MSPmentor

How can a managed service provider differentiate itself from Microsoft’s own hosted Exchange Server offering? Azaleos, an MSP in Seattle, has found one potential answer. The company has launched security services to safeguard its Exchange email customers. Here’s some background. Read More >

Microsoft is spending considerable time this week talking up Forefront “Stirling,” a suite of integrated security products for desktop, server and network management. Although Stirling won’t arrive until the first half of 2009, I wonder if it will evolve to become a managed security service platform.  Read More >

mindSHIFT, a managed service provider, is pushing deeper into the software-as-a-service (SaaS) market. The company has acquired Collaboration Online, which specializes in hosted Microsoft applications.

This is the latest example of managed services converging with SaaS, and it reinforces many of the prime MSP opportunities we’ve been writing about in recent weeks — particularly hosted SharePoint, Dynamics and Exchange services.

It’s also the latest example of mergers and acquisitions within the MSP sector. (See our M&A Tracker for a list of deals.)

Here’s a bit more on mindSHIFT’s plans for Collaboration Online.

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Each time I chat with a VAR or solutions provider, the topic of Microsoft SharePoint seems to pop into the conversation. Channel players are having great success deploying SharePoint for their customers. It begs the question: Will SharePoint emerge as a managed service as well? I believe so, but what’s your take?

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Bill Gates today is expected to announce that Microsoft plans to offer software as a service to businesses of all sizes, as part of a branded effort called Microsoft Online Services.

This is a critical step forward for the software giant, which must envy fast-growing, headline grabbing SaaS companies like Salesforce.com. But it also means VARs and managed service providers should expect to both cooperate and compete with Microsoft going forward. Read More >

As Microsoft launches Windows Server 2008, I’ve noticed a rather interesting market dichotomy: Traditional, mainstream server application providers (BEA Systems, IBM, Oracle, etc.) are falling all over each other to vow support for the new operating system. But managed service platform providers aren’t saying much about Microsoft’s latest server release. Here’s why. Read More >

If you’re still skeptical about managed services and software as a service (SaaS), spend a day at Long Island’s Hofstra University. Roughly 13,000 Hofstra students have access to Google Apps Education Edition to collaborate online, according to Robert W. Juckiewicz, Hofstra’s VP of IT.

The university’s ongoing experience with SaaS — and Hofstra’s future goals — provide some clear hints about how the corporate software market may evolve.

Nobody is predicting the death of Microsoft Office, but it’s clear from case studies like Hofstra that Google Apps and Microsoft’s desktop productivity suite are on a long-term collision course.

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How do you get readers hooked on free services, and then transform them into paying customers? Plenty of Web companies have tried — and failed — to do exactly that. But Google has made two interesting moves in the managed services market that could attract dollars from consumers and small businesses. Read More >