I just got off the phone with one of my first editors — the man who showed me the ropes in the high-tech industry. Back in 1992 at InformationWeek, he made two rather stunning statements to me that I never forgot:
Remember, he made those statements long before open source and the Internet revolutionized the way we think about software and collaboration. And both statements are critically important to managed service providers. Here’s why.
I’ve spent the past two days at OSCON (Open Source Convention) in Portland, Oregon. There isn’t much managed services news here — or is there? In fact, MSPs can leverage at least five key lessons from the open source movement. Take a look.
Software as a service (SaaS) and open source continue to converge. The latest example is Apatar On-Demand, which now synchronizes Salesforce.com CRM and Intuit QuickBooks accounting software.
Apatar specializes in open source tools for data integration. And filling the gap between Salesforce.com and QuickBooks should be of great interest to VARs and managed service providers. Here’s a bit more about some of the trends here.
If you’re a managed service provider mulling your VoIP options, keep this in mind: A growing number of customers — especially in Europe — are embracing IP phone systems that leverage open source and Asterisk. In fact, the European market for open source VoIP is growing 70 percent annually, according to one market researcher. Here’s the scoop. Read More >
John Roberts is sitting in the middle of the perfect storm. As CEO of SugarCRM, he leads one of the fastest-growing open source application providers. And roughly 30 percent of SugarCRM’s customer wins now involve software as a service (SaaS) or an on-demand approach — meaning the company competes with traditional CRM (Siebel) and hosted models like Salesforce.com.
I interviewed Roberts for our June 19 MSPmentor: Live podcast. We covered four key topic areas:
N-able has inked a security-related managed services partnership with Untangle. But I believe there’s a bigger trend here.
Untangle has a strong position in the open source industry. That position is prompting MSP platform providers — N-able, Level Platforms, Kaseya and others — to evaluate their definition of “open” platforms, and (in some cases…) their potential use of open source software.
The convergence of open source with managed services and software as a service (SaaS) continues. The latest example: Red Hat, arguably the world’s best-known open source company, has created two staff positions to serve hosting partners. Plus, Red Hat is evaluating a strategy to work more closely with managed service providers, MSPmentor has learned. Here’s the scoop. Read More >
Ubuntu, the fastest-growing version of Linux, is starting to attract interest from the managed services industry. One prime example: Untangle, which develops security solutions for managed service providers, is preparing to add support for Ubuntu within the next few months, MSPmentor has learned.
For MSPs, leveraging open source provides some cost-effective ways to introduce new services while connecting with fast-growing developer communities.
Here’s some more background on Ubuntu, along with emerging details about Untangle’s strategy for the operating system. Read More >
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