MSPmentor

I just got a call from Autotask’s Mark Crall, live from the VMworld conference in San Francisco. Crall and dozens of other MSP industry executives are checking out the massive conference to see how the worlds of virtualization and managed services will collide. I certainly have a few thoughts on the subject (surprised?). Here are seven random observations.

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Sponsored Video: It has been roughly nine months since Quest Software acquired PacketTrap Networks, the remote monitoring and management (RMM) software specialist. So how are Quest and PacketTrap working with MSPs? And what makes PacketTrap different in the crowded market for RMM software? In this MSPmentor FastChat Video, Mike Byrne, director of MSP for PacketTrap, provides some updates.

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Microsoft continues to bang the drum — quietly but steadily — for Windows Intune, a forthcoming remote management platform for Windows PCs and servers. Several MSPs say Microsoft demonstrated a Windows Intune beta during the recent Xchange conference in Dallas. Were MSPs impressed? Here are some thoughts, plus MSPmentor’s perspectives.

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AccelOps continues to accelerate its channel and service provider initiatives. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based upstart, which focuses on data center and cloud service monitoring, has won a deal with Belgacom ICT, a service provider in Brussels, Belgium. Here are the quick details.

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Microsoft has quietly launched a Government Cloud Applications Center designed to bring state and local governments together with partners and solutions designed for the cloud. Here’s a quick look at the strategy.

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More than 600 IT service providers — many of them VARs and MSPs — have landed on the Inc. 5000 list, which tracks the fastest growing privately held companies in the United States. I certainly don’t know all the names on the list, but some very familiar small and midsize IT service providers grabbed the spotlight. Here’s a sampling…

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Kaseya has pulled back the curtain a bit more on its PSA (professional services automation) strategy. In a 17-page PDF prepared for IT service providers, Kaseya outlines its 2010-2011 road map. Dig into the report, and you’ll find some preliminary information about the Kaseya Business Center PSA effort. Here are the early details along with some guesses about how the MSP software market may evolve.

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QuorumLabs has announced a new release of their onQ Business Continuity Appliance, giving MSPs with SMB customers one-click server recovery when disaster strikes, the company claims. Here’s the lowdown.

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As he settles in as senior VP and GM of NetEnrich, Justin Crotty has two quick, concise messages for managed services providers. First, NetEnrich is more than a NOC (network operations center) services provider. Second, NetEnrich will remain all channel, all the time while continuing to rely on two strategic distribution partnerships. So where is NetEnrich heading next? Crotty provides some clues in this MSPmentor FastChat Video.

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MSPmentor expects plenty of MSP-related news from next week’s VMworld in San Francisco. In the meantime, here are seven managed services blog entries the MSPmentor team didn’t have time to write for the week ending Aug. 27, 2010.

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Regardless of the industry, great sales rainmakers are a rare, but valuable breed. These top producers, typically the founders, owners, or head executives at small to mid-sized business, are pros at pitching their company’s value, building rapport with prospects and cementing new relationships, and ultimately closing the sales deal to acquire new customers. For MSPs, the “Rainmaker Sales Model” involves some rewards — and some risks. Here’s an overview.

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In an attempt to further raise its visibility and drive collaboration between 28,000 users, Tigerpaw Software says it will launch an interactive Tigerpaw Community at the end of August 2010. It’s a smart move, but I’ll be curious to see how Tigerpaw’s efforts stack up against PSA rivals like ConnectWise (perhaps the most aggressive and successful community organizer) and Autotask (which has built a successful face-to-face conference to echo its online community). Here’s a closer look at the various vendor-led community strategies serving VARs, MSPs and IT service providers.

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Managed security services providers face a declining market as more of the infrastructure they hope to manage ends up in the cloud. That’s the take of Gray Hall, chief executive officer of Alert Logic, which provides SaaS-based threat management and log management offerings. In a recent post on the Secure Cloud Review blog, Hall writes that the pure-play MSSP model “will fade in significance.” Is he correct?

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Cycle30, itself a subsidiary of Alaska’s giant telecommunications and cable provider GCI, is launching billing services for telecom, cable and utility operators based on SunGard Availability Services’ cloud platform. Here’s the scoop.

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Bomgar, which specializes in appliance-based remote support, has launched the latest update to their Bomgar Appliance. The appliance now offers remote support features for devices the Apple iPhone and iPad (devices running Apple’s iOS). Like a growing list of IT companies, Bomgar apparently wants to make it easier for businesses and service providers to manage Apple devices in the enterprise.

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At the moment, it’s only for consumers, but Google has announced that you can now make phone calls directly from the Gmail web interface. Here’s the lowdown on the service, and how it may eventually impact managed services providers.

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Generally speaking, many load balancer companies target large enterprises and big service providers. But KEMP Technologies is striving to engage MSPs and even SMBs with cost-effective load balancing solutions. Here are the details.

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When I left the corporate world to co-launch Nine Lives Media Inc. with Amy Katz, one of our goals was to innovate. Constantly. Amy and I also wanted creative freedom and business freedom. But as a business grows, you suddenly discover that you’re really busy managing what you have — rather than breaking new ground. I suspect many MSPs and small business entrepreneurs face similar challenges. So how can you continue to innovate even as you maintain what you have? Here are six ways to break free from the very business walls you helped to build.

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I recently attended the terrific “Breakaway 2010” event put on by CompTIA, the leading computer industry association, and I was glad to see the big emphasis that was being placed on opportunities in the healthcare vertical market for IT solution professionals.

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Office Web Apps, Microsoft’s free SaaS answer to the Google Apps productivity suite, has gotten an update bringing cloud computing into the 1980’s (tongue in cheek intended) with the addition of new features including printing Word documents. Here’s the update on the update.

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Back in April 2010, Lawson Software identified Scott County, Minn., as an early user of the company’s cloud services. The county had tapped the cloud for disaster recovery. At the time, Lawson didn’t expect disaster recovery to be the typical cloud use case. But this week Lawson debuted Lawson Disaster Recovery, a cloud service targeting business processes such as payroll, finance, accounts receivable/payable, inventory management and procurement. Here are the details.

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Nine Technology has made a series of updates to its “Powered by Nine” data protection offerings — which are designed to help their MSP partners and customers recover data faster and easier if and when disaster strikes. Here are some quick details.

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It’s the type of development that could make life a bit easier for all MSPs. Specifically, each of the major PSA (professional services automation) software providers has vowed to push beyond Internet Explorer and support Firefox, Google Chrome and other major browsers. Yes, we’ve all heard promises of cross-platform browser support before. But PSA providers like Autotask, ConnectWise and Tigerpaw Software are going on record with their cross-platform browser strategy updates. Here are the details.

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