MSPmentor

When MSPmentor reported that Google Postini was providing business continuity services for Microsoft Exchange, my inbox was filled with chatter on the subject of storing messages and keeping them highly available. Now Microsoft has shown its true feelings for the Postini option in a blog entry titled, “Email Availability Considerations,” which laid out Redmond’s own recommendations for backing up Exchange messages yourself — or picking a hosted provider. Microsoft even mentions Google Postini as a potential option. Here’s the scoop:

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Call it one last hurrah for the Zombie fad of 2010, but Google Wave — the e-mail/instant messaging hybrid that failed to attract an audience — has come back to life. Specifically, Google has turned over development to the open source Apache Software Foundation’s incubator program. Here’s the scoop on the newly minted Apache Wave:

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Google Apps resellers get a powerful new tool in their arsenal with the launch of a reporting API that gives more insight into how the cloud productivity suite is being used. The functionality isn’t new, but the ability for resellers to leverage it programmatically is intriguing. Here’s the scoop.

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Google’s cloud productivity strategy seems to revolve around controlling three key markets: the SMB, the educational institution, and the government agency. We hear a lot of success stories from the first two, but a recent Google Enterprise Blog post is one of the first to highlight the benefits of Google Apps for Government. In this instance, it’s Panama City talking about how going Google helped them open up their government to the people. Here’s some perspective.

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As we continue work on the fourth-annual MSPmentor 100 survey, it’s an ideal time to check in with managed services providers that landed in our third-annual report. This time we’re speaking with Fandotech President John Boyd (pictured). Fandotech has had the cloud, backup, recovery and virtualization game under their belt since 2003, with an eye on healthcare, government, education and horizontal SMBs. The company rode out the recession with minor pains, and a branded Fandotech cloud service — called RAIN — is helping the company to maintain clear focus and consistent messaging. Boyd certainly sounds upbeat about Fandotech’s business outlook. Here’s the update.

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Google Apps continues to iteratively update its cloud productivity suite with multiple minor feature enhancements rather than huge releases. Well, never let it be said the same isn’t true of their business model, as Google Apps adds previously consumer-focused offerings like Google Voice and Blogger to the enterprise dashboards and renames their paid editions. Here’s the scoop.

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Despite forays into cloud productivity, telephony, and even self-driving cars, search remains Google’s bread and butter. And for many enterprises, the go-to search solution is Google Site Search, which leverages the company’s search algorithm to search their own sites. And now Google has simplified the pricing of Google Site Search, with plans starting at just $100 a year. Here’s the scoop.

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Zoho, the SaaS-based software specialist, has launched Zoho Support, a web-based help desk ticketing application with a customer-facing self-service portal. It’s an interesting move — especially when you consider Zoho’s sister company is ManageEngine, which develops MSP Center Lite, a network and systems management platform. Here’s a look at Zoho’s strategy.

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Another day, another Google Apps update. This time, the cloud suite has added the ability to see how and when users are accessing specific Google services. It could be a valuable tool for showing how well a Google Apps deployment is working for an enterprise. Here’s some insight.

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If that headline made you do a double-take, you’re not alone. I was surprised when I read a Seattle Times’ blog indicating Google was suing the US Department of the Interior for only taking bids from Microsoft partners reselling BPOS/Office 365 cloud solution. The Google lawsuit definitely has cloud channel partner implications. Here’s the update.

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It’s good to make the front page of industry blogs. It’s better to get that attention for a reason other than a cloud application security breach that exposes company secrets or personal information. Aprigo, which specializes in permissions management products, is now offering a solution for avoiding that kind of situation by tweaking Google Docs settings. Here’s the scoop.

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Google Apps and Google Android are two key areas of the search titan’s enterprise initiative. And now the two meet as Google announces the addition of Android smartphone management to the Google Apps cloud suite. Here’s the scoop.

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Two major customer wins for Google in one day: The state of Wyoming and airline Virgin America say they’re migrating to the Google Apps cloud productivity suite. Better yet: Both migrations appear to have been managed by Google partners. Here’s the scoop.

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Google Sites, the public and internal web site and wiki creation aspect of the Google Apps cloud productivity suite, now has  support for scripts to support multi-step workflows. It doesn’t sound like much, but it has at least one Google partner excited. Here’s why.

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Spiceworks, the free IT management platform that claims 1.2 million users, is big on partnering with other companies to enhance its own capabilities. The most recent example: a partnership with data management solution vendor Aprigo to provide Spiceworks users with better ways to audit permissions and manage file share security on their networks. Here are some details.

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A few hundred managed services providers (MSPs) are set to attend the N-able Partner Summit later this week (Oct. 20-22, Scottsdale, Ariz.). So, what managed services trends can we expect at the conference, and what messages will N-able CEO Gavin Garbutt deliver to the crowd? Here are five clues and predictions from MSPmentor.

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Postini is the email security and archiving hosted services arm of Google, and they process billions of messages a day — looking for trends in virus and phishing scams alike. So when Google Postini reports that virus activity in Q3 2010 was up 10% year-over-year, it’s worth listening. Here are some details from the Postini report.

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When it comes to smartphone app stores, there are really two major players: the Apple iTunes App Store and the Google Android Market. But Research in Motion (RIM), developers of the BlackBerry, is planning to change that with an initiative to court developers back to their platform, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Here are some highlights and reaction.

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Four years ago this October Google launched the Google Apps for Education suite of student, faculty, and staff-focused cloud productivity and collaboration applications. Fast forward to the present, and Google says the company has landed its 10 millionth education space user on Google Apps. Here are some highlights of Google’s report card.

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Google loves to highlight enterprises big and small that have made the leap to the Google Apps suite. But now the search giant is looking for up to five companies from each of the major geographic regions to star in a new billboard campaign. Maybe they should try Googling for them.

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Patch Tuesday is one of those Microsoft traditions that I suspect many administrators wish would quietly vanish into the ether, but until we’re all running cloud-based operating systems, it looks like it’s here to stay. Microsoft shows no signs of slowing down, either, with yesterday’s security updates containing a whopping 16 patches for 49 problems – numbers that analysts say set a new record. Here’s the scoop.

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A little bit of hometown news for MSPmentor today as Google announces that 697 K-12 public school districts in New York State will be going to their Google Apps cloud productivity suite. That’s over 3.1 million students and hundreds of thousands of teachers all potentially going to Google Apps. Here’s the scoop.

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Google tends to favor announcing major Google Apps customer wins as they’re  confirmed. Not Microsoft, no. Microsoft likes to announce a lengthy list of BPOS and Live@edu cloud customer wins all at the same time, and yesterday saw Microsoft add companies like Sunoco Inc. and DuPont and schools like San Francisco State University to the list of SaaS victories. Here’s the story.

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