MSPmentor

Master MSPs — which offer education and multiple hosted services to VARs and aspiring managed services providers — seem to be evolving in multiple directions. Some are becoming cloud aggregators. Others are expanding their SMB channel training services. But one thing is clear: No two Master MSPs seem to have the same business plan these days. Here’s why.

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Cloud Computing is a top priority for IT this year. Organizations large and small are no longer debating whether cloud makes sense. Instead, they are concerned with where to start and what type of cloud offerings should they adopt — public, private or both.  Sound familiar? As an MSP, the fastest and smartest way to get started with Cloud is by offering cloud-based services around what you already know. What core technologies and competencies do you bring to the table for your customers today?  That’s where you want to focus your efforts — at least initially.

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I’m running a bit late with quite a few things — including this blog entry. After last week’s Parallels Summit in Orlando, I’m heading out later today to Cisco Partner Summit in New Orleans. But before I catch my flight here are seven managed services blog entries MSPmentor didn’t have a chance to write for the week ending February 25, 2011.

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Telepresence and video conferencing continue to make headway as a managed services market. MSPmentor has covered the market’s evolution here and here. Now, market research numbers provide some quantification for this sector. ABI Research predicts that hosted and managed telepresence and videoconferencing services will reach $1.2 billion worldwide by 2016 — at an annual growth rate at 19 percent. The market grew at a 25 percent clip in 2010 to $512.5 million, according to the company. But that’s not all.

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Hit the “pricing” tab atop the VaultLogix web page, and you’ll be able to get a quick quote based on the applications you use, the amount of data you’re trying to store and how soon you will need to use the service. VaultLogix CEO Tim Hannibal (pictured) is willing to bet that quote will be lower than what the majority of other online storage backup companies would be able to offer.

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Spiceworks, the free RMM platform that has over one million users, is giving MSPs a new way to address trouble tickets on the go: Spiceworks Mobile, a free Apple iPhone app now available on the iTunes App Store that brings most of the functionality of the desktop Spiceworks to the smartphone. Here are some quick details.

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Two recent surveys on data backup depict businesses as questioning the complexity, price, and effectiveness of solutions. The results suggest plenty of  room for improvement in this market segment and an opportunity for MSPs who can provide a confidence-building service that doesn’t break the bank.

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OS33, which develops a cloud-based platform for managed services providers, has launched  OS33 Grid, an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The grid offering is designed to work with OS33′s existing managed services software, according to OS33 President and Co-founder Jacob Kazakevich.

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At first glance, Parallels is a relatively small software company — generating about $100 million in annual revenues while helping hosting providers and channel partners to more rapidly deploy SaaS applications. But listen to new Parallels CEO Birger Steen (pictured) and you’ll learn about the convergence of managed services and cloud computing at this week’s Parallels Summit in Orlando, Fla. I’m not here to endorse Parallels’ software, but I can say — with confidence– that MSPs and VARs should start attending the company’s annual partner summit. Here’s why.

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Any IT services provider still skeptical of the cloud opportunity needs to consider this: You’ll be hard-pressed to find another model in IT that promotes customer retention the way cloud services do. Once you hook the customer through a cloud services contract that covers most, if not all, of their IT needs, the customer is unlikely to ever want to procure IT services from anyone else. That is, so long as you uphold your end of the bargain by providing reliable, scalable services.

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Level Platforms has launched Managed Workplace Cloud Edition, a hosted remote monitoring and management platform for MSPs. Take a closer look and you’ll notice some evolving partnership strategies in the managed services ecosystem. Indeed, NaviSite is hosting Managed Workplace Cloud Edition for Level Platforms. Plus, a longstanding relationship between Level Platforms and Ingram Micro Services and Ingram Micro Seismic is evolving…

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When Parallels Chairman Serguei Beloussov (pictured) talks, a growing portion of the managed services industry is starting to listen. More than 1,000 channel partners — including hosting providers and cloud services providers — are attending this week’s Parallels Summit 2011 in Orlando, Fla. If you look hard enough you’ll find a healthy number of managed services experts — folks like Autotask‘s Mark Crall and Ingram Micro‘s Renee Bergeron — attending this year’s event. The race, it seems, is on to find out how Parallels’ rapidly growing partner ecosystem may converge with the managed services market.

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Google Message Continuity, the Postini-powered, Gmail-leveraging message continuity service, now supports backing up Microsoft Exchange 2010. But despite the potential benefits, extending Google Message Continuity like this raises more questions than it answers. Here’s why.

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Generally speaking, the vast majority of MSPs (managed services providers) use RMM (remote monitoring and management) software to proactively maintain customer networks, and reduce service calls and truck rolls. But is it possible to quantify the financial benefits of RMM software? CoreConnex is trying to find the answer to that question.

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As Microsoft Management Summit 2011 approaches (March 21-25, Las Vegas), MSPmentor is starting to hear more chatter about Windows Intune – a SaaS platform that may allow MSPs to remotely manage Windows 7 devices. Admittedly, Windows Intune won’t dominate the Microsoft conference. But the event will likely allow partners and customers to more closely evaluate Microsoft’s progress with the Windows Intune beta. Here’s why.

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It’s been a busy beginning to 2011 for mindSHIFT Technologies (ranked near the top of our fourth-annual MSPmentor 100). Indeed, mindSHIFT has already made two acquisitions in 2011, bringing the company’s total number of acquisitions to nine since 2003. And now, CEO Paul Chisholm is sharing some more details about mindSHIFT’s performance.

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VM6 Software is poised to launch a Global Managed Service Provider Partner Program. If the partner program works as advertised, MSPs will gain a low-cost, build-as-you-grow model in the virtualization market.

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Call it the 11th managed services merger or acquisition so far in 2011. This time the deal involves Peak UpTime Inc. of Tulsa, Oklahoma buying managed services neighbor eMonarch. An official announcement is expected within the next few days. In the meantime, eMonarch CEO Sean Fullerton has confirmed the deal.

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Greg Brophy is riding three technology waves all at once, and he’s inviting channel partners to ride along, too. As director of product management at Tata Communications, Brophy is helping to converge the worlds of TelePresence, managed services and cloud services.

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The MSPmentor team plans to unplug for a full three days as the U.S. celebrates Presidents’ Day Weekend. (Of course, we may surface if any big, breaking news happens over the extended weekend.) In the meantime, here are seven managed services blogs MSPmentor didn’t find time to write for the week ending Feb. 18.

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Another insanely busy week is wrapping up for MSPmentor, The VAR Guy and TalkinCloud. We realize: Some readers don’t have time to track all the conversations across all of our web sites each week. So, here are the 15 most read channel blog entries across our channel blog network for the week ending February 18, 2011.

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Now that readers have had a couple of days to digest the latest MSPmentor 100 results, we’re sorting through scores of emails from readers who want more information about the current research and future research. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions MSPmentor has received along with a few thoughts/replies.

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Let’s say you are convinced of the benefits a client satisfaction program can have on your IT services business, and you have rightly instituted surveys to solicit client feedback. Now ask yourself: what should you do with the data you’ve collected? That’s where benchmarking comes in.

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