MSPmentor

Over on the official Google Enterprise Blog, the search giant announced Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange, a server-side tool that migrates contacts, messages, and calendars from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps. The migration tool is similar to offerings from Open-Xchange, Zimbra and other email upstarts. What comes next for VARs and MSPs? Here are some thoughts.

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I concede: I often blog about the fact that many SaaS applications like Microsoft BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) don’t offer VARs and MSPs enough profit margin opportunity. But I had a rather enlightening conversation yesterday with Next Level Cafe, a managed services provider based in Minnesota. CEO Richard Anderson offered some timely perspective on the true SaaS opportunity. Here it is.

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In an effort to allay fears about the security and privacy of the cloud, McAfee today launches Cloud Secure, an auditing and certification program to help software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers promote their commitment to secure computing. Interested? Amazon Web Services is.

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Security software vendor Trend Micro has announced that it’s retiring its InterScan Messaging Hosted Security (IMHS) platform in favor of the all-new Hosted Email Security product starting in April. Here’s what service providers should know.

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When I wrote about the wait-and-see attitude managed Exchange provider Azaleos was taking to the cloud back in December 2009, I got a lot of feedback from MSPs on both sides of the argument. I recently caught up with Azaleos VP of Marketing and Product Management Scott Gode, and he says that while the company’s not giving up on on-premises messaging by a long shot, they’ve seen a rise in demand for their managed hybrid Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) services. Here’s why services providers should care.

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Not every MSP can leverage the Google Apps Marketplace, and not every solutions provider has cloud applications ready to go. Enter AppsOnCommand, a new white label solution that lets you host any application and deliver it as software as a service (SaaS).

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For skeptics, Google Apps represents consumer-oriented SaaS applications that aren’t really designed for enterprises. But poke your head inside the new Google Apps Marketplace, and you’ll begin to see just how serious Google is when it comes to pushing SaaS deeper into businesses. Here are some observations for managed services providers who are trying to decide whether to cooperate  — or compete — with Google Apps.

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In a blog post, Google has announced that Google Apps — the software-as-a-service collaborative productivity suite — is now fully disaster-proof and ready to instantly restore data lost in the event of a catastrophe. Here’s why their braggadocio has some IT pros seeing red.

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Give Rackspace Cloud credit: As part of a system upgrade, RackSpace Cloud is proactively telling customers that their sites may be offline for as long as 90 minutes on March 6. As a Rackspace Cloud customer myself, I appreciate the heads up. Still, I’ve got key concerns and I have to ask an obvious question…

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McAfee, Inc.’s Chief Executive David DeWalt made waves last Friday when he told Reuters that they were looking to acquire multiple technology companies this year. Here’s the scoop from the security sector.

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Microsoft is quietly conducting some informal SaaS and hosting research at the Parallels Summit in Miami. The cloud-centric conference has attracted several hundred service providers and VARs focused on recurring revenue opportunities. Clearly, Microsoft is working hard to connect more closely with summit attendees — many of whom are checking out the Google Apps reseller program. Here’s some perspective.

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Until this week, Parallels was perhaps best known for Macintosh-oriented virtualization software. But that may change — starting today. The reason: Parallels has organized a major SaaS and cloud conference in Miami. Large technology companies (Cisco, Microsoft, Novell) and industry upstarts (Channel Cloud, CloudLinux, and more) are converging on the event. Here’s why MSPs better pay attention.

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At first glance, VMware’s cloud strategy can be difficult for MSPs and VARs to get their arms around. And this week’s VMware Partner Exchange conference will generate a lot of noise from scores of VMware cloud partners. But what do aspiring partners really need to know? I think I can sum-up VMware’s cloud strategy in roughly four sentences…

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Yes, you likely know the City of Los Angeles is making a big move to Google Apps. But week after week, Google also seems to be promoting school district wins, too. For MSPs serving the education vertical, studying up on Google Apps is now a requirement. Here’s why.

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When Hewlett-Packard this week launched a security services portfolio, the announcement included a brief mention of managed security services. No doubt, HP promotes managed services to large enterprises. But is the hardware giant starting to take a closer look at channel-centric managed services? Here are some thoughts.

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Yet another software firm is stepping into Amazon’s cloud. The latest example: Mark Logic, best known as developers of information infrastructure technology, has announced its intentions to bring their XML server solution to the cloud, starting with MarkLogic Server for Amazon EC2. Here’s the scoop.

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As Microsoft and Lotus restart a 15-year-old turf war, the Lotusphere 2010 conference is in full swing. Among the first pieces of news:  NaviSite, an enterprise hosting provider, plans to offer Lotus applications in their NaviCloud managed cloud application platform. Here’s the scoop.

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It started in 2007: New Mind Group, purveyors of managed services to SMBs in the greater Kalamazoo, Mich. area, began to run into severe scalability issues with traditional Microsoft Exchange installations. As businesses grew, so did their computing needs, but they didn’t have the money or facilities to grow proportionately. That’s when New Mind Group decided to help blaze a trail now being followed by the city of Los Angeles and go to Google Apps.

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During a phone conversation with me this morning, Dell Channel Chief Greg Davis said the company has roughly 131 certified managed services partners. In my mind: That’s not exactly a huge number — especially for a company of Dell’s size. But I think Dell is putting a lot of channel emphasis on a slightly different MSP and VAR effort that involves Symantec. Here are the details.

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Intermedia, which specializes in hosted Exchange, has unveiled a 100 percent data protection guarantee. But what exactly does the guarantee mean and will rival SaaS (software as a service) providers follow suit? Here are some fast facts and potential implications for managed service providers.

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Here’s an obvious market opportunity that I suspect many managed service providers are overlooking: The number of home-based businesses (HBB) in the U.S. using Software as a Service (SaaS) nearly doubled in 2008, growing 92 percent to 2.3 million HBBs, according to AMI Partners Inc. Why should MSPs care?

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Running a managed services practice is all about generating recurring revenue. Too many small IT providers get so hung up on the service part of Managed Services that they forget about the other ways to make recurring revenue. Here is my top ten list of ways to generate recurring revenue.

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Plenty of MSPs are mulling CRM strategies. You know the major names — Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics, Siebel Systems, SugarCRM, and plenty more. But this week RightNow has caught our attention with its CX software-as-a-service customer service platform, which blends CRM with SaaS and social media. Here’s the scoop.

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