Managed Services: 7 Blogs MSPmentor Didn’t Write, July 12

We're starting to gear up for another wave of channel events — including ChannelCon, Tech Data TDCloud Summit and HTG's new Vision Summit. But before MSPmentor looks ahead to those conferences, here are seven managed services provider (MSP) blogs and news stories we didn't have a chance to write for the week ending July 12, 2013.

7. Stressful times: VMware will update its Nicira software-defined networking (SDN) strategy at VMworld in August. Watch for Cisco — a partner and competitor — to gradually say less about its VMware relationship.

6. New Peer Groups?: SMB Nation Peer Groups have launched. They are designed for IT service providers with $500,000 to $5 million in annual revenues. The 10-person groups will meet twice per year in Seattle, Las Vegas or Chicago, depending on season. The groups will range from owners to service managers, sales managers and sales professionals. Former Taylor Business Group Senior Consultant Josh Peterson will lead the peer groups.

5. Same Investors: Insight Venture Partners owns Kaseya and also has an investment in GFI Software. Does that mean Insight will merge the two MSP and IT management software companies? So far the answer is no. I'll share more later. 

4. Return of Master MSPs?: A giant technology company thinks there is an opportunity for Master MSPs to emerge again. I'm not so sure. Generally speaking, Master MSPs offer their data center and management services to aspiring, smaller MSPs. Companies like Do IT Smarter and MSP Services Network (MSPSN) had some success in the Master MSP market a few years ago but overall the trend never really took off. This time around I think you'll see aspiring MSPs plugging into cloud services providers…

3. Virtual Administrator?: While on the subject of Master MSPs, it has been far too long since I checked in with the folks at Virtual Administrator. Their sister company is a pure MSP (Network Depot). Virtual Administrator positions itself as an MSP on-ramp, offering tools and services like Kaseya, Intronis, Live Virtual Help Desk, Spam Soap and more. So what's new at the company? I'll check in to find out.

2. Another M&A Deal: At least two sources claim another MSP-oriented software acquisition will surface in the next week or so. I doubt it will rival recent deals involving Kaseya, Level Platforms, N-able and Zyrion. But…

1. Top 250 MSP Pros: Nominate top MSP experts, executives and entrepreneurs for our sixth-annual MSPmentor 250 list. Survey nominations are due Aug. 2. Yes, you can nominate yourself.