Mobility is central to hottest small-business technology trends

When you ponder all the different trends driving small-business technology decisions, for me, the common denominator comes down to this question: Does the technology you are considering enable you and your team to get the job done job from any place, at any time, no matter which computing device they happen to have at hand?

If you think about it, the drive toward mobility is behind some of the hottest trends in small-business technology today -- a theme that was sounded often during my Webcast last Friday with my fellow ZDNet SMB technology champions Josh Gingold and David Gewirtz.

A primary benefit of cloud-delivered software applications or services? Their ability to secure information and data centrally, while enabling SMBs to free up their employees to work from remote and branch locations while allowing collaboration within teams.

The insatiable appetite for social media? It is inextricably linked to our mobile information consumption habits, and the plethora of mobile apps emerging that allow mobile updates and interaction with social networks.

Ditto the latest in security policies and solutions, which are meaningless without a mobile component.

And no matter whether your company sells to businesses or consumers, you can't talk about emerging trends in e-commerce or retail technology solutions without thinking about the central role that smartphones and tablet computers are having on the shopping experience.

See what I mean?

If you're wondering about what small-business trends should capture your attention this year, you should give our archived Webcast a listen.

(Image courtesy of user Mokra, via Stock.xchng)