MSPmentor

You may remember the story MSPmentor covered in March regarding MobileIron‘s bring your own device (BYOD) solutions for one of Scotland’s oldest commercial law firms.  Well now the company has announced that Structured, an information technology and systems integrator of secure and scalable IT solutions and services company has entered a value-added reseller (VAR) partnership with MobileIron, the leader in security and management for mobile apps, data and devices.

Read More >

As Facebook prepares for a potential IPO (initial public offering) this week, niche social media offerings continue to pop up in the IT market. One recent example: ManageEngine, best-known for its IT management software, is beta testing a private social network designed specifically for IT teams. Called ITPulse, the private social media platform brings a Facebook-style, multi-threaded cascading wall to IT, ManageEngine says.

Read More >

Your business has an image. In the “real” world you protect your company’s image as best as possible, but do you do the same on the various social media platforms available to us? Do you pay attention to what goes live on your Facebook page? Do you constantly follow your company’s tweets? If not, you’re setting your brand up for failure.

Read More >

Cortado recently announced its Cortado Corporate Server 6.0, which, according to the company, is an entirely new generation of mobile device management (MDM) for iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry smartphones. With Cortado’s solution, MDM is combined with network access, as well as full desktop functionality, including file access.

Read More >

Kaspersky Lab, the endpoint security software company, has quietly beta tested a managed services partner program with seven channel partners. Now, Kaspersky is opening up the MSP partner program to VARs and MSPs that attended this week’s 2012 North American Partner Conference in the Bahamas. Here’s what’s next.

Read More >

I’m somewhere in the Bahamas with my wife — oh, and I’m managing to cover the Kaspersky Lab 2012 North American Partner Conference, where lots of chatter about secure virtualization, managed security services and mobile device management has emerged. But my focus here means we missed stories elsewhere. In fact, here are seven managed services blogs and MSP news stories the MSPmentor team failed to write for the week ending May 11, 2012.

Read More >

Kaspersky Lab, the endpoint security company, plans to connect the dots between mobile device management (MDM), systems management and security. It’s the latest example of a security company taking a close look at MDM market opportunities, while also reaching out to managed services providers (MSPs) along the way.

Read More >

What do you do when your customers tell you that competitors keep coming in to offer a service you don’t yet offer? You figure out a way to offer it. That’s just what Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) reseller Annese & Associates did recently and now it is rolling out a brand new managed service it co-developed with Cisco — managed wireless. The offering, called AnyAccess, is designed to provide management of highly secure and reliable wireless networks for indoor and outdoor environments. Here’s the scoop.

Read More >

Kaspersky Lab, the anti-virus and endpoint security company, is preparing to work far more closely with managed services providers (MSPs). Indeed, Chris Doggett (pictured), VP of channel sales, North America, is expected to address Kaspersky Lab’s partner program for MSPs during a partner conference session on May 12. Here’s a preview.

Read More >

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) over the years has been frequently documented in articles (and I’m as guilty as anyone) but less so in actual customer settings. The technology tried to follow behind server virtualization, but hasn’t seen quite the same uptake. The ROI just hasn’t been sufficient to move businesses to the client side of virtualization, despite promises of easier IT management and improved security via centralization.

Read More >

We recently covered MokiMobility’s launch of +MDM for single-purpose iPad and Android tablets. Now MokiMobility has formed a partnership with Vablet to create a content management solution for the iPad and other mobile devices. What exactly is in mind for this partnership? According to both parties, the alliance is intended to enhance security of content as well as a greater level of corporate control over an individual device authorized for employee use.

Read More >

Back in April we wrote about an upstart network management as a service company called ihiji which was looking to partner with IT solution providers. The network management as a service company provides MSPs with a small appliance (pictured) to install at customer sites. It then collects alerts and sends them back to the MSP to help with anticipating problems and troubleshooting. Today we have some more background about the company to share.

Read More >

What if you could take a blueprint of an entire SMB (small and midsize business) network and reproduce it (or virtualize it) in the cloud for safe keeping? That’s the concept behind the latest Axcient Cloud Continuity upgrade. Axcient claims the updated cloud service allows SMBs to launch complete virtual offices in the cloud if the primary network goes down.

Read More >

Managed Services is now a mature industry, and as it moves further down this maturity path, trying to differentiate or win customers based on lower prices per device monitored can only continue for a little while. As Managed Service Providers race to adopt automation and other workflows to reduce their operating expenses, the price differentiator can only narrow between different providers.

Read More >

QuorumSoft, a provider of deduplicated archival solutions for virtualized environments, has expanded its Alike MSP Advantage program, which assists managed services providers looking to generate revenue delivering backup and disaster recovery services (BDR). According to QuorumSoft, the new Alike MSP Advantage program will meet the growing need for Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) to win new business and build strong, lasting relationships with customers.

Read More >

If you’re an IT manager at your company, what are your responsibilities? Have your duties changed over the past few years? Do you find yourself dealing with issues that other IT managers do not? With the increase of smart mobile devices and remote connection tools, IT managers must constantly develop new strategies to adapt to new IT environments. According to a recent LANDesk Software survey, IT professionals are still finding management and security problems in the workplace from mobile devices.

Read More >

Intronis is the latest MSP-centric software company to hire a CFO (chief financial officer) and raise new funding. Other MSP- and cloud-oriented companies to hire new CFOs in recent months include Autotask, Axcient and Kaseya. What’s the common thread here? Many privately held technology companies, including those in the MSP market, need seasoned CFOs to organize appropriately for their next stage of growth.

Read More >

If you can’t fight them — join them? A growing number of MSPs and VARs seem to be finding cloud success promoting Microsoft Office 365 and Google Apps to customers. And old arguments about thin SaaS profit margins and cloud customer billing models seem to quieting down. Why’s that? Here’s the update.

Read More >

As the techies in my extended family, the adults in my household are often called upon to provide IT support to everyone else.  (I’m sure you know how this goes.) Sometimes this means long, painful phone calls to a different time zone where a “user,” we’ll call her Grandma, is trying to describe what she sees on her computer screen. Normally we eventually figure out that the problem is that she’s just been typing in the wrong field. Our other IT support volunteer work involves a half-hour car ride to another relative’s house, only to find out that they’d forgotten their password and couldn’t see the password hint. (This relative refers to the desktop tower as the “modem.”)  It is hard to support this kind of user over the phone alone.

Read More >

As it stands today, the market for disaster recovery technology is split in two major areas: Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Disaster Recovery and Enterprise-grade Disaster Recovery. On the lower end you have solutions ranging from tape backup, cloud storage and other forms of backup, which — in a disaster scenario — an IT administrator is stuck patching together a recovery solution usually accompanied by lengthy time to recovery (RTO). On the higher end we see high availability and continuous data protection services that ensure no downtime but often come with a six-figure price tag, and require in-house staff who is dedicated to maintenance.

Read More >

Desktop virtualization specialist AppSense, has announced it will acquire RAPsphere, a mobile security  specialist, to extend the application of its virtualization technology across mobile devices in the enterprise. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. All the employees Redwood City, Calif.-based RAPsphere will become part of the AppSense team.

Read More >

3LM has announced the release of version 3.0 of its security and management platform, adding support for Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). The new version, which provides Mobile Device and Application Management (MDAM), supports both handsets or tablets operating on the Android 4.0. The update also includes several new security and management features, as well as management and security support for Apple’s iOS-enabled iPhones and iPads.

Read More >

While most of the managed services market tries to figure out mobile device management (MDM), I’m paying more and more attention to mobile application management (MAM). Manage your customers’ applications — especially mobile apps — and you’ll have a customer for life, I believe. Here’s why.

Read More >