MSPmentor

At first glance, N-able Technologies and NetEnrich are partnering to offer managed services providers (MSPs) a “complete IT operations solution” that pushes beyond basic NOC (network operations center) and RMM (remote monitoring and management) solutions. But take a closer look at the relationship, and you’ll find some opportune timing as well as a mutual relationship with the Ingram Micro Cloud team.

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SunGard Availability Services has created the SunGard Managed Recovery Program to help secure the availability of both cloud and on-premise applications. The goal of the Managed Recovery Program is to manage the entire application recovery lifecycle for SunGard customers.

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There’s now a new service provider in the Managed Network Services (MNS) sector and growing Managed Print Services (MPS) sector. Agiliant is officially open for business and is targeting customers looking to optimize their overall network performance, cut cost and improve their infrastructure visibility all through a single vendor.

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Hewlett-Packard is experiencing growing demand from managed service providers for its Discovery and Dependency Mapping Inventory Advanced Edition (DDMA). That’s according to Jimmy Augustine, group product manager of Configuration Management Database for HP Software. I caught up with Augustine to find out why more MSPs are suddenly seeing the value of HP’s DDMA solution.

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When the IT Nation conference kicks off Nov. 9 in Orlando, dozens of MSPmentor 250 members — managed services experts, entrepreneurs and executives — will be on hand. Among the folks we hope to meet: ConnectWise CTO Linda Brotherton (pictured). MSPmentor recently spoke with Brotherton to gain some high-level thoughts about ConnectWise’s software development strategy. Now, we’re curious to know what’s on tap for 2012.

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Bocada, a data protection specialist, is taking its business into virtual environments with the new Bocada Vision solution. Vision is a DPSM (data protection service management) solution designed to protect information in virtual environments.

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Dimension Data, the $4.7 billion IT services provider, has launched a global managed services effort focused on video and visual communications. Officially called Managed Service for Visual Communications, the effort will allow customers to focus on their core businesses, reduce operational costs, lower barriers to entry and improve user experiences for video, Dimension Data claims.

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IBM continues to accelerate its partner strategy in the mid-market. The effort includes a growing push to transform VARs and resellers into managed services providers. Andy Monshaw, general manager of IBM’s global and medium sized business, offered MSPmentor an update.

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A recent study conducted by CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the IT industry, finds that companies using IT managed services are seeing significant cost savings. But I’ve got to wonder: Are managed services really about cost savings — or is the real benefit predictable business operations for both the customer and the MSP?

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I admit: I’m an Android guy. I have an Android phone and a Motorola Xoom tablet. But I’m also aware that Apple iOS 5 and iPhone 4S have arrived. Each day this week I’ve open my inbox to dozens of emails from MSPs and mobile device management (MDM) providers announcing iOS 5 support. But how will Apple impact the IT and managed services market?

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One of the underlying conversations at the 2011 N-able Partner Summit involves managed print services. Indeed, two of the event’s sponsors are Oki and Xerox, which both have been putting on their managed print services game faces of late. In some ways, MSPs must now compete with printer and copier dealers. But Oki and Xerox also want to partner with MSPs.

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ManageEngine , which develops managed services and IT service desk software, has launched three new products designed for MSPs and IT administrators. The featured product is the VQManager Distributed Edition, which helps MSPs maintain VoIP networks for customers. Here are the details.

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Fully Managed, a managed services provider in Vancouver and Edmonton, has extended its IT service and support portfolio to include Apple Mac and Apple iOS (iPhone and iPad) devices. It’s the latest reminder that a small — but growing — number of MSPs are pushing beyond Windows to support Apple desktop and mobile devices.

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I didn’t know much about SmarterTools, the mail server software, help desk software and web analytics provider before Smarter Tools VPs Jeff Hardy and Derek Curtis reached out to me. The first thing that caught my attention: Curtis and Hardy didn’t want to schedule a 10 minute phone briefing. They wanted to meet face-to-face to discuss how SmarterTools has been competing with the likes of Zendesk and Salesforce.com since its founding in 2003. Here are the details.

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Paessler AG, the network monitoring software company, has released version 9 of its Paessler PRTG Network Monitoring solution. It’s designed for managed services providers. I caught up with Paessler North American General Manager Ken Sanofsky to learn about some of the new networking monitoring features and  capabilities that Paessler has included in version 9.

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DataCore Software and TwinStrata are connecting the dots between storage virtualization and cloud storage. Specifically, DataCore’s storage virtualization software will now come bundled with a free TwinStrata CloudArray virtual appliance. How do managed service providers potentially benifit? Here are some thoughts.

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Zenprise, the mobile device management (MDM) software provider, has released a mobile data leakage prevention (DLP) solution for the enterprise market. The DLP solution, which supports Microsoft SharePoint, is part of the company’s larger mobile enterprise Security Framework technology. Here’s the update.

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All Covered, the national managed services provider, has acquired Vertical IT Solutions, a managed IT outsourcing company in Tampa, Fla. The deal continues All Covered’s M&A strategy and expands the company’s reach within Florida.

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The MSPmentor Job Board continues to list IT career opportunities for managed services experts and SMB technology professionals. In addition to IT careers in the United States, the job board now includes IT job opportunities in Canada. Take a look.

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N-able Technologies has released N-Central 8.1 — the newest version of its remote monitoring and management (RMM) managed services platform. The new release includes VMware remote monitoring; a mobile application for Google Android; and automatic warranty expiration monitoring. Those three capabilities are becoming increasingly common across the managed services market, as MSPs seek to master complex virtualization and mobile issues, without overlooking basic warranty-driven revenue opportunities.

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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.

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A the MSPWorld conference in Austin, Texas, companies such as Enterhost, GoGrid and Veddio are pitching cloud partner programs, cloud referral programs and cloud dashboards for MSPs. If the efforts work as advertised, MSPs can potentially pursue a growing range of recurring revenue opportunities tied to cloud services.

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Much has recently been made of the increasing need SMBs have for mobile systems and services. However, some statistics from a new study by business communications provider Fonality make it clear that SMB’s need for mobility is even more pressing than the pundits are saying. We don’t want to put too much weight in a vendor-produced survey, but it still presents a powerful argument for MSPs to focus even more on mobility, branch office and home office support.

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