Artisan Infrastructure competes in the fiercely competitive IaaS (infrastructure as a service) market, hoping to build a pure channel-centric alternative to Rackspace, Amazon Web Services and other cloud titans. Artisan claims that it never — ever — sells directly to end customers. Instead, Artisan empowers third-party MSPs and emerging services providers to build and deploy self-selected SaaS applications on Artisan’s infrastructure. So is the strategy working?
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Artisan: The Only IaaS Cloud With A Pure MSP Partner Model?
Posted December 7th, 2011 by Joe Panettieri
Alert Logic: Security as a Service, Cloud Security Sales Grow 46%
Posted October 26th, 2011 by Nicholas Mukhar
Alert Logic, the security as a service specialist, says Q3 revenues were $5.6 million, up 46 percent from Q3 2010. Translation: Demand for cloud-based security services continues to grow rapidly, though MSPmentor does not have a view into Alert Logic’s overall profitability metrics. Here’s some more background.
Cloud Infrastructure Management: Nodeable Starts Beta
Posted October 13th, 2011 by Nicholas Mukhar
Nodeable, a startup, is trying to connect the dots between systems management, cloud computing and social media. The company has launched a private beta of its cloud infrastructure management platform. Nodeable claims the platform is a bit like using FaceBook- or LinkedIn-type social media to manage cloud infrastructure.
Alert Logic, Datapipe: Network Security In Amazon Cloud
Posted September 21st, 2011 by Nicholas Mukhar
Alert Logic and Datapipe have launched a managed network security solution hosted in Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud). Alert Logic says the managed network security service will allow partners to address intrusion detection and PCI compliance.
Network Instruments’ OI 3.0 Monitors Virtual Apps in Cloud
Posted September 1st, 2011 by Nicholas Mukhar
Network Instruments, which specializes in network troubleshooting and analysis solutions, has added native cloud infrastructure monitoring to its Observer Infrastructure 3.0 network monitoring solution.
Allied Digital Accelerates Global Managed Services Push
Posted May 31st, 2011 by Nicholas Mukhar
Allied Digital Services Ltd., an MSPmentor 100 company based in Mumbai, India, continues to expand internationally. The latest tally: Allied Digital now manages more than 250,000 desktops and 6,000 servers in 36 countries. In addition to momentum in the U.S. and India, Allied Digital is looking to accelerate its business in Europe, according to Director of Technology Solutions Paresh Shah. Here’s the update.
Amazon Cloud Outage: The Silver Lining for MSPs
Posted April 25th, 2011 by Joe Panettieri
When Amazon.com announces earnings results on April 26, the online retailer will surely need to explain its recent cloud computing outage to investors and pundits. In the meantime, recent cloud setbacks at Amazon and Sony provide ample opportunity — yes, upside — for managed services providers (MSPs). Here’s why.
Seven Managed Services Blogs MSPmentor Didn’t Write: April 22
Posted April 22nd, 2011 by Joe Panettieri
The weekend is here, which means it’s time for the MSPmentor team to re-charge and relax. We’ll be back online if any big news breaks. But in the meantime here are seven managed services blogs the MSPmentor team didn’t have time to write for the week ending April 22, 2011.
Local MSPs May Drive World Economic Forum Cloud Plan
Posted February 16th, 2011 by John Moore
An offshoot of the World Economic Forum recently launched an initiative that aims to host open source applications in the cloud for developing nations. MSPs in those nations could end up playing an important role in the rollout. Here’s the update.
Kaseya Extends Managed Services Brand Into Security, Storage
Posted February 1st, 2011 by Joe Panettieri
When the Kaseya 2 managed services platform debuted in 2010, Executive VP Jim Alves described the offering as a platform that would ultimately gain numerous plug-ins and modules. It’s a familiar strategy, since most RMM (remote monitoring and management) software platforms offer integration with third-party storage and security solutions. But I sense something different is going on at Kaseya, since a growing number of modules seem to be home-grown and/or Kaseya-branded. Here’s the update.
Should MSPs Build Out Their Own Cloud Infrastructure?
Posted January 27th, 2011 by Joe Panettieri
Here’s an interesting piece of news that deserves bigger-picture consideration: ScaleMatrix, an upstart managed service provider (MSP), has major cloud ambitions. ScaleMatrix plans to use CA Technologies‘ 3Tera AppLogic software to offer a range of services such as application hosting, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Virtual Private Data Centers (VPDCs). So why should MSPs care?
Seven Managed Services Blogs MSPmentor Didn’t Write: Dec. 10
Posted December 10th, 2010 by Joe Panettieri
It was a pretty intense week for MSPmentor and our sister sites, The VAR Guy and our newly launched Talkin’ Cloud. Even as we expand our blogging staff there are still quite a few blog entries that the MSPmentor team didn’t have time to write. So, here we go: Seven managed services blog entries MSPmentor didn’t publish for the week ending December 10, 2010.
What Does WikiLeaks Mean For Cloud Service Providers?
Posted December 2nd, 2010 by Matthew Weinberger
While MSPmentor has been watching the convergence of managed services and cloud computing, the rest of the world has been watching the news unfold around controversial governmental whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks and their recent ejection from Amazon EC2 following a string of DDOS attacks. But the two concepts meet in a short, but thoughtful, essay by Parallels’ Joshua Beil on what the WikiLeaks story means for cloud and hosted service providers. Here are some highlights.
Federal Government Takes a Cloud-First Approach to IT
Posted November 29th, 2010 by John Moore
The White House has been pushing for cloud computing for a while now, but a recent statement provides an additional nudge. Jeffrey Zients, federal chief performance officer, wrote in a November 19 blog post that the Administration aims to shift “the agency default approach to IT to a cloud-first policy as part of the 2012 budget process.” Hardly surprising, everyone from IBM to Savvis Federal Systems is jumping on the federal cloud bandwagon. Here’s why.
Opsview Open Source Network Monitor Targets MSPs
Posted November 24th, 2010 by Matthew Weinberger
Open source network and applications monitoring solution vendor Opsview is reaching out to the managed services provider market. Specifically, Opsview has launched a major new release of its flagship product, which apparently provides MSPs with deeper reporting tools. Here are some details.
MSPs Introduce More Cloud-Branded Services
Posted November 17th, 2010 by Joe Panettieri
I’m about to state the obvious: More and more managed services providers (MSPs) and data center providers are introducing cloud-branded services. Nevertheless, I think it’s important to document how the managed services market converges with cloud computing. The latest moves involve Datapipe launching a managed cloud service, and OnLine Tech promoting a private cloud service. Here’s a look at the news and the broader trends.
Save Yourself 2 Years: Pick A Cloud Specialization Now
Posted September 29th, 2010 by Jason Beal
In the past year, we’ve heard a lot about the tremendous opportunities available to channel partners who are willing to jump into cloud computing. And in my previous columns, I’ve described how the cloud offers channel partners a unique chance to provide customers with top notch service, adding more value at lower prices while still making steady profits doing it. But how do you get started? Here are some clues.
Cirtas, Nasuni Point Storage Cloudward, Cultivate Channel
Posted September 21st, 2010 by John Moore
We’ve written a lot lately about the intermingling of disaster recovery and the cloud, but some vendors aim to link the cloud to primary storage. For instance, Cirtas Systems this week launched a cloud storage appliance, which the company will market purely through the channel. Dan Decasper, Cirtas’ chief executive officer, said his company’s Bluejet Cloud Storage Controller plays a role analogous to a storage controller in an onsite enterprise storage array. But instead of storing information on racks of direct-attached disk drives, the Bluejet appliances tie into a cloud storage provider on the backend, he said. Here’s how.
SaaS: Amazon EC2 Gets Four New Large-Scale Features
Posted September 21st, 2010 by Matthew Weinberger
Amazon EC2, the cloud computing platform-as-a-service pioneer, is adding four new features designed to help administrators manage larger deployments. The four features are resource tagging; resource filtering; user-specified RSA keys; indempotent instance launching. Here’s the scoop.
Amazon Web Services Previews Identity and Access Management
Posted September 7th, 2010 by Matthew Weinberger
One of the hottest topics in cloud computing today is that of identity and access management, with every major player trying to figure out the best way to make sure only those who need to access cloud data, can. Amazon Web Services is throwing their hat into the ring with the “preview beta” of AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). Here’s the story.
Nimbula Raises $15M in Cloud Funding
Posted August 24th, 2010 by Matthew Weinberger
Nimbula, which touts itself as “the Cloud Operating System Company,” has announced the completion of a $15 million round of Series B financing, bringing their coffers up to $20 million. Here’s the scoop.
Amazon Web Services: Good Cloud Revenues, Great Cloud Margins?
Posted August 6th, 2010 by Matthew Weinberger
Some pundits say services, rather than hosting infrastructure itself, is where the money is when it comes to the cloud. But now some analysts are suggesting infrastructure as a service (IaaS) cloud pioneer Amazon Web Services may not be killing it on revenue, but they’re making cloud margins that hover around an estimated 50%. Here’s the scoop.
MSPintegrations: Managed Services Meet Amazon Cloud
Posted July 26th, 2010 by Joe Panettieri
Each time MSPmentor blogs about Amazon Web Services (AWS), I hear from readers who want practical, real-world examples of AWS in action. The big question: How can MSPs potentially leverage Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)? The answer: Check out what Travis Austin is working on over at MSPintegrations.
