The phrase "IT infrastructure" makes most small business owners switch off. Fair enough — most of what's written about it is aimed at companies with 50+ staff and a dedicated IT manager. For a Devon small business with one to ten people, the practical question is much smaller: what tools should I be paying for, what should I be running, and what's overkill at my scale? This is the practical version.
The basics every Devon small business needs
Cloud-based business email
Microsoft 365 (£5–£15/user/month) or Google Workspace (£5–£12/user/month). Personal Gmail with your business name in it isn't enough — clients notice, and you lose calendar, document and team collaboration features.
For a Newton Abbot accountancy, a Torbay law firm, a Devon consultancy or any business handling client documents, the case is straightforward. Pick one and use it.
We are ready to talk things through!
Contact HereCloud file storage with proper sharing
Within Microsoft 365 you get OneDrive and SharePoint. With Google Workspace you get Drive. Either works. Critical: files live in the cloud, not on a single laptop hard drive, and access is controlled per-user rather than via a shared password.
The Devon small businesses that get caught out worst when a laptop is lost or a staff member leaves are the ones still keeping files on local drives.
Properly hosted website
Your website should sit on UK servers (low latency for Devon visitors), have an SSL certificate, daily backups, and someone responsible for keeping the platform updated. We host clients in a London Tier 3 data centre on Samsung Enterprise SSD storage with Cloudflare CDN — that's our default. Alternatives at small business scale include SiteGround, Kinsta or 20i.
What you don't want: a £3/month shared host where the site goes down weekly and support tickets sit unanswered for days.
Backup that you've actually tested
Daily off-site backups for your website, your email and your business documents. Test recovery at least twice a year — many backups silently fail without anyone noticing. UpdraftPlus on top of server-level backups is what we run for client websites; Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace include their own document backup, but for compliance-sensitive businesses (legal, medical, financial) third-party backup of cloud documents is also worth considering.
Password manager for the team
1Password, Bitwarden or Dashlane. Five to fifteen pounds a month for a small team. Eliminates the "shared spreadsheet of passwords" problem and meaningfully reduces breach risk.
Two-factor authentication everywhere
On your email, your website admin, your hosting account, your accounting software, your banking. Five minutes to set up, halves your real-world security risk.
What's typically overkill at small business scale
A dedicated server
Unless you have specific compliance requirements or unusually heavy workloads, dedicated servers cost more and break more than properly managed shared or VPS hosting. Most Devon small businesses don't need one.
Custom CRM development
You don't need a bespoke CRM. HubSpot Free, Pipedrive, Folk or Notion handle small business CRM needs at low or no cost. Custom development at this scale is a budget drain.
Enterprise data analytics
Big data tools assume big data. For a Devon small business with a few hundred customers a year, Google Analytics 4 plus a properly maintained customer spreadsheet does more than any enterprise platform.
Full Microsoft 365 E5 or equivalent enterprise licences
Most small businesses are well-served by Microsoft 365 Business Standard or Premium. The enterprise tiers add features almost nobody uses at this scale.
Cybersecurity basics that matter most
In rough order of impact:
- Two-factor authentication on email and banking
- Strong unique passwords through a manager
- All laptops and phones encrypted (default on modern Macs and PCs)
- Software and OS updates installed promptly, not deferred
- Staff training: phishing emails, suspicious links, fake invoice scams
Anti-virus software helps but is far less important than the above. The real threats to Devon small businesses are phishing and credential theft, not viruses.
Where we fit in
We host and manage websites for Devon businesses on the £300/month retainer, which covers hosting, backups, security, updates and support. For wider IT infrastructure (Microsoft 365 setup, network configuration, on-site IT support) we work with trusted Devon IT partners we can recommend. Call or WhatsApp 07887 988780.