MSPmentor

While many US managed service providers struggle to master hardware as a service (HaaS), some of Australia’s early managed service providers are thriving in the HaaS market — thanks to creative (but legitimate) financing from local banks, plus a rotation strategy that moves hardware from Australia to China and India.

Here are the details.

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Jeff Kaplan did it again. In his latest Think IT Services blog entry, Kaplan describes the a hybrid software as a service (SaaS) model that blurs the line between on-premise and cloud-based services. If you’re skeptical of this trend, check out these examples involving managed service providers working with Symantec, Vembu, Amazon.com and Fonality. Read More >

Symantec’s software as a service (SaaS) team has launched a blog that caught my eye. It may be a timely read for some managed service providers. You can find the Symantec Protection Network (SPN) blog at http://blog.spn.com.

As you may know, I’ve been critical of Symantec’s SaaS efforts. As a leader in on-premise storage and security solutions, Symantec could have been a trailblazer in storage as a service and security as a service. But I overlooked on important point… Read More >

Talk about timing. Earlier today, I expressed concern that Symantec wasn’t really promoting its SaaS (software as a service) platform during a partner conference here in Washington, D.C. A few hours after my rant, Symantec launched a partner program for the Symantec Protection Network. Here are some of the details. Read More >

During the opening session at Symantec Partner Engage in Washington, D.C., Chief Operating Officer Enrique Salem described several opportunities awaiting partners in the IT market.

Salem mentioned key trends around virtualization, data loss prevention, compliance and archiving. All of them were good, valid partner engagement opportunities. But Salem only touched briefly on SaaS (software as a service) and he didn’t mention managed services at all. Not once.

Here’s why I’m concerned. Read More >

Symantec has acquired MessageLabs as part of a strategy to strengthen the company’s software as a service strategy. Ironically, I think the global economic crisis will accelerate — rather than slow down — deals like this. Fast-growing companies might be more inclined to sell out at more reasonable prices rather than flying solo during these challenging economic times.

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Ricoh Americas’ professional services team has launched a Managed Print Services (MPS) initiative, which strives to help businesses streamline their print operations.

This is the latest attempt by a major printer company to brand IT services wrapped around hardware. For more than a year, Xerox has evangelized its PagePack managed services program to MSPs.

But while PagePack is designed with partners in mind, Ricoh’s MPS effort sounds more like a direct sales customer engagement. Here are the details. Read More >

So much for immunity from the recession. Software as a Service (SaaS) stocks are now down nearly 30 percent in 2008. During the past week alone, MSPmentor’s SaaS 20 Stock Index fell 13.92 percent, closing at 716.13 on Friday, October 3. Read More >