MSPmentor

Economic concerns continue in the US, but some clear IT spending trends are beginning to surface. If you look at recent financial results from networking companies, PC companies, software specialists and service providers, you can get a better feel for how to shape your managed services practice for the rest of 2008.

Sector: Networking

The Upshot: Networking companies aren’t so hot. Nortel is struggling and even the mighty Cisco has expressed concerns about IT spending in selected markets. MSPmentor recommendations: Go deep in hot networking segments rather than broad. Check out Cisco’s intuitive “price per user per day” strategy, which could help you shape your managed services pitch to customers. Also, begin to explore how open source may impact network managed services. Digium’s latest quality guarantee to partners could help to accelerate demand for Asterisk, an open source IP telephony platform that’s gaining popularity in the managed services space. Also, begin to investigate how you can optimize specific applications for better network performance. F5 Networks, in particular, is attracting attention in that area.

Sector: Software as a Service

The Upshot: Salesforce.com just had a blowout quarter, some major enterprises are beginning to embrace Google Apps (an online software suite) for daily applications, and some pundits say SaaS is immune to an economic slowdown. We don’t think that’s the case, but we do believe SaaS continue to deliver new opportunities. MSPmentor recommendations: Start to explore how the SaaS and managed services sectors are converging. Level Platforms CEO Peter Sandiford provided some perspective in this guest blog entry.

Sector: Traditional Software

The Upshot: Skeptics like SugarCRM CEO Johnathan Roberts will tell you traditional software is dead, and open source is the way to go. But recent financials from Microsoft suggest otherwise. MSPmentor recommendations: Explore how traditional applications are moving into SaaS settings. One prime example is Microsoft Dynamics, which plenty of VARs are starting to host for customers.

Sector: Storage

The Upshot: Big, established technology companies — like EMC and Symantec — are moving into the storage-as-a-service market. This is a clear signal that storage as a service has reached critical mass, and should now be a basic offering in every MSP’s toolkit. MSPmentor recommendations: Get sophisticated. Push beyond backup and restore to focus on contingency planning and disaster recovery services. And keep your mind open as nimble storage specialists introduce managed storage partner programs. Vembu, for one, comes to mind. Also, check out third-party storage services that you can plug into. Amazon.com’s Simple Storage Service is turning some heads.

Sector: Security

The Upshot: Continues to be a hot sell, but you need to push beyond traditional anti-virus, anti-spyware solutions. MSPmentor recommendations: Read up on PCI compliance. Much like Sarbanes-Oxley a few years ago, PCI is the hot compliance topic of today. Looking ahead, many customers will insist that their MSPs offer PCI-compliant services. Here’s some more background on PCI for MSPs.

Sector: Open Source

The Upshot: Even long-struggling Novell, provider of SuSE Linux, is now raising its revenue estimates for 2008. But don’t limit your open source thoughts to Linux. MSPmentor recommendations: Begin to understand how open source is shaping managed security services (example partner: Untangle), managed VoIP, and hosted databases and hosted applications like SugarCRM.

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Several dozen VARs are heading to a managed services luncheon today in New York, where they’ll learn about best practices for hardware as a service (HaaS), managed printing and managed security.

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As Microsoft launches Windows Server 2008, I’ve noticed a rather interesting market dichotomy: Traditional, mainstream server application providers (BEA Systems, IBM, Oracle, etc.) are falling all over each other to vow support for the new operating system. But managed service platform providers aren’t saying much about Microsoft’s latest server release. Here’s why.

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Digital signage: At first, it was considered a hardware opportunity for VARs. But a second look reveals that it’s a recurring revenue and software-as-a-service (SaaS) opportunity for managed service providers.

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Salesforce.com  delivered the goods today. The software-as-a-service (SaaS) company announced particularly strong quarterly profits and raised its rest-of-year financial guidance. That’s great news for SaaS and its close cousin, managed services. But let’s not get too giddy.

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When MSPmentor first wrote about revenue opportunities in digital signage, some managed service providers expressed skepticism. Frankly, we’re feeling a little vindicated today — based on Cisco Systems’ digital signage initiative. Here’s the scoop.

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N-able, the managed service platform provider, is looking to make a splash in Australia. Smart move. A few weeks ago, MSPmentor described how the managed services market is growing more than 20 percent annually in Australia. And N-able CEO Gavin Garbutt (pictured) estimates that there are nearly 2 million small and midsize businesses in Australia, providing fertile ground for managed service providers. Here’s how N-able — and some of its rivals — hope to grow that market.

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A few weeks ago, I started hearing rumblings about managed service platform providers embracing the virtualization market. One of the first movers in this effort is Nimsoft, which today unveiled automation tools for monitoring VMware environments. But Nimsoft won’t be alone for long. Plenty of companies are looking to convergence virtualization with managed services. Here’s a sampling of what to expect.

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MSPmentor is striving to identify the top 250 leaders, innovators and influencers shaping the global managed services market. We’ve received several dozen nominations since launching this project on February 21.

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If you’re still skeptical about managed services and software as a service (SaaS), spend a day at Long Island’s Hofstra University. Roughly 13,000 Hofstra students have access to Google Apps Education Edition to collaborate online, according to Robert W. Juckiewicz, Hofstra’s VP of IT.

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If you want to promote your managed service into a vertical market, steal a page from Third Brigade’s playbook. The company, which offers security solutions to managed service providers, is making some PR noise at this week’s huge HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) conference in Orlando.

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It’s not called a managed services program. And it’s not hyped as a recurring revenue effort. But Cisco Systems’ latest pricing plan in the unified communications market is something that may interest managed service providers. The networking giant has introduced “per-user-per-day pricing” to help channel partners accelerate their unified communication sales to small and midsize businesses.

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Logicworks, a managed service provider in New York, has made a rather interesting move that other MSPs should note: The company claims it is the first authorized MySQL Platinum Hosting Partner in the U.S.

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We receive all types of questions from our readers. The most common inquiry involves readers who want to find and network with experts who can assist their managed services efforts. That’s why we’re launching the MSPmentor 250 — which identifies the top leaders and innovators shaping the global managed services market. To nominate someone for the MSPmentor 250, simply fill out our online survey.

The MSPmentor 250 will allow you to learn from the industry’s sharpest minds. It will honor the people most responsible for shaping this dynamic industry. And it will be a fantastic tool for building or expanding your industry Rolodex.

We expect our final list to include CEOs, CTOs, CIOs, association leaders, entrepreneurs, marketing wizards, sales pros, venture capitalists and other experts shaping the global managed services ecosystem. If you’re doing business in the MSP sector, you’re eligible to appear on the MSPmentor 250.

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Got a technical or business question about managed services? MSPmentor has developed a fast way to help you out. Several dozen MSPmentor readers have used our Ask a Mentor service to find answers to their most pressing managed services questions.

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TelePresence, the next-generation video conferencing technology, is slowly catching on with big customers. But it could be a few more years before TelePresence becomes a mainstream opportunity for managed service providers. First, the good news: Hewlett-Packard says its Halo video conferencing deployments have been doubling annually since the product’s launch in 2005, according to Reuters. And as new TelePresence systems go in, customers will need managed service providers to deliver related bandwidth optimization services.

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Many managed service providers and VARs struggle with day-to-day cash management, customer invoicing and bill payments. I can’t endorse a particular solution to these challenges, but a software as a service (SaaS) outfit called Bill.com caught my eye earlier today.

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MSPmentor will be blogging live from a Managed Services Luncheon on February 28 in New York, NY. The event, hosted by Do IT Smarter, Xerox and MX Logic, seeks to educate VARs about managed services opportunities.

During similar events held in Boston and Philadelphia, attendees learned key steps to offering hardware as a service and managed print services.

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When it comes to managed services partnerships, Tech Data’s strategy can be summed up in four words: The more the merrier. The big distributor has inked an MSP platform partnership with Zenith Infotech. The deal comes only a few weeks after Tech Data partnered to offer managed print services.

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We all talk about how difficult it is to grow our sales. Is there a magic bullet? What can you use as a door opener so you can promote your managed services? Let’s focus on what small to medium size businesses (SMB) are looking for.

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After a year of anticipation, Symantec finally launched its managed service/software-as-a-service platform today. The Symantec Protection Network (SPN) initially supports storage services, with security services expected to arrive later this year or sometime in 2009.

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For the second time in a week, I’m hearing buzz about managed service providers working more closely with Amazon.com’s Simple Storage Service (also known as Amazon S3). For MSPs, the trick is embracing a reliable back-end storage service without mitigating your own brand in the market.

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In the world of journalism, there’s an old saying: “Three’s a trend.” I thought of that truism this morning when I learned Tech Data plans to offer VMware to its resellers. Managed service providers should take note. In addition to Tech Data, at least two MSP platform providers are striving to help VARs more effectively manage virtualized servers.

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