Advertising has long been the lifeblood of Facebook, and now, the company is hoping small businesses will also find use for its ad platform, a new report claims.

Facebook is looking to partner with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) to inform small businesses on the value of Facebook advertising, and educate them on why they should buy spots on the site, the Wall Street Journal is reporting. According to the Journal, Facebook plans to announce the agreement today.

Oracle is aiming the new product at small and medium-sized businesses as an alternative to its successful Exadata line

Oracle is hoping to capture the fancy of smaller companies enamored with its Exadata data-processing machine, announcing Wednesday the availability of a new database appliance configured for SMBs' needs and budgets.

The Oracle Database Appliance is "exciting stuff," and brings "the benefits of Exadata to entry-level systems," said co-president Mark Hurd during a webcast event Wednesday.

IBM will commit $1 billion in financing to help credit-qualified small and medium businesses (SMBs) over the next 18 months to take advantage of a new suite of advanced technologies such as analytics and cloud computing. This effort is designed to help SMBs spur innovation and drive economic growth by making credit more easily accessible, with approvals in less than 60 seconds, through IBM Global Financing.

Transitioning from on-premises hardware and applications to hosted platforms requires due diligence and an eye for detail much like any other IT project. Not doing the legwork up front can lead to plenty of problems down the road, including rocky relationships with vendors.

Just one day after Dell announced its first infrastructure-as-a-service offering, the company is jumping deeper into the cloud. Dell will offer a family of hosted software applications for small and midsized businesses, through partnerships with Salesforce.com, Microsoft, Intuit and others, the computer maker announced Tuesday.

Free cloud-based service is an alternative to BlackBerry Enterprise Server that lets small companies wipe data from BlackBerry smartphones.

Research In Motion launched a free online service for small businesses to help them centrally manage BlackBerry smartphones in the cloud, providing protection for business content saved on the devices.

PME et technologies mobiles : de la productivité sans frontières

Les PME sont de plus en plus nombreuses à adopter les technologies mobiles. Selon le sondage de Portfolio.com, elles sont 71% à encourager leurs salariés à travailler depuis leurs smartphones et tablettes. Et à gagner en productivité.

Pour inciter les PME à basculer dans le cloud, IBM France compte sur ses partenaires et revendeurs, qui pourront y trouver leur compte grâce à l’émergence de nouveaux business models.

IBM ne cache pas ses ambitions : répandre la bonne parole cloud auprès des entreprises, qu’il s’agisse de grands comptes ou de PME.

Hewlett-Packard is focusing more on small business these days. But Apple is too. Here's a brief overview of what the two U.S. computer giants offer for businesses that may have dozens rather than thousands of employees.

Service provider 8x8 has launched a new cloud-based videoconferencing service based on 8x8's voice and video IP service platform together with Polycom's UC Intelligent Core software platform. The 8x8 Virtual Room service is available in three tiers supporting low, standard and high definition telepresence video. 8x8 Virtual Room is one of four cloud-based services the company offers, adding to its existing portfolio of VoIP, video, contact center and hosting services.