Comments on: Hosted Windows Desktops: Your Next MSP Move?

By: Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:33:01 +0000

Hi James: I’d love to hear more. Feel free to send me email (joe [at] NineLivesMediaInc.com).
-jp

By: James Zachman

James Zachman — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:29:05 +0000

I agree that MSP’s should be offering hosted desktops and applications. At some point most infrastructure will go the “the cloud” with the exception of local devices to connect. RTDS (www.myrealdata.com) has been hosting desktops and apps for 5 years with great success. The market is really now starting to “come to us” which is great. We also host LabTech (www.labtechsoft.com) Control Center for remote monitoring. The combination of these offerings provides a significant opportunity to offer a “best of breed” combination of MSP and hosting services. We also provide the 24×7 NOC support from our facility in New Delhi.

By: Gerson Crespo

Gerson Crespo — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:17:53 +0000

They say their target customers are start-ups and SMBs but…

Very small companies are happy with their laptops and inexpensive hosted apps.

Large Companies are more often concerned with the quality of the support behind the technology.

In my opinion this a solution looking for a problem – smart companies have already driven IT costs down to a very comfortable 1% – 2% of their overall costs. All this seems to do is make the technology itself a little cheaper. They also mention this is an “Alternative to Buying, Maintaining, Supporting and Upgrading PCs” …but I still need a PC to connect to their service …and that PC still requires maintenance and support. If they provided the PC as part of the service I’d find it more compelling.

What I’m hearing most from clients is help on making their technology easier to use and leveraging it within their own business. Their approach appears to be even more complicated to use than a traditional desktop.

The hosting business (known for having the slimmest of margins so for them to take their attention off the still growing MSP market surprises me. I wish them best of luck in any case. At best I think this service is a great monkey’s paw into a few companies still in the start-up stage that will eventually be full MSP clients.

By: Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:40:12 +0000

Vicki: I’ll be in touch to discuss that private label strategy.
-jp

By: Vicki J. Brown - mindSHIFT Technologies

Vicki J. Brown - mindSHIFT Technologies — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:45:25 +0000

Nick: You are correct. NextDesktop is based on the latest remote desktop services — specifically, Windows Server 2008 R2. We evaluated all technologies available for hosted and virtual desktops, and chose this one because we believe that it offers the best combination of functionality, performance and most importantly, cost, for the small and medium-sized business owner.

BTW, we’re currently working on a Private Label program for VARs, MSPs, ISPs, and Hosters who can resell the new Hosted Desktop service — under their name and brand. This private labeling enables resellers to offer this as a service from them; the mindSHIFT and NextDesktop brands are invisible to the customer.

By: Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:27:07 +0000

Ashley: Yes I’ve heard of both companies. I think mindSHIFT caught my attention so strongly because I visited their offices a few weeks ago and got a pretty in-depth briefing on their strategy.

By: Ashley Pashler

Ashley Pashler — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 07:28:24 +0000

Have you seen ThinkGrid or Pointivity? they offer virtualized desktop, different from terminal server or citrix which I think is offered by Mindshift.

By: Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:44:00 +0000

Hey Nick: I will ask mindSHIFT if their system is terminal server based on virtualized. Very interesting observation by you, and I know I’m way late connecting with you. Once I’m back from SMB Nation let’s talk.

By: Nick Vossburg

Nick Vossburg — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:48:29 +0000

It will be interesting to see what role technology plays in the decision process of a buyer when selecting a SaaS based desktop solution. Mindshift appears to have selected a terminal server based solution vs. a virtualized desktop based solution.

It’s also interesting that they dedicated an entire page to latency. Not something the average non-tech decision maker would likely understand however a high priority for an IT decision maker.

It should be noted that the solution starts at $40/month but if you add the common options of Exchange, Microsoft Office Professional, and Blackberry your at $80/user, which is on the low side of the present range of existing desktop as a service solutions.

Will distribution through Ingram Micro be next? (ie. GroupSpark…)