Over the past few years we've been watching SMB's adoption rate of cloud and mobile technologies soar. According to the SMB Group's 2014 Top 10 SMB Tech Trends, 83% of SMBs have already deployed at least one mobile app. And while concerns regarding security remain (and rightly so), the lure of mobile devices' portability and convenience, the growth of mobile business apps, and the improvements in wireless data technologies, have been creating a tsunami-like tipping point.

Daily we see how people's personal experiences using cloud services like Facebook or LinkedIn accelerating the adoption of cloud services by SMBs. The growing use of social media, and collaboration services have created breaches in SMBs' resistance to cloud products and services.

In 2014 more SMBs than ever before were starting to use cloud based services as a normal course of business. They've discovered how horizontal apps such as Samepage increase their employees' productivity no matter where they are. By the end of 2013, 55% of them were using cloud enabled mobile apps for specific business functions such as CRM or order entry. And, thanks to affordable development costs and a growing base of app development tools, 49% of SMBs deployed unique business apps for their own customers and channel partners, giving them distinct competitive advantages -- especially for delivering customer service and gathering business intelligence.

At Kerio, we had two choices: get swamped by the mobile tsunami and pray we didn't drown. Or get to high ground fast and improve our products to surf that giant wave. In our minds, there was only one option: time to hang ten!

For 2015 we have committed resources to delivering across-the-board product enhancements that will:

• Provide our partners with cloud-based tools and technologies to more easily manage, monitor, report, and control their customers' Kerio installations
• Make every user experience more elegant and simpler, while increasing power, performance, and functionality

We've invested more in UX design to make our solutions more attractive to the eye, but more importantly, to make them more intuitive so they're easier to use. We're busily rewriting older code from the ground up in native apps to improve our mobile products' performance and add enhanced functionality. At the same time, we continue to invest in doing even more to ensure our products and services are secure and stable. Because at the end of the day, if what we deliver isn't stable and secure -- no amount of UX elegance, performance, or bells and whistles will matter.

We also see value in having more open and extensible platforms. There will be lots of new opportunities for third-party developers to build value-added products and services around Kerio products in 2015 and beyond.

Are You Ready? Wax Your Surfboard

With all the product improvements we have coming in 2015, end customers and partners can expect a year filled with solutions that make their lives easier, and business more profitable. Get your wetsuits on and wax your surfboards! It's gonna be a heck of a wave!