MSPmentor

Dell KACE, a systems management appliance, is taking aim at Kaseya. But can Dell actually hit the target this time around? The background: Dell is positioning KACE as an “affordable alternative” to Kaseya in an online marketing campaign spotted by MSPmentor. Generally speaking, it sounds like Dell KACE is targeting Kaseya’s midmarket and enterprise accounts. But MSPmentor is watching to see if Dell begins to position KACE against Kaseya for managed services providers.

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There are MSPs out there who continue to grow their businesses and they all seem to share two characteristics: a relentless focus on providing stellar customer service while also maintaining an eye on their bottom line. It’s a tough balancing act, and getting tougher as the companies MSPs serve (and MSPs themselves) scrutinize every penny of spending and find ways to optimize and increase cost efficiencies. Only MSPs who are delivering more value than the other guy – and can also do more with less – are going to thrive long-term.

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Like all other businesses, the goal of every MSP is (or should be) success – strong revenues, healthy profit margins, sustainable growth, happy clients. But achieving success does not mean the end of potential dangers for MSPs. Indeed, success can bring its own set of dangers along, as evidenced by the recent collapse of the Boston Red Sox 2011 season (before any angry Sox fans write comments, I’m a lifelong Massachusetts resident and passionate Red Sox supporter). Here are three lessons from the Red Sox Collapse of 2011.

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When Zenith Infotech defaulted on a Sept. 21 bond payment, QVT Financial — a hedge fund with $6 billion under management — apparently was among the investment firms that missed out on the payment. Now, it sounds like QVT is taking legal steps to explore Zenith Infotech’s recent spin-off of Zenith RMM. But who exactly is QVT Financial and what is their interest in Zenith Infotech’s business? Here are some thoughts.

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MSPmentor will host its first Executive Boardroom next week in New York City. During this exclusive event (Oct. 25, Manhattan), we’ll review how top MSPs are pushing into cloud services — either through strategic partnerships or via home-grown solutions. Our confirmed guest speakers during this roundtable discussion include ScaleMatrix CEO Mark Ortenzi, Mycroft CISO Liz Mann and CA Technologies GM Adam Famularo. Here are more details.

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Affant Communication, an IT outsourcing company, has developed a new network monitoring software solution called AffantWatch2. It is designed to monitor IT environments for Fortune 500 companies and large enterprises. Affant claims AffantWatch2 gathers data in real time to help IT administrators make more informed decisions.

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Zenith Infotech faces another round of questions about its bond default. The Times of India suggests Zenith Infotech’s bond defaults will be about $85 million, rather than the $33 million that had been originally reported. What’s my opinion?

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QualiSpace, the India-based web hosting provider, will now offer managed cloud servers and managed dedicated servers to customers across India and the Americas. The service is available to business customers in the U.S. that are running either Linux or Windows Server.

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Global spending by SMBs on mobile SaaS is expected to enjoy 29.5 percent compound annual growths in the next five years, jumping from $3 billion this year to $16.6 billion in 2016, according to a new study from Strategy Analytics. On a regional basis, North America and Western Europe represent the greatest near-term SMB spending opportunity for mobile SaaS, and SMBs in North America spend twice as much on mobile SaaS as those in Western Europe.

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Get a group of managed services providers in a room together and the talk invariably turns to mergers and acquisitions. It’s one of the ultimate goals for some small-business owners – that another company would find enough value in their business to actually want to acquire it. As a result, it’s no surprise M&A was a topic of two panel discussions at the 2011 N-able Partner Summit last week in Scottsdale, Ariz.: One from the buyer’s point of view (acquirer) and the other from the seller’s point of view (acquiree).

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As the N-able Partner Summit wraps up in Phoenix, we’re now preparing for our next round of partner and customer conferences. The MSPmentor team will be attending both Tigerpaw User Conference and McAfee Focus 2011 during the week of Oct. 17. In the meantime, here are seven managed IT services blogs the MSPmentor team didn’t have a chance to write for the week ending Oct. 14, 2011.

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In an open letter, Zenith Infotech CEO Akash Saraf has responded to questions about the company allegedly defaulting on a bond payment. Saraf confirms the default but assures customers and vendors that Zenith Infotech is “financially solvent, strong and stable.” Here’s the letter in its entirety — plus some perspective from MSPmentor.

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N-able Technologies CEO Gavin Garbutt remains on message. For the past two to three years, Garbutt has described a 100 percent IT coverage model: He wants managed services providers to blanket every SMB and every IT device on the planet with monitoring and proactive support. It’s a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. Crazy stuff. But so was Bill Gates’ original vision for a computer on every desktop and in every home. With that thought in mind, I believe today’s managed services software market is a lot like the 1980s PC software market, though on a smaller scale. Here’s why.

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N-able partners who use N-able Backup Manager will be treated to a slew of new features designed to help them make the leap further into virtualization and cloud services.

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I admit: I’m an Android guy. I have an Android phone and a Motorola Xoom tablet. But I’m also aware that Apple iOS 5 and iPhone 4S have arrived. Each day this week I’ve open my inbox to dozens of emails from MSPs and mobile device management (MDM) providers announcing iOS 5 support. But how will Apple impact the IT and managed services market?

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All Covered has added a cloud server solution to its suite of outsourced IT services for SMBs throughout the U.S. The cloud servers are designed to host business applications like hosted SQL Server, hosted Exchange Server and hosted SharePoint. Here’s more info on the latest All Covered solution, courtesy of All Covered CIO Tim Crawford.

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Zenith RMM is marching forward with its business and is not impacted by the alleged bond default at Zenith Infotech, according to Zenith RMM CEO Michael George (pictured), who says the two companies are completely separate businesses. Here’s the update, along with a look at where Zenith RMM is heading next.

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MWA Intelligence Inc. (MWAi) and GreatAmerica Leasing Corp. have partnered to extend managed print services (MPS) to both companies’ customer bases. MWA is an international provider of enterprise level M2M (machine to machine) and M2P (machine to people) solutions. MWA will work with GreatAmerica, a commercial equipment financing firm, to offer new service programs for office equipment Dealers (OEDs), IT resellers, and VARs on top of its M2M and M2P platforms.

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One of the underlying conversations at the 2011 N-able Partner Summit involves managed print services. Indeed, two of the event’s sponsors are Oki and Xerox, which both have been putting on their managed print services game faces of late. In some ways, MSPs must now compete with printer and copier dealers. But Oki and Xerox also want to partner with MSPs.

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Zenith Infotech, the cloud computing company that works closely with MSPs, has confirmed that it defaulted on its $33 million foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs), which were due Sept. 21, according to Reuters. Zenith Infotech remains in negotiations with the bondholders to extend the time for repayment, Reuters added. So what exactly does this mean for managed services providers that work with Zenith Infotech? Here’s some perspective.

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Zenith Infotech is facing questions about alleged debt issues. The cloud computing company, which works closely with managed services providers, allegedly defaulted on a $33 million debt payment, according to Money Control, a financial portal in India. Bloomberg has now issued a similar report. As of this writing, MSPmentor has not been able to reach Zenith Infotech CEO Akash Saraf, based in India, for comment. But we’ve reached out to Zenith’s U.S. headquarters for potential comment.

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The sleeping giant has awoken. Symantec has finally launched a Managed Security Service (MSS) Specialization. As an early leader in storage and security software, Symantec was ideally positioned to cash in on the managed services and cloud services markets — where security and storage are hot sellers. But it has taken Symantec several years to adjust its on-premise software strategy to promote a clear, comprehensive message to managed services providers. That day finally arrived today.

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N-able is tasking its managed services partners with the goal of 100 percent growth in the next year, matching the goal it set at its 2010 N-able Partner Conference but giving MSPs additional tools to help them get there a little easier.

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