Archive for July, 2008

CompTIA Breakaway: Here Comes Dell

Anybody else notice that Dell is a silver sponsor for the big CompTIA Breakaway show in Orlando (August 4-7)? CompTIA Breakaway typically attracts more than 1,000 attendees, with a heavy emphasis on VARs and managed service providers.

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25 Best Business Books

I am traveling quite a bit over the next few weeks, which means I’ll have ample time to catch up on some reading during flights (and flight delays…). With that in mind, I noticed this list of the top 25 best business books ever. Is the list perfect? Perhaps not. But you may find a few gems in the list to help you along with your managed services practices.

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Roaring Penguin, Level Platforms Partner Up

Roaring Penguin Software Inc., which specializes in anti-spam solutions, has inked a managed services partnership with LPI Level Platforms Inc. Next up, Roaring Penguin will be at CompTIA Breakaway seeking to recruit more managed service providers and resellers into its channel program.

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RightNow’s Earnings: Good News for SaaS?

RightNow, a member of our SaaS 20 Stock Index, has released quarterly results that reveal accelerating software as a service (SaaS) sales. You never know how investors are going to react — especially as oil prices fluctuate by the hour. But RightNow’s optimistic financial outlook could be reassuring to the SaaS industry. Here are some of the financial figures RightNow released July 30.

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The MSPmentor 250, Part IV of Our Managed Services Expert List

Welcome to Part IV of our MSPmentor 250 — which identifies the top executives, entrepreneurs and experts across the global managed services market. We’ve now revealed 200 of the 250 names on the list.

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Hardware as a Service Meets Linux

Should managed service providers start adding Linux-type devices to their hardware as a service (HaaS) strategy? Before you answer, consider a conversation I had with Canonical (developer of Ubuntu Linux) at last week’s OSCON (Open Source Convention). Here’s the scoop.

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SaaS Reality Check: RightNow Earnings Today

RightNow, one of the leading publicly held software as a service (SaaS) companies, is scheduled to announce earnings later today (July 30). We’ll provide some perspective once we see the numbers.

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Can You Fire Your Worst Customers?

During a tight economy, it’s sometimes difficult for you to turn down a questionable business engagement — even if you know the customer is going to be a nightmare, and the margins aren’t going to be so great.

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The MSPmentor 250, Part III of Our Managed Services Expert List

Welcome to Part III of our MSPmentor 250 — which identifies the top executives, entrepreneurs and experts across the global managed services market. We’ve now revealed 150 of the 250 names on the list.

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Opportunity: MSP Engineers On Demand

You already know about remote managed services. But during the F5 Networks Partner Summit today, I heard another twist on the managed services market — called “Engineers on Demand.” It’s a simple concept that may generate incremental revenue for managed service providers. Here’s the scoop.

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The MSPmentor 250, Part II of Our Managed Services Expert List

Welcome to Part II of our MSPmentor 250 — which identifies the top executives, entrepreneurs and experts across the global managed services market. We’ve now revealed 100 of the 250 names on the list.

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Preview: Managed Services At CompTIA Breakaway

When CompTIA’s Breakaway conference opens August 5 in Orlando, I’ll be mingling with attendees to see how their managed services strategies are coming together. This year’s Breakaway arrives at key moment in the managed services market. Here’s why.

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Meet the World’s Top Managed Services Experts: The MSPmentor 250

After five months of work, this week we’re unveiling the MSPmentor 250 — a list of the top executives, entrepreneurs and experts from across the global managed services ecosystem. The list also has a healthy helping of Software as a Service (SaaS) experts. Take a look.

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Amazon.com Lifts SaaS 20 Stock Index for Week Ended July 25

Amazon Web ServicesA strong financial report from Amazon.com lifted the SaaS 20 Stock index a tiny 0.20% gain for the week ended July 25. The index has now climbed almost four percent since early July. Are software as a service (SaaS) stocks ready to continue a rally? We’ll find out on July 30, when RightNow (RNOW) is scheduled to announce 2Q results after the market closes.

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Should I Have Used Telepresence?

I’ve been traveling all week with my fellow blogger, The VAR Guy. It was a great week for meetings, terrible week for travel. I was supposed to head home late Wednesday night. Fast forward to Friday morning, and I’m still continuing my long journey home due to multiple flight problems. Should I have used TelePresence, the next generation video conferencing technology, instead of going on the road?

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Coming July 28: The MSPmentor 250

Be sure to visit MSPmentor on Monday, July 28. That’s when we’ll unveil the first portion of our MSPmentor 250 — the ultimate Rolodex to the managed services industry — with additional content debuting throughout the week.

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Whose Brand Are You Building?

Are you repeating the same business branding mistakes you made in the 1990s? Here’s why I ask: When we launched our company (Nine Lives Media Inc.) we made a couple of branding mistakes without realizing it. But we took corrective action quickly.

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Apple’s MobileMe Managed Service Misses Mark

Apple MobileMeDoes Apple want to be a managed service provider? In some ways, yes. But so far those efforts aren’t going too well. The company’s MobileMe service — a cloud-based system designed to manage your contacts and calendars across a range of devices — is taking a beating from critics. Even The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, typically an Apple advocate, is telling readers that MobileMe is filled with problems.

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Vembu Attracts 900 Managed Storage Providers

More than 70 percent of successful managed service providers offer some form of managed storage, according to our MSPmentor 100 survey. Despite that lofty figure, the online storage market continues to enjoy strong growth.

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Kaseya Employees Dial the iPhone 3G

Still skeptical about Apple’s iPhone for business users? I’m not. And neither is Kaseya, the managed services platform provider. After extensive testing, Kaseya’s IT department has added the iPhone to its list of supported smart phones.

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SnapLogic Builds Bridges Between SaaS Islands

Software as a service (SaaS) sounds so simple. But the SaaS model gets complicated when businesses depend on multiple SaaS applications from multiple companies. The big challenge: How can an organization — or a managed service provider — coordinate data between multiple SaaS clouds? SnapLogic, an open source startup, is working to address that issue.

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Nimsoft Confirms Speculation: Another Record Quarter

Nimsoft CEO Gary ReadNimsoft CEO Gary Read back on July 7 hinted that the managed service platform provider had just completed another record quarter. Apparently, Read wasn’t exaggerating the situation.

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What Is Managed Services 3.0?

Cisco Systems Senior Director Al Safarikas, Autotask CEO Bob Godgart and THINKstrategies Managing Director Jeff Kaplan each work for vastly different organizations — massive, midsize and small companies. Still, they have something in common: They are evangelizing the move to next-generation Managed Services.

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