MSPmentor

Forgive me for going slightly off topic. I have some news to share: MSPmentor has a new sister Web site. It’s called Works With U, and it covers an emerging, disruptive Linux distribution called Ubuntu.

Some members of the managed services community are familiar with Ubuntu. Others have yet to discover its promise. Nine Lives Media Inc. (the folks behind MSPmentor, The VAR Guy and Works With U) expects Ubuntu Linux to become a true platform (for mobile devices, desktops, servers, and even managed appliances) over the next few years. Here’s why. Read More >

Mergers and acquisitions continue at a rapid pace in the managed services industry. The latest deal involves Alentus — a managed service provider with software as a service expertise — acquiring two Linux-centric hosting firms.

Based in Laguna Niguel, Calif., Alentus snapped up Austin, Texas-based Website Source, Inc. and SpeedFox, Inc., which specialize in Linux website hosting. The acquisitions reinforce the growing popularity of hosting both open source and closed source applications under one roof.

Alentus’s acquisitions are the latest in a growing list of MSP buyouts followed by our MSPmentor M&A Tracker.

Read More >

Kaseya COO Tim McMullen just disclosed that the company’s managed services platform will soon support Apple’s Mac OS and Linux. McMullen made the comment during a Webcast a few moments ago. Kaseya’s commitment to Apple and Linux reinforces the fact that a small — but influential — piece of the SMB market has made the move to the Macintosh. Support for Mac OS should arrive in early 2008, with Linux support to follow shortly thereafter. I’ve got reason to celebrate: I’m typing this blog entry on my MacBook Pro during a business trip, and heading home to visit my Dell/Linux desktop PC tonight.

I lifted the headline for this blog entry from a presentation David Strom delivered this morning at the MSP Alliance conference in San Jose. So, what were the five disruptive technologies? Three of them were obvious, but David caught my ear with his analysis of the other two — and some timely perspective on Microsoft Small Business Server. Read More >