MSPmentor

Later this week at the MSPAlliance’s Managed Services Summit in Chicago, BlueLock and Shavlik Technologies are expected to describe a new managed security partnership involving cloud computing. Here’s some preliminary information about the relationship.

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At first glance, ConnectWise and OnForce have vastly different business strategies. But take a closer look and you’ll find that the two companies appear to be on a collision course — especially as managed service providers (MSPs) seek to outsource work to one another through trusted partnerships.

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At last, Xerox is paying serious attention to hardware as a service (HaaS). The multi-function printer giant plans to support a growing list of managed services platforms, MSPmentor has learned.

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It’s a key question MSPmentor hears more and more: Should managed service providers build their own network operation centers (NOCs)? Or should they look across the market and leverage a partner’s NOC?

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A quick observation: Pointivity, which specializes in application hosting, managed services and cloud computing, has signed on to leverage Parallels virtualization software in the company’s data center.

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While financial stocks were on a roller coaster ride, software as a service (SaaS) stocks delivered a strong showing for the week ended Sept. 19. In fact, MSPmentor’s SaaS 20 Stock Index rose 3.81% on the week. It was the first time the index rose since mid-August.

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From VMworld to the ConnectWise Partner Summit, managed service providers attending conferences this week are talking up managed virtualization services.

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Apparently, a growing number of managed service providers (MSPs) are losing faith in Google Postini, a hosted email security and compliance solution. During the ConnectWise Partner Summit in Orlando, three separate MSPs told me they are moving away from Postini because of Google’s poor partner communications.

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Do you think your company ranks among the world’s top managed service providers? Now’s your chance to prove it. Participate in our new MSPmentor 100 survey (2008-2009 edition). The survey only takes a few minutes to complete. Please note: Even if you’re a small MSP you should fill out the survey. Since we measure a range of metrics, even small MSPs can successfully appear on the list.

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During his keynote at the ConnectWise Partner Summit, Nicholas Carr, author of The Big Switch, showed clear evidence that cloud computing is real today.

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During his keynote at the ConnectWise Partner Summit in Orlando, CEO Arnie Bellini asserted that Technology as a Service (TaaS) will emerge as a super set of Software as a Service (SaaS) and Hardware as a Service (HaaS). And he  sent a clear message to Dell, Google and Microsoft: Managed service providers will be prepared to compete against those tech giants in the cloud.

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At the ConnectWise Partner Summit in Orlando, Fla., vendors continue to connect the dots between disparate managed services systems. For example:

• I hear Ingram Micro Seismic Help Desk will soon integrate with ConnectWise‘s professional services automation (PSA) software.
• MX Logic today will introduce a free tool that will MSPs generate monthly security reports for customers. The tool integrates with ConnectWise.
• Sources say Level Platforms will demonstrate some sort of integration with Zenith Infotech‘s business continuity solution.

MSPs that depend on multiple managed services tools will welcome those efforts.

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At the ConnectWise Partner Summit in Orlando, Fla., managed service providers  are buzzing about a range of topics. Amid growing US economic concerns, many managed service providers here are striving to focus on marketing, sales and emerging partnerships. However, there’s no doubt that the economy is starting to impact MSPs. Here’s why.

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I spent much of 2007 hyping the Symantec Protection Network (SPN), a software as a service (SaaS) platform for storage management (now) and security management (down the road). But even Symantec concedes SPN hit some early bumps.

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Do you think your company ranks among the world’s top managed service providers? Now’s your chance to prove it. Participate in our new MSPmentor 100 survey (2008-2009 edition).

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A solid source says Dell is taking a very close look at the managed print market. At first glance, managed print services are a natural “hardware as a service” (HaaS) opportunity for managed service providers. But as one distribution executive recently told me, most major printer companies have struggled to gain traction with their HaaS initiatives.

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When the ConnectWise Partner Summit kicks off this week in Orlando, Fla., I’ll be sitting down with managed service providers and vendors to gather their observations. Roughly 700 MSPs are expected to attend the event. Here are five key trends I expect to track at the conference.

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Here’s an interesting statistic: Managed service providers that have virtualization expertise say their new business revenues have grown 34 percent over the past 18 months, according to a recent survey sponsored by Nimsoft.

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Talk about timely, on-point messaging. MasterIT, one of our MSPmentor 100 companies, is hosting a “non-technical” symposium October 30 at the FedEx Institute of Technology in Memphis, Tenn.

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Dell continues to maintain a direct and indirect balancing act in the managed services market, this time as the company marches into the New York Metro area. Here are updates on the Dell’s overall MSP strategy, including direct monthly pricing info and the company’s latest certification momentum.

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The MSPAlliance continues to build technology vendor relationships to help managed service providers evaluate software at discounted costs or no initial cost. The latest deal involves N-able, and it arrives a few weeks after the MSPAlliance and AdventNet announced a somewhat similar relationship.

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Managed Data Holdings LLC, which specializes in SAS 70 certified data centers, has acquired Stargate, a managed service provider in Oak Brook, Ill. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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Gavin Garbutt, president and CEO of N-able, is back in New York this week. It’s Garbutt’s second trip to The Big Apple since mid-August. We’re having breakfast Monday to discuss the managed services market before Garbutt heads over to meetings at Everything Channel.

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