MSPmentor

At 5:00 p.m. eastern, I was tied up speaking with MX Logic about their strategy for managed email security services. By 5:15 p.m. eastern, my inbox had more news pertaining to this market. Things certainly are getting hyper-competitive in the email security sector. Read More >

Considering the popularity of YouTube, it’s hardly surprising that many managed service providers are making videos in a bid to market their companies virally.

Check out these clips from three MSPs — Logicalis, Info Support and IT Vizion. Sure, they’re marketing pieces. But the messages are pretty clear and frequently concise, and the companies come off as true managed services experts. Read More >

Microsoft recently launched Windows Server 2008, yet iYogi — a managed service provider — just announced remote support services for Windows Server 2003. Are they too late to the market? Perhaps not. Instead of embracing “what’s new,” iYogi is wisely targeting a massive installed base with an aggressive price point. Here’s the scoop. Read More >

It took nearly a year, but managed service providers are finally announcing clear strategies to support Apple’s iPhone with hosted email services. One prime example: SherWeb, an MSP that hosts Microsoft Exchange Server and BlackBerry Enterprise Server, says it plans to support iPhone synchronization with Exchange Server. It’s the first of many iPhone-related announcements MSPmentor expects to hear from MSPs in the next few months. Read More >

There’s nothing like healthy competition to keep a market growing globally. In recent days, managed service platform providers have been busy leapfrogging each other with new announcements about their international efforts and milestones.

Here’s a sampling of the blow-by-blow involving Kaseya, Level Platforms and N-able. Read More >

From Microsoft Corp. to managed service platform providers, everybody is taking aim at small business IT opportunities. But small businesses may not be willing to open their wallets very wide for IT, according to a new survey by CDW Corp.

Overall, the big product reseller said IT decision makers are somewhat more optimistic now than the were in December. CDW offers some deeper details in a press release. But mainstream media companies like Reuters see the glass half empty, reporting that:

Only 30 percent of small U.S. businesses plan to increase technology spending in the next six months compared with about two-thirds of larger companies, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

Still, I think CDW and Reuters may have missed the mark, because they didn’t consider key managed services trends. Read More >

The vast majority of successful MSPs say they now offer managed storage services. In most cases, I suspect, those services involve basic backup and restore capabilities. Still, a growing number of industry partnerships could help you leap from “backup” services to “contingency planning” services, which are far more strategic.

A case in point: N-able Technologies and Iron Mountain have inked a partnership that could empower managed service providers with Iron Mountain’s LiveVault server backup service. The relationship comes only a few weeks after EMC and Symantec each said they were launching managed storage services for VARs and customers.

More than 70 percent of leading MSPs already offer some form of managed storage, according to our recent MSPmentor 100 report. In order to stand out from the crowd, a growing number of MSPs are coupling automated storage management with on-site contingency planning and other services. Read More >

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