MSPmentor

It’s been a week since Dell announced plans to acquire SonicWall, an MSP favorite and a maker of firewalls, secure wireless solutions, secure remote access and more. And for some MSPs, the fact that Dell is the new owner hasn’t been such an easy pill to swallow.

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Quest Software has taken the next step with its PacketTrap MSP remote monitoring and management software by integrating the professional services automation technology it acquired last month when it bought BlueFolder.

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Need further proof that the cloud is everywhere? It even has a place on the Formula One racing circuit. That’s right. Internap Network Services, the IT infrastructure services provider, has inked a deal with Sahara Force India, an upstart Formula One racing team, that makes the IT provider the official supplier of web hosting and content delivery network services for the team’s official website. The deal comes on the heals of Internap’s purchase of Voxel Holdings, a cloud services provider (CSP), for roughly $30 million.

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Avaya, the unified communications (UC) provider, has officially acquired RADVISION, a videoconferencing and telepresence technologies provider over IP and wireless networks.

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Paessler AG, the network monitoring software provider, has added a new company executive in order to strengthen the software company’s North American presence — its largest business market to date.

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N-able Technologies CEO Gavin Garbutt says the managed services software provider is exploring the market for potential strategic acquisitions. Plus, Garbutt added, N-able can likely double its customer base in 2012. Here’s the update, including some R&D updates for N-able’s partner base.

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Ever since TUCBrands (and The Utility Company) embarked on a new growth strategy 18 months ago – expanding out from selling franchises to creating MSPXchange,  a subsidiary designed to convert existing “micro-MSPs” into franchisees — the deals have typically been small ones. TUC President Mark Scott (pictured), who also happens to be the co-founder and former CEO of N-able says that deals are typically for MSPs with under $1 million in revenue. “That’s our sweet spot,” he told MSPmentor.

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The IT service management sector is red hot with competition these days. It seems as though the IT service management software provider ManageEngine either releases or upgrades a security product every day. Then BMC Software shook the industry up last month by acquiring Numara Software, a SaaS provider. And now more news from BMC, as the IT management software provider has made public its managed services deal with Lenovo, the world’s second largest personal computer vendor. Here’s the update.

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Dell has acquired SonicWall in a bid to push deeper into the managed security and firewall markets. SonicWall has longstanding relationships with hundreds of managed services providers, many of which are MSPmentor 100 companies.  Dell has stated that it will combine the best of SonicWall’s channel programs with its own PartnerDirect partner program.

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The news continues to roll in from ManageEngine, the IT management software provider that has made a flurry of solution development announcements around the World Mobile Congress event. The latest news involved an upgrade to Password Manager Pro — the software provider’s privileged password management solution. We’ll get into the details in a minute, but first a little background on the solution itself.

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Here’s some big news from the managed document services (MDS) sector to start your week, one of the hottest managed services verticals of 2012 for both enterprise and SMBs. Lexmark, the managed document solutions provider and printer manufacturer, has recently acquired BDGB Enterprise. The acquisition comes with Brainware, a U.S.-based subsidiary of BDGB that provides a data capturing platform called Brainware Distiller.

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LogMeIn, the virtual platform provider for remote meetings and other collaboration services, has upgraded its join.me online meeting service to include free VoIP conferencing. So LogMeIn business and individual customers can now use VoIP on the platform to makecalls from PCs and Macs, as well as from mobile devices such as iPads and iPhones. LogMeIn plans on adding the VoIP service to the Android version of its join.me app in the near future.

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SolarWinds, the IT management software provider, has relaunched version 5.0 of its server and application monitor (SAM) solution for managed services providers. Fresh off of its DameWare and EminentWare acquisitions, SolarWinds has now switched its focus over to its SAM solution.

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How exactly does ConnectWise Capital work? That’s the question I’ve been pondering ever since ConnectWise co-founders Arnie Bellini and David Bellini launched the $20 million investment fund roughly two years ago. The fund is designed to empower channel-centric technology companies, and has so far pumped money into CharTec, LabTech Software and Quosal. While the Bellini brothers ultimately control ConnectWise Capital’s direction, there’s another key name IT service providers and potential investment targets should know. His name is Gerwai Todd. Here’s why.

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You remember The Justice League of America?  You know, when Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman, et al, all joined up together fight for Truth, Justice, and the American way? Well today I feel like I’m joining the Justice League of the Channel bloggers, teaming up with The VAR Guy and the other folks at Nine Lives Media who work tirelessly to bring you the most interesting and important news and information for today’s VARs, MSPs and Cloud Services Providers.

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GreenPages, the cloud computing and virtualization consulting company, today expanded its consulting team by acquiring LogicsOne. LogicsOne is a virtualization, storage and cloud consulting and management provider that could help GreenPages to strengthen its brand in the Southeastern United States. GreenPages already has physical offices in New York City and Boston. LogicsOne will bring aboard a new Atlanta office under the Green Pages umbrella.

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Alert Logic, the Security-as-a-Service provider for cloud environments, has acquired Armorlogic, a web application security solutions provider. According to Alert Logic, the deal means that all of its business customers will now have a full managed security solution for Web-facing applications.

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Creating an even bigger cloud powerhouse, Google Apps’ top partner Cloud Sherpas has merged with top Salesforce.com partner, GlobalOne. Here are the early details.

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Earlier this week I spent about an hour with an MSP (managed services provider) that is currently considering potential takeover bids. The company began the potential sale process in 2011. Fast forward to the present and the MSP has learned quite a bit from this exploratory process. Here are three potential mistakes he says MSPs need to avoid during merger, acquisition and exit discussions.

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Quest Software, the IT systems management company, has released a new data backup solution specifically for its SMB customer base. It’s called the Quest Software NetVault Backup Capacity Edition, and it comes less than a month after the IT management provider acquired BlueFolder, a cloud-based IT service management platform.

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When Presidio officially announces the buyout of BlueWater Communications Group on February 29, the deal will have cloud computing and managed services written all over it. Here’s why.

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Presidio is set to acquire BlueWater Communications Group, combining two VAR500 companies that have deep unified communications expertise and strong Cisco relationships. Both companies also have growing, thriving managed services business practices. Our coverage includes breaking news, a look at the managed services strategy, a peek at Presidio’s cloud efforts, and a behind-the-scenes glimps at Foros – an M&A firm that apparently advised BlueWater during the sale process to Presidio.

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Net Optics, which makes network monitoring technology, has released Spyke — a new network and applications monitoring platform. Net Optics has a reseller program but we’re curious to see if the company makes a more formalized effort to engage managed services providers.

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