MSPmentor

LegalCloud isn’t your typical managed services provider. The Sausalito, Calif.-based company is targeting the legal vertical with a range of cloud, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), backup and disaster recovery services. I met CEO Mark Hadfield on January 15, and he shared portions of LegalCloud’s business plan with me. Here’s a look at his strategy.

Read More >

What can two former stay-at-home moms and a 38-year-old tech guru teach you about the managed storage market? Plenty. No doubt, many managed service providers are struggling to differentiate in the storage as a service market. Sometimes, all it takes is finding a niche. Such is the case at Studentbackup.com. Here’s the story.

Read More >

Zetta, an enterprise-level cloud storage service available to managed service providers and VARs, finally leaves a long closed beta phase and becomes available to the channel at large today. Sure, online storage is an increasingly crowded market, but Zetta claims to have licked a few challenges that plague their peers. Here’s how.

Read More >

Mezeo Software Corp. has rolled out its Service Provider Alliance Program, confirming earlier indications that the company would target MSPs with its storage services.

Read More >

Intronis, which specializes in online backup and recovery, is starting to integrate its SaaS (software as a service) platform with RMM (remote monitoring and management) and PSA (professional services automation) software. Intronis’s latest move, announced today, involves a relationship with Level Platforms.

Read More >

Latisys is in growth mode. The Fairfax, Va.-based company, which focuses on data center services, was built on acquisitions and continues to seek deals going forward. Here’s where Latisys is heading next.

Read More >

Do IT Smarter, a master managed service provider (Master MSP), is adding CompuVault’s online data backup services to its suite of offerings. The relationship is the latest in a series of storage-centric moves across the Master MSP landscape. Here’s a look at recent activity.

Read More >

Eric Webster at Intronis Technologies sent me a storage horror story, involving a service provider that lost the backups of more than 7,500 customers. Now, the same story is making headlines across the blogosphere. Here’s a look at the details, plus the implications for managed service providers.

Read More >

Zmanda is connecting the dots between open source backup, cloud-based storage, Microsoft applications and managed services. Zmanda CEO Chander Kant told me a bit about the effort Thursday in New York. Here are some details.

Read More >

A quick update involving the online storage market: Storage Guardian is the latest software company to launch an online data backup and business continuity partner program for managed service providers (MSPs) and VARs. The service is designed, in particular, for partners that specialize in Exchange Server, Small Business Server, SharePoint Server and Active Directory customers. You can find a free 30-day trial here.

Read More >

Question: How can small and midsize businesses — such as accounting firms, legal firms and architectural companies — easily but securely share files with selected clientele? One potential answer is Box.net, a simple content management and storage service. Eager adopters include Network Depot, a managed service provider in Reston, Va. Here are some details.

Read More >

StorageCraft Technology Corp., which specializes in disk-based backup and information protection, has inked a partnershup with Zenith Infotech.  Under terms of the deal, StorageCraft ShadowProtect will back up Zenith Infotech’s managed servers, storing the backup images both locally and remotely, providing multiple access points, in the event of a catastrophic failure, according to a joint company release.

Read More >

Software companies and MSPs are erasing the line between managed services and cloud computing. In fact, I don’t think there ever was a line between the two specialties.

Read More >

While some managed service providers are wary of Amazon.com, a growing number of MSP software companies see strong potential for the Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), Amazon cloud services and distribution services. Two prime examples:

• Vembu, which makes storage software for MSPs, has announced support for S3.
• Clean Machine Inc. has signed a national (US) distribution Amazon.com.

Here’s a closer look at each deal, and their implications for managed service providers.

Read More >

Jeff Kaplan did it again. In his latest Think IT Services blog entry, Kaplan describes the a hybrid software as a service (SaaS) model that blurs the line between on-premise and cloud-based services. If you’re skeptical of this trend, check out these examples involving managed service providers working with Symantec, Vembu, Amazon.com and Fonality.

Read More >

It would be interesting to see how many terabytes (petabytes? exabytes or more?) of data were backed up and moved out of the Gulf Coast area ahead of Hurricane Gustav. Also, I wonder how much of that data was moved into commercial cloud services. Anybody have any estimates or seen any editorial coverage worth noting?

Read More >

More than 70 percent of successful managed service providers offer some form of managed storage, according to our MSPmentor 100 survey. Despite that lofty figure, the online storage market continues to enjoy strong growth.

Read More >

Apparently, Symantec’s SaaS (software as a service) platform, known as Symantec Protection Network (SPN), hasn’t exactly set the world on fire since its launch earlier this year. In fact, Symantec has been unusually quiet about SPN’s progress in recent months.

Read More >

Business continuity is the ability of an organization to continue functioning after an unplanned interruption. Data disaster recovery is an important part of business continuity capabilities.

Read More >