I spent last week at Microsoft's TechEd 2003 conference in Dallas and learned a few things helpful to small businesses. Only a few, however, because this conference aims squarely at enterprise customers, software developers and their technical employees who pay big bucks to attend the company’s primary technical education conference each year.

There are two trends that will filter down to smaller firms in the coming year, so keep your eyes open. First, vendors are preparing automatic server security patching and software update services. Citadel Security Software’s Hercules will automatically read reports from security scanner software and "remediate vulnerabilities" without involving you, if you don’t want to be. Initially, Citadel is targeting big companies with dozens of servers on the public Internet, firms that don't have the IT resources to keep their security patches up to date.

Obviously, small businesses have as much vulnerability and even fewer IT resources, but Citadel's pricing initially aims at deep pockets. A single-server package starts at about $900, which is pretty steep. Firms with 50 servers will receive a volume license for less than the cost of hiring tech support to do the same job, Citadel says. However, as more vendors enter this market — such as Big Fix and Patchlink — watch for price drops. 

Speaking of patches, Microsoft admitted at the show that they’re a problem, and promised to rework its Web support presence to make finding and applying patches easier. That’s all well and good, but I believe the Citadel story will help more in the short run; Citadel applies new patches to test machines before rolling them out to customers’ servers — that alone is worth the price. 

There was lots of hype at the show about the upcoming Microsoft Office System upgrade. Beware of current price breaks offered on Office XP, and ignore them until Microsoft guarantees the discounted software qualifies for an automatic upgrade when the new Office ships. All companies drop prices of current products to cajole users into buying now rather than waiting for the new version. Microsoft will, however, eventually, include an upgrade coupon to the next Office version, so wait it out.

VPNs are dear to the heart of Network World readers because they make secure telework possible. And in the next year, new methods of VPN configuration and support will make life even easier for network administrators charged with supporting remote workers.