MSPmentor

BluPointe, a data protection technology provider, has enhanced its signature BluPointe Secure Cloud Backup data protection solution for managed services providers (MSPs). According to the company, the enhancements were made around security and data integrity.

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The managed services and cloud services land grab continues. To wit, ClearCube Technology has acquired Network Elites, a managed services and cloud services specialist. Together, the Texas-based companies plan to accelerate their public and private cloud strategies  — including a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) initiative. We’ll be watching to see how the ClearCube-Network Elites deal influences managed services and cloud services across Texas, where well-known players like White Glove Technologies and HEIT (now owned by CSI), among others, also have substantial footprints.

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Microsoft Project 2010 has been gaining momentum among enterprise companies, SMBs and system integrators for over a year now, according to Director of Microsoft Project Arpan Shah. This in spite of IT budgets shrinking for many businesses over that same time period. It made me wonder: Will MSPs embrace Microsoft Project to manage their customer engagements? I culled some insights from Shah.

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DATAFORT, a managed service provider throughout the U.K. and United States, has launched HI-5 — a business continuity service for customers running Microsoft Exchange. Yes, the market for Exchange-related disaster recovery services is quite crowded. And some folks worry Microsoft Office 365 (with Exchange Online) will squeeze demand for managed services built around Exchange. But in reality, there’s an opportunity for MSPs to protect on-premise Exchange systems for years to come.

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The challenge: How can managed services providers (MSPs) continually show their business value and IT expertise to end-customers? One potential answer comes from Azaleos Corp., which has launched the Azaleos ViewX CIO Dashboard. The dashboard, available to end-customers, tracks the health of unified communications and other IT services that Azaleos manages.

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Needless to say, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync is a popular standard for keeping smartphones in constant touch with the enterprise’s network. And now, Microsoft has teamed up with handset manufacturers for the Exchange ActiveSync Logo Program, which certifies that smartphone mobile mail clients can integrate as fully and securely as you’d want them to. For MSPs, the logo program may offer some peace of mind. Here’s why.

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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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Google vs. Microsoft? That’s so 2010. With the launch of Google Message Continuity, the search giant’s Postini message services arm ads “Gmail’s reliability” to on-premises Microsoft Exchange 2003 or 2007 deployments. With the two working in concert, Exchange messages are backed up to Google’s cloud and can be accessed in a Gmail-like interface that can be accessed from anywhere, Google asserts. Here’s the scoop.

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Intermedia claims to be the world’s largest independent Microsoft Exchange hosting service provider — so it’s no wonder that they’re looking to streamline self-service management for their SMB customers. The new release of the Intermedia HostPilot Control panel for gives their hosted services customers the ability to change their own passwords, enable call forwarding, and get SMS service status updates. Here’s the scoop.

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Rackspace Hosting says their hosted email services has  hit a major milestone with the signing of their 2 millionth paid business user. It’s a major sign of growth in hosted services. Here’s the scoop.

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Alabama-based TekLinks may have started its existence as a traditional VAR, but they’ve built out their managed services business to the point where the company was ranked No. 29 on the 2010 MSPmentor 100. Here’s how TekLinks says they rode the cloud to MSP success.

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Backup My Info! — with a name like that, you can guess their market — enhances their SMB play with the announcement that their fully managed, namesake online service has expanded operating system and application support. This is the latest in a flurry of backup-related news that we expect to surface today. Here’s the scoop.

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BlueTie, which provides hosted messaging and collaboration solutions to the enterprise, has finalized a deal to acquire web-based file sharing application Wonderfile. The company says it’s part of an overall play to take on Google and Microsoft with a channel-ready SharePoint alternative. Here are some insights.

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More affiliate program buzz as well-known hosted Exchange provider Intermedia looks to expand their partner success outside of the US. Specifically, Intermedia wants to help European partners capitalize on a projected boom in hosted mailboxes. Meanwhile, some VARs and MSPs say they may move away from Microsoft’s own BPOS services. Here’s the story.

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When it comes to the cloud, “hybrid” usually means a combination of on premise and software as a service. But now BlueTie has launched a so-called hybrid messaging solution that integrates their home-grown platform with hosted Microsoft Exchange 2010. Here’s the scoop.

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Google quietly launched an update for their Microsoft Exchange migration tool. The feature list may look anemic, but a few new Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange features can go a long way. Here are some details.

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Novell Pulse, an enterprise social media platform, is a close cousin of Google Wave, which Google killed off about a week ago. So will Novell continue the drumbeat for Pulse? In an official blog post, Novell says absolutely yes — despite the failure of Google Wave to attract a user base. Here’s the scoop.

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This is a case where the headline says it all. A Google Apps rollout at the City of Los Angeles has missed its migration deadline, the Los Angeles Times reports. The roadblock? The Los Angeles Police Department, which is refusing to move off the old system to Google’s SaaS-based approach. Here’s why.

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Problem: Migrating Exchange or SharePoint data to a Microsoft BPOS cloud-delivered productivity suite apparently can be costly and time-consuming. Enter BPOS Experts, a New York City-based company that’s offering their BPOS Commander management and migration solution completely free. Here’s the scoop.

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BlueTie has a similar pitch as other hosted email providers: reduce IT infrastructure costs, provide webmail, and improve efficiency with collaboration tools. But BlueTie says that their real differentiation is in the channel. The company claims margins of 50% or more plus free unlimited basic mailboxes for BlueTie partners. Here’s the scoop.

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Consider this a public service announcement for MSPs administrating a fleet of Apple iPhone’s and a Microsoft Exchange Online deployment: any device running iOS 4.0 needs a patch to continue using ActiveSync. Here are the details.

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Forget Web 2.0 and anything else 2.0. Zmanda, the open source backup specialist, is pitching Zmanda Cloud Backup (ZCB) 3.0. Zmanda certainly has plenty of competition when it comes to online backup. But the company says ZCB 3.0 includes enhanced geography control across datacenters on three continents, optimized Microsoft Exchange data backup, bandwidth management, and cloud-based disaster recovery. And it drops the overall price, too. Here’s the scoop.

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ManageEngine has launched Exchange Reporter Plus, a tool that apparently makes it easier for Exchange administrators to plan, control and manage email resources. Here are some quick details.

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