. If you look at the market for what we do, the companies that own the market share are the who's who of software: Microsoft, Citrix, Sun. While these companies know SMBs are their next growth markets, they would all admit to difficulty in being able to communicate with and serve this market. We believe it "takes one to know one" and all of these companies left behind their SMB status years and years ago." The company is quick to explain when asked why an SMB would choose Konect over Citrix Small Business Essentials (SBE). "The two biggest things we hear about our competition are the cost of the product, the certification, and overall implementation and support," Bethlehem said. "They have to be certified. And there are so many things that can go wrong with the proprietary protocol. Konect runs on standard Microsoft, and there are a lot more people certified in Microsoft, especially when it comes to SMBs." Cost is definitely an issue to SMBs, and it's not just in software: support, scalability, and maintenance. And that's where the desktopsites sees its advantage with Konect, which is designed from the ground up to fit into that space. "If you look at the SMB market, do your research and homework, certain trends and behaviors are very apparent in how SMBs buy, deploy and support technology," said Bethlehem. "Rather than trying to fit a round peg into a square hole, we are focused on using the ready made channels that SMBs look to for their solutions. You don't have to be certified in anything other than Microsoft. We have load balancing, so it's not just on one server, eliminate the portal page, and publish the applications directly to the client system." <> desktopsites continually experiences the challenges of the SMB market first hand, and uses that knowledge to develop its solutions. "Our philosophy is that it has to help our business succeed for it to help other SMBs succeed. desktopsites understands the risk, resource, and reward balance for SMBs and is committed to providing cost effective solutions with rich feature sets to ensure SMBs remain competitive," said Bethlehem. He said that Konect offers a load-balancing feature in which multiple servers can be supported within a server farm, within the same domain. This is a critical factor for small businesses to consider as they continue to grow with their infrastructure support and maintenance costs. In the case of Citrix SBE a single server is supported. However, to grow with this would require a small business to migrate to the MetaFrame product, where considerable dollars for infrastructure, support, and maintenance becomes a non-viable option for these businesses. In addition, you only need to be Microsoft certified to run and administer the Konect serverware software. desktopsites is attempting to cater to the masses. Citrix SBE, requires you to become Citrix certified; a cost issue for many SMBs. Through Konect, applications are seamlessly delivered into the local client PC just as if they were locally installed. No second desktop to contend with; no static nFuse web page or portal delivery. The end user can work and function with minimal end user training. A further competitive Advantage, Bethlehem said, is that through Konect, a dynamic drive is created populating the C drive. Multiple file and folder shares can be delivered to a user dependant upon their role in the company, unlike SBE where a file can only be accessed through the published application. Through Konect, files and folders can be dragged and dropped, copied and pasted, from the server to the client PC and vise versa. This is not a capability within Citrix SBE."