There are a variety of new technologies advancing in 2012 that you should investigate, if you aren’t already doing so, to give your small business a leg up on the competition. These recent technologies are beginning to be widely adopted and will continue to drive business forward.

1. Tablets

When it comes to ethernet switches, what do you get for the extra money, besides more ports? You can buy a basic eight-port ethernet switch for connecting PCs together for well under $100, but data center versions with 24 ports or more can often cost well over $1000. Speed, network segmentation, power over Ethernet (PoE), quality of service (QoS) and management features are some of the more common extras. Here's what each of those features can do--and why you should spend extra for them.

1. More Speed

Recent flooding in Thailand has affected many hard drive manufacturers, resulting in price hikes for hard drives of as much as 50 to 100 percent. How long this will last is unclear, but in the meantime, you can postpone new purchases of storage gear by implementing these methods to help reduce unnecessary files, reduce the space used on the system, and allow for expansion with existing systems.

1. Use Storage Management

As tablets and smartphones are entering the workplace en masse, we polled business managers and IT managers on how they’re handling the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend.

A majority of respondents report at least some progress towards controlling the proliferation of mobile devices, or at least ensuring some security on devices allowed to connect to company networks. Yet, a large minority--33 percent--either have no policies yet or don’t control which devices are allowed on their networks.

First there were sewing-machine sized portable PCs, then laptops, the Newton, the Palm Pilot, and phones with built-in PDA functions. The iPhone led the way to the ubiquitous smartphone, and the iPad ushered in an era of tablets. Now wireless hotspots, printers, storage, and a variety of other devices are making their way onto your office network, possibly without the knowledge of managers.

These devices have the potential to compromise security, whether by introducing malware onto other devices on your network, or transporting company data outside the network. Fortunately, antivirus and encryption apps are available for all the major smartphone and tablet platforms, and most allow remote management.

First there were laptops, and then came PDAs, smartphones, tablets, netbooks, e-readers, and a host of other portable devices. Many gadgets first used in the home migrate to work, where users expect to connect them to the company network.

Unfortunately, while PCs or Macs are relatively simple to manage and secure, mobile devices can create a nightmare for the IT administrator. Each type of device requires a different antivirus client, and management options vary from one operating system to another, as well as from carrier to carrier.

On Monday, we asked readers how they manage guest Internet access at their companies. The results showed that very few business and IT managers appear to

Only 5 percent of respondents identifying as IT managers said they have an open Wi-Fi network without password protection. Thirty-nine percent put users and guests on separate networks, ensuring that visitors can’t access corporate assets, and another 12 percent use network access control to prevent insecure systems from connecting to the network. One-quarter password-protect the network before sharing it with visitors. Surprisingly, however, 17 percent said they don’t allow guest access at all.

Laptops used to be the only devices on the company's wireless network. But Wi-Fi has become a ubiquitous standard used by a host of devices--including desktop PCs, laptops, netbooks, tablets, smartphones, printers, storage devices, and projectors.

To determine whether you need to update or improve your Wi-Fi network, you need to know which new features are available for recent Wi-Fi devices, and how they can improve the services you provide.

For a long time, Wi-Fi basically meant connecting laptops to the network. Now cellular phones, tablets, netbooks, printers, hard drives, and projectors are Wi-Fi enabled. This can drive demand to expand coverage or increase speeds on your network.

Wireless access points (APs) or wireless routers have evolved substantially in the last few years, bringing newer, higher-speed network protocols as well as improved security.

On Monday, we polled IT and business leaders about how they’re using public and private clouds. The respondents to our pair of suveys who say they are well on the way to a completely virtual data center outnumber those who haven’t started using the cloud at all.

Nearly one-quarter of respondents to each of our two polls--one for IT managers and another for business managers--said they're on the way to a virtualized data center. Only 17 percent of people who took either poll said they're not using the cloud at all. The remainder have some sort of cloud initiative in place, either public or private.