MSPmentor

Data is the lifeblood of any organization, and its loss can be a serious blow to the business. If your systems and data are not adequately protected and supported by a well-tested disaster recovery plan, chances are that you are placing your organization at risk.

Read More >

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 The usual openings for technicians and support personnel have been replaced by MSPs looking for business development, marketing, sales and SEO experts.

Read More >

Echoworx, which offers encryption services, has opened up its secure cloud to third-party partners and customers, including mobile device management providers (MDMs), mobile enterprise application platforms (MEAPs) and cloud services providers. According to Echoworx CEO Michael Ginsberg, customers are asking for a mobile or enterprise application that they can use to push credentials through without going through the work of setting-up and managing a PKI infrastructure.

Read More >

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.

Read More >

How’s this for ironic: Many of us in the high-tech sector work tirelessly to raise our company valuations. But sometimes lofty valuations and unreasonable expectations can destroy the very businesses we’ve worked so hard to build. Skeptical? Consider this cautionary tale involving Ziff Davis Enterprise, which spent a decade trying to overcome two unrealistic valuations (set in 1999 and 2007) that triggered lofty, insurmountable debt levels.

Read More >

BMC Software‘s recent buyout of Numara Software, a SaaS company, has potential implications for the IT management market. And some potential rivals such as ManageEngine are responding with competitive statements.

Read More >

eXo, which develops a content management system, has released eXo 3.5. The multi-tenancy platform could allow managed services providers (MSPs) and cloud services providers (CSPs) to offer customers dedicated portals for content and collaboration, social streams and services, and mobile access. eXo Founder and President Benjamin Mestrallet (pictured) described the strategy to me last week.

Read More >

EMC Corp. kicked off February 2012 be releasing VFCache — a new Flash caching solution that EMC business customers can combine with EMC’s Flash storage systems in order to “dramatically improve application performance,” EMC claims.

Read More >

For nearly two decades, PC Helps, a desktop application support provider, has worked behind the scenes for help desk service providers and enterprise end-users. Indeed, PC Helps offers 24×7 live support and vows to answer calls in two rings or less. The company supports 160 different business applications for roughly 160 commercial enterprise businesses with at least five hundred employees.So what’s next? PC Helps CEO Brian Madocks (pictured) offered some insights.

Read More >

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.

Read More >

The Super Bowl kicks off in 52 hours. But I’m a bit distracted, plugging away on the fifth-annual MSPmentor 100 report — which debuts Feb. 15. In the meantime, here are seven managed services blogs and MSP news stories the MSPmentor team didn’t have a chance to write for February 3, 2012.

Read More >

MSPs might be able to learn a thing or two from B2C marketing techniques and a recent report from hawkeye, a marketing agency, offers a few ideas to consider. The report, Ten Marketing Trends for 2012, points to content curation, “gamification” and authenticity as among the key developments unfolding this year. A B2B version of the report is due out soon. In the meantime, here’s a breakdown of a some of the report’s findings and how they could apply to service providers:

Read More >

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?

Read More >

SMBs do not always follow the wider trends in business process outsourcing (BPO), but some of the general trends services advisory firm Tholons predicts for the BPO market in 2012 should be of particular interest to MSPs serving an SMB client base. Forecasted developments in the areas of vertical BPO, risk management, and social applications offer potential opportunity for MSPs serving SMB clients. Interested in learning more? Read on.

Read More >

SysAid Technologies is wasting no time getting to work with a newly expanded executive team in tow. The IT service management (ITSM) and customer service support (CSS) software provider has released CSS version 3.5 in both an Enterprise Edition format and a Pro Edition format for SMBs.

Read More >

SolarWinds, the IT management software provider, has acquired EminentWare, a Windows server and workstation patch management software provider. SolarWinds VP of Network Management Sanjay Castelino offered MSPmentor some insights on where the company is heading next.

Read More >

The Aldridge Company, a technology and cloud integrator for SMBs, has merged with Rafte & Company, a business and technology consulting firm, to offer a more comprehensive IT support offering. Financial terms were not disclosed. Here’s a little more background on both Texas-based companies, as well as what the merger means for both Aldridge and Rafte business customers.

Read More >

I received an email from a loyal reader this morning. Her message: It’s time to start filtering and censoring the LinkedIn groups for MSPmentor, The VAR Guy and Talkin’ Cloud — which are sometimes saturated with unsolicited press releases, event promotions and some reader “questions” that are thinly veiled vendor promotions. What’s a so-called forum moderator (poor old me) supposed to do?

Read More >

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.

Read More >

Continuum, as expected, launched the Continuum Vault backup and disaster recovery (BDR) platform earlier this week, CEO Michael George (pictured) has confirmed. Developed in partnership with Datto, the Continuum Vault offering initially targets 1,000 managed services providers (MSPs) that have expressed interest in the new BDR platform.

Read More >

After roughly three years of quiet growth, it sounds like GFI Software is starting to earn respect as a top-tier player in the managed services software market. Indeed, more than 5,000 MSPs now use the company’s GFI Max RemoteManagement platform, according to GFI Max General Manager Alistair Forbes (pictured). If accurate, I believe that figure would place GFI among the largest providers of remote monitoring and management software to MSPs.

Read More >

Intronis has released a new version of its cloud-based backup platform for managed services providers (MSPs). The Intronis upgrade, dubbed Winter Release ’12, includes integration with ConnectWise. Plus, managed services providers can now use iPhone and Android apps to manage their Intronis cloud-based backup processes, according to Intronis VP of Marketing and Customer Success Carol Ferrari.

Read More >

Desktone Inc. , a Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) specialist, has partnered with Quest, a VAR500 company, to promote cloud-hosted virtual desktops to Quest’s enterprise business customers.

Read More >