MSPmentor

The center of the IT world has shifted from corporate desktops to mobile devices like smartphones, netbooks and notebooks. Now, the big question: Can MSPs truly profit from mobile device management? And if so how?

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I just returned home from the Avnet-IBM Partner Summit in San Antonio, Texas. And yes, there was some managed services chatter at the event. Plus, our team received plenty of news tips that we didn’t have time to blog about this week. So, here we go: The top seven managed services blogs MSPmentor didn’t write for the week ending October 29, 2010.

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A picture is worth a thousand words, but one MSP has a different way to measure the impact of visualization. CMS, based in Richardson, Texas, provides outsourced network management and monitoring services for small and mid-sized telco service providers and enterprises. The company deployed layerX Technologies’ prism software, which encompasses alarm management, network management, VoIP quality management and IT automation. The product, which runs on layerX’s Arbitrator appliance, aims to visually organize an MSP customer’s network components to aid in troubleshooting. CMS, which uses prism in its network operations center, estimates that prism has reduced problem resolution time by 50 percent. Here’s the story.

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TheBDEvent, a networking mixer to be held January 25-27 (2011) in Palo Alto, Calif., could offer educational — and financial — opportunities for MSPs seeking funding. Here are some preliminary details about the gathering.

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Google Apps and Google Android are two key areas of the search titan’s enterprise initiative. And now the two meet as Google announces the addition of Android smartphone management to the Google Apps cloud suite. Here’s the scoop.

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Talk about contrasting views: Wall Street is cheering Microsoft’s latest quarterly earnings, but some MSPs remain wary of Microsoft’s channel cloud strategy — especially as the company prepares to transition from BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) to Office 365 sometime in 2011. Here’s the update.

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Auxilio Inc., a healthcare-focused managed print services business, has been capturing big deals this month. This week the company announced a three-year, $3.5 million MPS deal with New York Hospital Queens. That contract follows the company’s win earlier this month at Saint Joseph’s Medical Center in Yonkers. The company estimates the Yonkers contract at $1.5 million to $2 million. Here’s a closer look at Auxilio’s momentum,

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Fortunately, today’s new service management tools promise a variety of ways to optimize the profitability in your managed services business. They furnish a range of features and functions for handling projects and service contracts that let MSPs more easily define and measure key metrics and get a much clearer picture of their profitability.

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F5 Networks has launched iHealth, a web-based remote monitoring and management (RMM) tool that helps enterprises and channel partners to proactively manage corporate application performance. Is this yet another RMM tool for MSPs? Yes and no. Here’s why.

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Two major customer wins for Google in one day: The state of Wyoming and airline Virgin America say they’re migrating to the Google Apps cloud productivity suite. Better yet: Both migrations appear to have been managed by Google partners. Here’s the scoop.

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Infrastructure-as-a-Service provider 6Fusion has a big plan: make enterprise cloud computing usage as metered as your electricity bill. I spoke with 6Fusion VP of Product Management Rob Bissett about how this week’s launch of their UC6 3.0 cloud computing product factors in. Here’s some perspective.

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Just in time for Halloween, users of the Google Docs cloud app get the ability to dress up their data with all kinds of new visualizations, with new charts added and old ones getting a makeover. The update also adds a chart editor designed to make the process easier. Here’s the scoop.

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As the managed services market continues to evolve, the best MSPs may start to resemble mini-IBMs, predicted Andrew Monshaw (pictured), general manager of global mid-market IBM sales and distribution. Monshaw made the prediction during a sit-down interview with MSPmentor at the Avnet-IBM Partner Summit. Here’s the logic behind Monshaw’s statement.

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Caringo, which provides object storage software, believes the latest version of its product has relevance for cloud storage. The Austin, Texas company this week took the wraps off CAStor 5.0, which is slated to ship in November. The product provides multi-tenancy and dynamic caching — the kinds of features Mark Goros, chief executive officer of Caringo, said are applicable to cloud providers and MSPs.

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Google Sites, the public and internal web site and wiki creation aspect of the Google Apps cloud productivity suite, now has  support for scripts to support multi-step workflows. It doesn’t sound like much, but it has at least one Google partner excited. Here’s why.

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Intermedia claims to be the world’s largest independent Microsoft Exchange hosting service provider — so it’s no wonder that they’re looking to streamline self-service management for their SMB customers. The new release of the Intermedia HostPilot Control panel for gives their hosted services customers the ability to change their own passwords, enable call forwarding, and get SMS service status updates. Here’s the scoop.

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Anecdotal evidence suggests the managed services market remains healthy. But for the second time in 12 months, I believe MSPs are reaching a major inflection point. There’s no cause for panic. But the rules for managed services seem to be changing — yet again. Here’s why.

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N-able CEO Gavin Garbutt thinks he’s found new ways for MSPs to increase their market penetration. Specifically, Garbutt is turning N-able’s attention to partnerships on the data protection, compliance and capacity management fronts. Each of those partnerships should provide upsell and cross-sell opportunities for MSPs, Garbutt asserts. How? Garbutt shares details in this MSPmentor FastChat Video.

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Within the managed services market, Tigerpaw Software is known for its PSA (professional services automation) software. But Tigerpaw President James Foxall says the company has momentum outside of the MSP industry segment — serving voice resellers and data VARs in a range of markets. So where are Tigerpaw and its customers heading next? Foxall provides some answers in this MSPmentor FastChat Video.

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Information architecture specialist CommVault has launched a unified information governance platform, intended to complement the recently-released Simpana 9 data management solution, which is designed to give MSPs and their customers a bridge to virtualized and cloud storage environments. Here’s the scoop on CommVault’s most recent offerings.

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All Covered remains on the acquisition trail. The latest deal involves Alteritech in a play to reinforce its presence in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Md. Here’s the scoop.

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After a one-week hiatus, MSPmentor’s most-read weekly entry is back. And I promise: This entry is worth reading — especially for those who are good at reading between the lines in the managed services market. So here we go: The seven managed services blog entries we didn’t have time to write for the week ending October 22, 2010.

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Some MSPs remain skeptical of Microsoft’s cloud computing strategy. But give Microsoft credit: Cloud Channel Chief Gretchen O’Hara addressed more than 100 managed services providers earlier today, during a Cloud Computing panel at the N-able Partner Summit in Scottsdale, Ariz. Here are perspectives from O’Hara and highlights from the panel discussion.

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