MSPmentor

The MSPAlliance and Microsoft are working together on a reciprocal relationship, reports Redmond Channel Partner. As part of the relationship, Microsoft will promote the MSPAlliance’s Accreditation exam to channel partners worldwide. Likewise, companies that hold a Microsoft IT certification will receive credit for that expertise if/when they take the MSPAlliance’s Accreditation exam, according to the report.

The MSPAlliance is hosting its Managed Services Summit in Chicago this week. In the meantime, I’ve reached out to MSPAlliance President Charles Weaver for more information about the Microsoft-MSPAlliance relationship.

Here is Redmond Channel Partner’s original report about the Microsoft-MSPAlliance relationship.

When it comes to hosted email, why zig when you can zag? That explains the strategy at EtomicMail, a managed service provider that’s hosting Zimbra — an open source email platform — rather than Microsoft Exchange.

Here’s a look at EtomicMail’s strategy, and the potential lessons learned for rival managed service providers.

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The iPhone 3G goes on sale July 11, but Azaleos — a top managed service provider focused on Exchange Server — is already promoting a strategy for the new Apple device. Smart move. I wonder: Why aren’t more MSPs copying the Azaleos iPhone strategy? Read More >

Is the party over for VMware and the virtualization market? Yes and no. In a surprise move, former Microsoft executive Paul Maritz has been named president and CEO of VMware, replacing ousted co-founder Diane Greene.

One possible reason, notes Barron’s: VMware’s revenue growth for 2008 won’t quite meet the 50 percent target that Wall Street was expecting. Plenty of companies would welcome such growth problems, but VMware shares are down more than 20 percent on the news.

If you believe the Microsoft bashers, open source and software as a service (SaaS) will ultimately destroy Microsoft’s traditional software markets and revenue streams. But while open source continues to gain serious momentum, we’re not seeing solutions providers and SaaS experts abandon Microsoft. On the contrary, a growing number of Microsoft partners are lining up to support Dynamics CRM, SharePoint and Exchange Server.

The latest example involves Frontpages (www.fpweb.net), a hosting provider that plans to offer Dynamics CRM to small businesses (starting at $99 per month), corporate ($495) and larger enterprises ($4,595 per month). Read More >

As managed service providers push beyond the classic Wintel market, many are trying to get a better feel for software as a service (SaaS) and cloud computing. That’s where Google enters the picture.

The search engine giant this week is hosting more than 2,900 developers at a conference in Mountain View, Calif. The event, known as Google I/OTM, will highlight several key trends — including growing interest in Google App Engine. The engine enables developers to write Web applications on the same infrastructure that powers Google’s own apps, according to the company.

Google announced App Engine back in April. Here’s a video offering more background:

For MSPs and independent software vendors (ISVs), Google App Engine represents an opportunity to “break away” from the classic Microsoft Windows software development model.

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If you want to see how Microsoft and Google are competing in the software as a service (SaaS) market, head back to college. As I’ve written here a few times, Hofstra University, the University of Phoenix and several other large colleges have embraced Google Apps to manage student email, alumni email and collaboration. Now, Microsoft is taking steps to more actively promote its rival offering: Live@edu hosted applications.

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I’m a firm believer that managed service providers (MSPs) must offer “feet on the street” and face-to-face interaction with customers, otherwise you risk losing close, long-term relationships. Even if you offer software as a service (SaaS), you need to force yourself to visit customers regularly (once a month to once a quarter). That’s where the “software plus service” or “hybrid” business model comes into focus. Read More >