CIOL: What percentage of the IT budget among SMBs goes in for data security?
PM: According to AMI Partners, Indian SMBs were on track to spend US$289 million on data security in 2008. As a percentage of what AMI slated as total IT spend by Indian SMBs (US$9.7 billion), this stands at approximately 2.9 per cent.

CIOL: Could you give an idea about Cisco's security solutions for SMBs?
PM: Our security strategy for the SMB segment is to provide security alongside a larger set of features, and this is where products like our UC 500 box or the ISR series routers come in. The Integrated Services Router (ISR) is a typical example of an SMB class product-combining the benefits of voice, data and video. It does away with diverse sets of hardware and literally is a ‘small office’ out of a box. 

The unified communication (UC) 500 is an affordable appliance that provides voice, data, voice mail, Automated Attendant, video, security, and wireless capabilities while integrating with existing desktop applications such as calendar, e-mail, and customer relationship management (CRM) programs.