Small businesses face tightening IT budgets this year, but here are five technology trends all midmarket companies should be keeping an eye on.

The successful creation of a rogue certificate authority by security researchers using a colliding certificates attack demonstrates that if you're not moving forward with your security-related standards then you're moving backward. Everything gets cracked over time, so you have to keep improving your defenses.

Deciding to build a green, energy-efficient IT infrastructure is easier than choosing which servers, data storage and virtualization products will actually use less heat, cut your energy bill and reduce your enterprise's carbon footprint. There is no shortage of green, energy-efficient IT certifications and standards that rate products for heat production and energy consumption.

Big and small providers alike offer hosted or cloud-based collaboration and e-mail systems geared for businesses, with some obvious benefits.

While Google and Microsoft have each developed very different business models and attitudes toward consumers and the enterprise, both companies are preparing to clash when it comes to how the world's cloud computing infrastructure develops in the next 10 years. While Google and Microsoft might fight for dominance in the cloud, it's not clear which company will win or if a third company might succeed.