MSPmentor

Dell Managed Services, working closely with IBM, has won a massive managed services deal with the State of Georgia. Check out www.theVARguy.com (MSPmentor’s sister site) for exclusive details, and some perspective on Dell’s position in the managed services market.

Network Depot LLC, ranked No. 75 in last year’s MSPmentor 100 survey, is transforming itself into a Master MSP. The company has introduced a hosted Kaseya platform, known as Virtual Administrator, that small VARs can leverage.

Hosting managed services for other VARs is part of a growing trend across the MSP landscape. But in addition to offering new revenue opportunities, becoming a Master MSP also involves some challenges. Read More >

I’ve written roughly 600 blog entries about the managed services industry since January. Amazingly, I think I’ve mentioned Hewlett-Packard only once or twice along the way.

Is anybody else shocked by HP’s complete inability to articulate a managed services strategy? Dell has spent more than a year piecing together an MSP strategy and acquiring Silverback Technologies, Everdream and MessageOne.

HP’s response so far has been silence. That’s shocking. Here’s why.

Read More >

Based on a series of phone calls and emails in recent weeks, I’ve reached the following conclusion: Most PC companies don’t understand the managed services market, nor do they understand emerging demand for hardware as a service (HaaS). Here’s why. Read More >

Amy Katz (my business partner) and I have completed our trip to the CompTIA Breakaway conference. Amy noticed a rather interesting trend that I had overlooked: During all of our Breakaway meetings, executives from across the managed services market asked us about our thoughts on Dell.

Some of the questions were basic (”Do you trust Dell?”). Others were complex (”How will Dell marry cloud computing, SaaS and managed services?”). But all of the questions involved some sort of lingering vendor distrust of the PC giant.

So, what do I think of Dell? My views on the PC giant aren’t always popular. But I stand by them. Take a look. Read More >

Dell continues to launch Web 2.0 sites to drive dialog with partners (managed service providers, VARs and ISVs). The latest is a Dell PartnerDirect Group on FaceBook. It joins the Dell Channel Blog (http://direct2dell.com/channel/) and several other discussion-oriented sites for Dell partners.

Dell is gaining momentum with partners. But during several recent meetings, MSP platform providers told me they were running into Dell Silverback less frequently during competitive bids. Of course, that could have been “competitive spin” from Dell’s rivals, some of whom are worried about Dell’s Master MSP plans for Silverback and Everdream.