MSPmentor » North America

MSP Acquisition: TCI Acquires Savid for Security and Compliance

Nicholas Mukhar — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:11:11 +0000

Technology Capital Investors (TCI), an IT services investment firm, has acquired Savid Technologies, a managed service provider and security consulting firm. Here’s the scoop on what Savid will add to the TCI family of MSPs.

TCI was looking for some regional leverage in North America and found what it was looking for in Savid, which is based in Chicago, Ill. According to TCI Managing Partner Sam Attias, Savid’s headquarters will become TCI’s “central hub” for its new North American security and compliance practice.

TCI is planning to launch the practice during Q1 2012, and its Savid Technologies acquisition appears to be the last piece to be put into place. According to Attias, TCI will leverage Savid’s security consulting expertise in order to build a fully integrated security offering for TCI’s North American partners to sell to their end-users.

Savid’s Security Expertise

Savid’s security expertise starts at the top with Savid Technologies CEO Michael A. Davis, who TCI refers to in its press release as an “industry renowned cloud security expert.” Davis will continue in his current role, as Savid will keep its own brand name and its leadership in place under the terms of acquisition.

More to Come in 2012

The Savid Technologies acquisition is the first major move of the year for TCI. If 2011 was any indication, then we should be hearing a lot more from the company this year. Adding OS33 President Jacob Kazakevich to its Board of Directors, teaming with MSPExcellence and acquiring Bravura Networks were just some of TCI’s major accomplishments last year. And as mentioned, the company plans on picking up steam by launching its North American security and compliance practice within the next month and half. We’ll be tracking the company’s progress throughout 2012.

Join Us Wednesday: Top 100 Managed Services Provider List

Joe Panettieri — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 17:06:35 +0000

The fifth-annual MSPmentor 100 — a list of the world’s top 100 managed services providers — will debut during a webcast this Wednesday, Feb. 15. Register now to join us. Here are some hints about what you’ll learn.

1. Managed Services Trends: How fast are the top managed services providers growing? And what services have they introduced? We’ve got the data.

2. The MSPmentor 100, Global Edition: We’ll unveil the complete list of MSPs, including managed services providers from North America, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) and AANZ (Asia, Australia, New Zealand).

3. Analysis: Our confirmed guest experts will include:

Zack Schuler, President and CEO of Calnet Technology Group — an MSPmentor 100 company that has introduced cloud management services.
Tommy Wald, CEO, White Glove Technologies — an MSPmentor 100 company that has mastered mergers and acquisitions.
Jeannine Edwards, Director of Community, ConnectWise — providing perspectives from ConnectWise user groups worldwide.

Schuler, Wald and Edwards will answer your questions throughout the webcast. Note: ConnectWise is the webcast sponsor but the MSPmentor 100 report is vendor-independent research.

4. Deeper Details: Everyone who attends the MSPmentor 100 webcast will automatically receive our complete MSPmentor 100 report PDF — a 22 page document that highlights all of the key companies and trends within the managed services market.

Want more information? Register now for the Webcast. I look forward to unveiling this year’s top 100 managed services providers list on February 15.

N-able Teams with Hartco to Engage Canadian MSPs

Nicholas Mukhar — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:58:51 +0000

N-able Technolgies, the remote monitoring and management (RMM) software provider, has partnered with Hartco Distribution in order to expand its reach further into Canada. N-able’s plan is to target what N-able VP of Sales Mike Cullen [picture] referred to as “untapped opportunities for MSPs” in the Canadian market. Here’s more on the plan, as well as how Hartco fits in.

First off, Hartco Distribution is branch of Hartco Inc., a three-decade old Canadian IT services provider that will give N-able a trusted name to attach to when pursuing Canadian MSP customers. Hartco has more than 50 established, physical locations throughout Canada and serves a range of businesses, from SMBs to enterprise. So by partnering with Hartco, N-able will be able to expand the use of its RMM software throughout different-sized business markets in Canada.

As part of the partnership, N-able will have direct access to Hartco’s entire network of IT solution providers. The real beneficiaries of the N-able – Hartco partnership will be Hartco affiliates who will now be able to leverage all of N-able’s RMM solutions, including the N-central RMM platform.

N-able has big plans for the Canadian market, which N-able will heavily focus on in 2012. And even though Hartco’s reach gives N-able the opportunity to target larger companies, N-able will hone in on MSPs serving the SMB market. Cullen claims that the majority of the 1 million-plus SMBs in Canada are not managing their networks with an RMM platform. Translation? N-able wants to be the go-to RMM provider for SMBs throughout Canada, and it wants to develop relationships with Canadian managed service providers looking to provide an RMM software solution to its SMB customers.

One big benefit that N-able can now market to SMBs and MSPs in Canada? A new cloud-based help desk solution courtesy of its recent partnership with NTRglobal. N-able will also give Business e-Traning Essentials, Technical e-Training Essentials, Instructor-Led Product Training, Professional Services and other benefits to Canadian MSPs who buy an N-central license in order to help them better understand how to market and sell the RMM solution.

Level Platforms Managed Workplace 2012: RMM Meets MDM

Nicholas Mukhar — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:46:25 +0000

Competition among remote monitoring and management (RMM) software providers is beginning to heat up in 2012. And as is usually the case, intense competition is leading to rapid software solution innovation. The latest example? The RMM provider Level Platforms has introduced its signature Managed Workplace 2012 edition with one of the hottest new business management software features on the market today — mobile device management (MDM) software.

Level Platforms’ new MDM feature will make its debut in mid-February when the RMM software company embarks upon its 2012 Global Road Show. And when it does, the MDM solution will allow the software provider’s customers to monitor and manage business networks from Apple, Google, Microsoft and RIM smartphones and tablets. Level Platforms managed service provider customers will be able to access this new MDM feature through their existing RMM dashboards via the new Level Platforms Mobile Service Manager that will be pre-packaged in Managed Workplace 2012.

Once a customer installs the new MDM software on a mobile device, they will be able to use that device to collect asset information, remotely configure devices, track location and restrict user access to business networks upon request. And if a device is lost or stolen, MSPs can remotely wipe, lock, or completely reset the device. In the end, Level Platforms hopes its MDM solution will give its MSP customers a complete RMM solution to add to their existing managed services offerings that will help them accelerate their revenue growth.

The news of Level Platforms’ new MDM capabilities comes about two weeks after the RMM software provider introduced its new NOC and help desk services. Shortly thereafter, N-able Technologies, another major RMM software provider, partnered with NTRglobal to offer a cloud-based help desk service. Then N-able made a regional expansion move by partnering with Hartco Distribution in order to target MSPs and SMBs in Canada. Now comes new of Level Platforms new MDM software offering included in Managed Workplace 2012. It’s a major RMM development, but it definitely won’t be the last we hear from Level Platforms, N-able or other RMM providers.

Dimension Data Acquires on Xigo En Route to Becoming Full MSP

Nicholas Mukhar — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:07:45 +0000

Dimension Data, an IT solutions and services provider, has acquired the Xigo, a telecom expense management (TEM) solution provider, as part of its broader plan to become a complete managed communications services provider.

According to Dimension Data Group Executive of Global Solutions Steve Joubert, Xigo gives Dimension Data the ability to offer its enterprise customers spend analysis, sourcing, provisioning and invoice processing capabilities. Dimension plans to focus its new TEM offering in the U.S., where Dimension is based and already has a large enterprise customer base. Over time, Dimension plans to expand its TEM offering to other regions.

Dimension has not detailed where it plans to expand its new TEM capabilities next, but we should probably look for such a solution expansion in places like Asia and Australia both regions in which Dimension recently expanded into by acquiring BlueFire and Netforce — two managed services providers that gave Dimension data a broader regional reach and a larger customer base.

“As clients evolve their networks to address globalization, mobile device proliferation, virtualization and the cloud, Xigo will be instrumental to help them implement the most cost-effective roadmaps are architectures for the internal and external communications,” Joubert said in a prepared statement.

There is certainly no shortage of companies looking for TEM solutions these days as a way to have greater control over their expenses. Gartner Inc. predicts that the TEM market will reach $2 billion by 2015.

En route to becoming a full managed communications service provider, Dimension Data has also launched a managed video services offering to help its customers reduce operational costs and improve the overall user video experience. We’ll keep an eye out for Dimension’s next move toward its managed services goal.

Help Wanted: Managed Services, Marketing and SEO Experts

Nicholas Mukhar — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:03:17 +0000

Things have shifted a bit this week on our MSPmentor Job Board. The usual openings for technicians and support personnel have been replaced by MSPs looking for business development, marketing, sales and SEO experts.

Here’s a sampling of what’s available this week.

Business Development and Sales Representative in Livermore, Calif.
Technology/Copywriter/Blogger/SEO in Oneonta, N.Y.
Support Engineer in the eastern United States
Managed Services Operations Manager in Warminster, Penn.

The MSPmentor Job Board is free to anyone who would like to post a job or career opportunity — as long as the opportunity is within the managed services, cloud services or IT channel market.

EMC VP Talks Flash Storage Strategy Following VFCache Announcement

Nicholas Mukhar — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:53:43 +0000

Hours after officially releasing its new VFCache Flash storage solution, EMC Corp. on Feb. 6 held a press conference in San Francisco, Calif., to discuss its enterprise Flash strategy. Mark Sorensen, senior VP of EMC’s Flash Business Unit , described how VFCache will work with EMC FAST and other products, and how the company’s international channel partners will help EMC push to the forefront of enterprise Flash solution development.

“EMC FAST moves data across storage tiers based on how hot it is,” Sorenson explained. “VFCache accelerates the reads from the server.” So by reading data more quickly, VFCache allows EMC FAST users to moved data around to different storage tiers much faster, EMC asserts.

Disk Drives Still Alive

Even though Flash storage innovation will be a large part of EMC’s 2012 plan, both Sorenson and President and CEO of EMC Information Products Pat Gelsinger said Flash won’t make traditional disk storage drives completely obsolete.

“Flash storage can be as much as 30x more expensive than disk storage,” Gelsinger said. So EMC has focused on Flash storage for performance applications. That is, VFCache is designed to hold data that is being used regularly.

“Some of our competitors only sell Flash storage,” Sorenson said. “But only about five percent of a businesses’ data is hot, meaning it’s being used regularly. And that five percent changes all the time. So EMC FAST can change the data across storage tiers depending on when it’s being used and not used, and VFCache speeds up that application performance by 2-3x.”

Focus on the Channel

Sorenson also said that EMC plans to focus on its channel business throughout 2012, which ties in well with its VFCache solution development.

“VFCache is interesting to the channel because those who supply servers and system integrators can integrate VFCache into their service offerings,” Sorenson said. EMC plans to heavily market VFCache in London City, New York City and along the U.S. West Coast. The company also plans to sell VFCache to the mid-market, along with its more traditional enterprise base.

For service providers, VFCache could help to speed the performance of on-demand and SaaS applications.

Webcast: Partner the Right Way on Cloud Backup

Joe Panettieri — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:23:56 +0000

Two top MSPs — Data Storage Corp. and Bumi (Backup My Info!) — and Asigra are set to share their secrets to cloud backup. Their guidance will surface during our Channel Expert Hour webcast on Wednesday, Feb. 8. Join in to learn how you can set your own cloud storage pricing, margins and service level agreements.

Indeed, our guests will describe how they set their own pricing, margins and service level agreements. Both Data Storage Corp. and BUMI partnered with Asigra to build the cloud storage businesses. Now you can learn from each of them. Our confirmed guest speakers include:

Matthew P. Grosso, executive VP, Data Storage Corp.
Jennifer Walzer, CEO, BUMI (Backup My Info! Inc.)
Eran Farajun, Executive VP, Asigra

EHR Incentive Program: What’s In Store for Year Two?

John Moore — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:18:14 +0000

As the federal government’s electronic health record (EHR) adoption program moves into its second year, MSPs can expect several key developments. But first, here’s the background: The government’s meaningful use program provides financial incentives to healthcare providers who deploy EHRs and meet certain objectives when using them. Last year (2011) marked year-one of the program. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees the program, reported that more than $1.3 billion in Medicare EHR incentive payments were made between May and December 2011. And more than $1.1 billion in Medicaid EHR incentive funds were issued between January 2011 and the end of last year. So what’s next?

MSPs have been reporting opportunities in hosting and application support, training, consulting, and other professional services. Here’s a summary of what’s in store for meaningful use, year two:

1. Rolling Out A New Stage

The EHR objectives hospitals and physicians must meet to receive incentive payments in 2011 and 2012 are known as Stage 1 requirements. Stage 1 established core criteria such as being able to transmit prescriptions electronically. Stage 2 is expected to add new requirements and perhaps expand upon existing requirements. The government is expected to release proposed Stage 2 requirements in the next few weeks and, following a public comment period, issue final rules later this year.

The forthcoming requirements may compel MSPs to tweak their healthcare offerings to keep up with the changing rules.

2. Revisiting Year One

As MSPs anticipate Stage 2, they also may need to take a step back — depending on where their clients stand with respect to meaningful use. Healthcare providers under the Medicaid side of the program were able to qualify for payments in 2011 on the basis of adopting, implementing or upgrading EHR. In other words, they could get the money without having to meet meaningful use objectives.

But that will not be the case for providers from here on out.

“They must successfully demonstrate meaningful use for subsequent participation years,” according to CMS.

In effect, year two for some providers participating in the Medicaid program will look a lot like year one.

“After the first year, the rule tightened up,” noted Erica Drazen, managing director, Global Institute for Emerging Healthcare Practices at CSC. “This year, they are going to have to meet the requirements for 90 days in order to qualify.”

CMS holds providers to a meaningful use reporting period of 90 consecutive days.

3. Finding Opportunities

Data CMS collected last year may shed some light on where MSPs may find meaningful use-related business this year. CMS identified Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin in the top tier of states in Medicare/Medicaid EHR incentive payments. The complete report is here.

Data from the Department of Health and Human Services, meanwhile, provides insight into the software vendors involved in meaningful use projects. A spreadsheet is available via data.gov . A quick glance shows Epic Systems seeing plenty of activity, but the data reflects quite a range of market participants.

Datto: Profitable, Growing and Partnering on BDR Storage

Joe Panettieri — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:24:48 +0000

Datto, the backup and disaster recovery (BDR) storage specialist, has a concise message for managed services providers (MSPs). Specifically, Datto is profitable, growing and in hiring mode. But what potentially sets Datto apart in the fiercely competitive BDR market? CEO Austin McChord offered MSPmentor some insights.

McChord has a degree in bioinformatics — which marries super computers and DNA-type research. But when McChord became disenfranchised with the big pharmaceutical industry, he shifted attention to an entrepreneurial itch. The result: McChord launched Datto in a Connecticut basement in 2007.

Working the Phones

During Datto’s early years, Datto focused on consumer storage. McChord personally reached out to consumer tech websites and blogs like Engadget, hoping they’d review Datto’s storage products to create viral buzz about the company. Gradually, bloggers started responding to McChord’s outreach, and chatter about the small company started to spread across the web.

By 2009, Datto shifted its attention to the business market with Viridian, a storage solution that countered Zenith Infotech. “That’s when the channel really started to pay attention to us,” said McChord. “MSPs weren’t part of our original vision. But over time, MSPs discovered us and they convinced us to get into the channel.”

Moving Forward

Fast forward to the present and the storage company remains self-funded, profitable, debt free and growing. “We’ve funded our growth organically and we only answer to our customers,” said McChord.

In fact, Datto now employs 80 people and the company manages 5.7 petabytes of data. McChord expects to hit 6 petabytes (6,000 terabytes) of managed storage within the next few weeks — thanks to the company’s growing base of MSP partners.

Still, McChord sees some more opportunities to further refine the BDR market, through simplified pricing. A prime example: The company does not require long-term contract engagements with MSPs. Instead, “we re-win that business every month,” said McChord. “If we don’t win your business every month you’re free to walk away. That reality helps us to set our priorities internally.” As a result, McChord asserts, Datto has a 97 percent satisfaction rate on customer support.

Fierce Competition

Admittedly, competition looms around every corner for Datto. Clear rivals include Axcient, eFolder and Zenith Infotech — among many others. But Datto is hoping a recent partnership with Continuum — the RMM spin-off from Zenith Infotech — will further accelerate the company’s growth. The first fruit of the Continuum-Datto relationship, called Continuum Vault, officially launched earlier this week. The new BDR system is reaching initial MSPs now.

McChord is upbeat about the Continuum relationship, but he notes that Datto continues to partner elsewhere in the RMM (remote monitoring and management) software market. In fact, Datto will be on hand for Level Platforms‘ upcoming road show…

MSPmentor » North America

MSP Acquisition: TCI Acquires Savid for Security and Compliance

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Join Us Wednesday: Top 100 Managed Services Provider List

Read More About This Topic

N-able Teams with Hartco to Engage Canadian MSPs

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Level Platforms Managed Workplace 2012: RMM Meets MDM

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Dimension Data Acquires on Xigo En Route to Becoming Full MSP

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Help Wanted: Managed Services, Marketing and SEO Experts

Read More About This Topic

EMC VP Talks Flash Storage Strategy Following VFCache Announcement

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Webcast: Partner the Right Way on Cloud Backup

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EHR Incentive Program: What’s In Store for Year Two?

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Datto: Profitable, Growing and Partnering on BDR Storage

Working the Phones

Moving Forward

Fierce Competition

Read More About This Topic