MSPmentor

Jose Segrera, chief financial officer at Terremark Worldwide Inc., has noted a trend we’ve been covering lately: the government’s high level of interest in cloud computing. Speaking Dec. 8 at a UBS conference, Segrera jokingly cited President Obama and federal CIO Vivek Kundra as the company’s top sales engineers. Here’s why.

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Several MSP software providers are planning major platform upgrades in December 2009 and January 2010. Earlier today, for instance, N-able launched N-central 7.0. The company also reinforced a “freemium” security software strategy to help grow the managed services market. As new upgrades flood the market, established and aspiring MSPs will have the opportunity to re-examine which tools and technologies align best with their business goals.

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Over the past few years, Dell has made multiple software acquisitions. You remember the names — Silverback, Everdream, etc. But now, Dell Cloud Evangelist Barton George is starting to tell people how those deals fit together into a $450 million cloud and SaaS (software as a service) push.

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MSPmentor will host its final managed services webcast of the year this Wednesday, Dec. 9. Our guests are former MSP Gary Pica and ConnectWise CEO Arnie Bellini. Our format: Six business tips in one hour — plus non-stop questions from our attendees. Here’s how to join the webcast.

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Rewind a decade or two, and it was commonplace for IT administrators to join user groups — especially since we were all trying to learn the ins and outs of Windows, Mac OS and even OS/2. Fast forward to the present and MSP user groups seem to be popping up across the globe. But will MSPs keep sharing information as competition heats up?

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As we continue to piece together our third-annual MSPmentor 100 survey results (Dec. 11 is our deadline for submissions), we’re checking in with last year’s MSPmentor 100 companies to see how their businesses are performing. For this blog entry, I spoke to Doug Ford, president of the San Diego-based The I.T Pros (ranked No. 96 in our 2008-2009 list). Here’s a recap of our conversation.

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The week started off slowly. Then Thursday night turned into a blogging marathon with two big breaking stories. So what blogs didn’t MSPmentor have a chance to write this week? Here are seven of them for the week ending Dec. 4, 2009.

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Intermedia and Ingram Micro Seismic are marching forward with their plans to offer Hosted Exchange 2010 to managed service providers. The move comes as many VARs and MSPs continue to sort out their SaaS (software as a service) strategies for Microsoft applications.

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Here’s a company that wants to put MSPs, and others, to the test. SOASTA Inc., a firm that provides cloud-based testing solutions, is casting a wide net as it builds a reseller channel.

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PacketTrap Networks, which specializes in monitoring software for managed service providers, has been acquired, MSPmentor has learned. News of the deal surfaces only a few hours after chatter started about a possible ConnectWise-CharTec business relationship. Here’s some quick information about PacketTrap’s buyer. Plus, a look at the MSP software industry’s changing competitive landscape.

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Sources say something is cooking between ConnectWise and CharTec — which specializes in Hardware as a Service. What could be brewing? At first glance, I don’t know much. At all. (Surprised?) But take a closer look and you might start to see the bigger picture. It involves PSA (professional services automation) and RMM (remote monitoring and management) software companies eventually cooperating and competing in the cloud. Here’s why.

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Adds, moves and changes: Several managed services industry veterans are making career moves ahead of the New Year. Some of the moves are public knowledge. Others are still to be formally announced. Confirmed today: Brian Sherman, the well-known veteran of Autotask and Business Solutions magazine, has launched Tech Success Communications. And Todd McKendrick, a veteran of Dell Managed Services and Do IT Smarter, is leaping to Nimsoft. Here’s a closer look at both moves.

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CA Inc. (formerly Computer Associates International Inc.) is preparing to push its ARCserve backup and restore platform into the managed services market. Specifically, CA is developing licensing options that will make it easier for MSPs to generate recurring revenue from ARCserve. Here are quick details.

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Our blog team attended a Dec. 2 lunch-and-learn session hosted by DynTek (an $85 million solutions provider). During the gathering, DynTek educated more than 60 existing and target customers about Windows 7 and virtual desktop infrastructure. It got me wondering: How many managed service providers are planning similar lunch and learns for 2010? And if you’ve never hosted a lunch and learn how can you get started?

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Our blog team spent Dec. 2 in New York at a lunch-and-learn hosted by DynTek (an $85 million solutions provider), Microsoft and Citrix. The topic: Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure and Windows 7. But during a side interview, DynTek Managing Director Ken Young offered up his thoughts on Microsoft’s cloud strategy. Our key question: Can VARs and MSPs really profit from Windows Azure (Microsoft’s Windows cloud) and BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite, which includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, etc.). Here’s a recap of the conversation.

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Apparently, the economic crisis is easing — especially in the service provider market, where investors are starting to pump money into the sector. Here’s a look at multiple recent deals involving MSPs, hosting providers and aspiring cloud specialists. As a whole, the deals could represent a financial vote of confidence in the managed services market.

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First things first: Yes, Staples — the office supply store with red storefronts and the easy button — operates a managed services business. Instead of countering Best Buy’s Geek Squad, Staples Network Services provides outsourced IT solutions to SMBs with between 10 and 250 employees. I spoke to Jim Lippie, president of Staples Network Services, about the history of the company and the future of managed services, among other things. Here are some perspectives.

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MSPmentor will host its final managed services webcast on Dec. 9. Our guests are former MSP Gary Pica and ConnectWise CEO Arnie Bellini. Our format: Six business tips in one hour — plus non-stop questions from our attendees. Here’s how to join the webcast.

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Service Providers are worried about the future prospects of their current managed service offerings in the face of emerging competition. More and more customer compute dollars could flow toward cloud providers with huge scale advantages like Amazon, Google and Microsoft.  I get the concern. But the cloud genie is not going back in the bottle. Here’s how to move forward.

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A quick question for managed service providers: Does your 2010 company budget include a line item for marketing, PR and company promotions? Do you even have a basic marketing strategy in place? If not here are nine quick ideas to get started.

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