MSPmentor

Glowpoint, inc., a cloud-based managed video services provider, has assembled the Glowpoint Advisory Board to help the company  identify additional trends and opportunities for recurring revenues, cloud services and managed video services. The board includes executives from top networking and unified communication companies.

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Some small news over at Hewlett-Packard this week (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) occupied most of our blog team efforts for the past 24 hours. So what else was going on this week? Here are seven managed IT services blog entries the MSPmentor team didn’t have time to write for the week ending Aug. 19, 2011.

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At least for the moment, Wall Street isn’t too impressed with Hewlett-Packard’s new business plan. HP’s stock is down 20 percent today (mid-day, Aug. 19) because HP said it could take 12 to 18 months to find a buyer for its PC business. In IT, 18 months is an eternity. So who might bid for HP’s PC business? And who are the potential winners and losers as HP seeks to exit the PC market? Our sister site, The VAR Guy, has some educated guesses for the IT channel.

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After a string of stunning announcements yesterday, it’s fair to say Hewlett-Packard is undergoing the most dramatic changes in the company’s history. So, what can small MSPs and IT service providers learn from a $120 billion technology company’s missteps? Plenty. Here are five lessons involving distractions, focus, vision, execution and differentiation.

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Sometimes, word of mouth can lead to big opportunities. Just ask Avnet’s Bennet Bayer, an MSPmentor 250 member. Bayer is practice leader for Avnet’s Mobility and Collaboration business, where he is pushing VARs and MSPs to push beyond mobile device management (MDM) to focus on mobile user management. Here’s Bayer’s story.

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CommVault, a backup software provider, has formed the PartnerAdvantage Service Provider Program for its North American service provider, system integrator and hosting partners. The goal is to help partners deliver cloud services like data protection and archiving. The PartnerAdvantage Service Provider Program includes tools, marketing and training support for partners. We’re intrigued — but the online backup and cloud backup market is pretty darn crowded. Here’s a closer look at CommVault’s strategy.

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VAR Dynamics, which provides private-label SaaS solutions to channel partners, has partnered with MXSweep to offer VARs, MSPs and independent software vendors (ISVs) a cloud service for email security and regulatory compliance. This is part of a growing theme across the managed services market. Here’s why.

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Whether you call it desktop as a service (DaaS) or Virtual Desktop Integration (VDI), we’ve certainly heard the hype. But we’ve also heard some horror stories about performance, licensing issues and overlooked costs that made DaaS and VDI less profitable than MSPs and cloud services providers (CSPs) expected. Still, there are signs of progress — including some news from Vyatta Inc. and Integral Networks. Here’s the update.

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Hewlett-Packard just confirmed that it’s (A) trying to exit the PC market (B) killing the WebOS tablet business and (C) trying to buy a software company. Details on our sister site, The VAR Guy.

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Spiceworks, which offers a free networking monitoring platform and social network for IT professionals, is pushing deeper into the education market. Specifically, Spiceworks University will host face-to-face training courses across 38 U.S. and European cities this fall. Key topics of discussion will include help desk services, inventory management and a fundamental overview of Spiceworks.

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N-Able Technologies VP of Marketing and Business Development Derik Belair , an MSPmentor 250 member, has spent over a decade interacting with MSPs and learning their businesses. He’s worked in and around the channel for two decades but most folks know him as one of N-able’s original employees since April, 2000. N-able has since grown to become one of the best-known providers of RMM (remote monitoring and management) software to MSPs. So what’s on Belair’s mind right now? Here are some perspectives.

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It’s a big step for NovaStor and another small sign of progress for the Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization strategy. Specifically, NovaBACKUP BE Virtual 12.2 platform now supports Hyper V. NovaStor says a significant number of its MSPs and their end-users now leverage Hyper-V. But NovaStor won’t stop there. The company also is taking a close look at Apple Mac support.

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Palisade Systems has launched a SaaS-based data loss prevention (DLP) solution, which managed services providers can offer to their customers. The PacketSure service is available through the Palisade MSP Partner Program.

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Portions of Microsoft’s Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online suffered a five-hour outage today. Microsoft says a networking issue — rather than a true cloud outage — impacted some North America cloud customers. Either way I was left wondering: Are customers and MSPs essentially helpless when Microsoft’s cloud can’t deliver applications?

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GroundWork Inc. has launched a free monitoring platform that targets network, application and cloud management. But there’s a catch: The free offering, called GroundWork Monitor NPO, is for non-profit organizations and open source projects. There’s also a side story here. GroundWork is striving to help customers use open source and proprietary management tools in tandem. Here’s a closer look at the strategy.

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MSPs by and large fared well after the 2008 banking crisis that sent the economy into a dive. Many customers saw managed services as way to control IT costs at a time they needed to tighten budgets. As the economy potentially heads for another slide, you have to wonder what the effect will be on providers of managed services and cloud services. Presumably, since clients have become dependent on remote monitoring and management to keep their daily operations running smoothly, you wouldn’t expect MSPs to suffer terribly from the second half of a double-dip recession.

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KnowledgeCentrix President Chris Andreozzi, an MSPmentor 250 member, was working for a Fortune 10 organization in Southern California  when he noticed the company outsourced everything they weren’t good at. All of that business was going somewhere, and he wanted a piece of that outsourcing pie. His vision? To create an all-in-one instant IT department for small-to-medium sized companies.

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Toshiba and Lexmark are partnering to nudge the managed print services market forward. Specifically, Toshiba Encompass managed print services now leverage Lexmark Fleet Manager 2.o software. As we’ve said before: A growing number of technology vendors are promoting managed print solutions… but only about 20 percent of MSPmentor 100 companies have embraced managed print services so far. Here’s the update.

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In early August we spotted nanoRep — a help desk and service desk specialist that promotes an automated service widget. Now, nanoRep CEO Doron Herzlich explains how nanoRep intends to stand out in the crowded service desk market.

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Hewlett-Packard is helping businesses to answer an important two-part question: What do I have in my current data center, and do I need to ultimately migrate to a new data center? With those key points in mind, HP has launched version 2.0 of its Data Center Transformation (DCT) solutions. HP’s efforts could also help MSPs with their data center projects. HP Senior Product Marketing Manager Jimmy Augustine offered me some deeper insights on the DCT 2.0 launch.

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Dell‘s latest quarterly results, announced today, included a reduced revenue outlook that disappointed Wall Street. But if you take a closer look at Dell’s Q2 results, you’ll discover Dell is showing some managed services momentum. Here’s the evidence.

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SMB Technology Network (SMBTN) President Jim Locke has died, SMBTN Founding Partner Jim Sterling has confirmed. Locke is well-known and well-respected across the small business technology industry, having built one of the SMB market’s best-known communities.

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Successful selling requires an understanding of the buyer’s mind, and most MSPs fail to develop a clear understanding of their customer’s true needs. Specifically, many MSPs don’t understand why buyers do — or don’t — buy from them. Great businesses take the time to understand their buyer’s psyche. Let’s delve a little deeper.

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