Seven Managed Services Blog Entries We Didn’t Write: April 23
The Ingram Micro VTN event is over. Now, I’m heading off to the HP Americas Partner Conference and Cisco Partner Summit, as is my blogging partner in crime. Last week was pretty intense covering Ingram as well as Autotask Community Live in Florida. Here are seven managed services blog entries the MSPmentor team didn’t have a chance to write for the week ending April 23, 2010.
7. Flavor of the Day: Keep an eye on Rackspace. We hear the hosting and cloud provider may have some spicy MSP-centric news to share on Monday, April 26.
6. Is There Really an iPad App for That?: At Autotask Community Live, the PSA software provider said it hopes to support Google Chrome, Apple Safari and Firefox soon. The effort, apparently, will also include complete iPad support. Meanwhile, ConnectWise is working on iPad support — but a ConnectWise customer seems to have already hacked together a solution.
Dave Sobel of Evolve Technology offers up the following info:
My MacBook Pro, which is my “go to” on the road, is in the shop. While it was promised back to me for yesterday, it’s still not ready, and I was paranoid about traveling and not having a solution. I fly to HTG Summit tomorrow, and I can’t be without a mobile platform. Rather than buy a new laptop or set one up, I just setup a VDI install — with our partners from the last time we talked — and put my desktop on it. Then, using the Wyse PocketCloud app for iPhone and iPad, I can securely connect to the desktop, running CW [ConnectWise] and all my other apps, on my iPad. Works great — really fast, actually, since it’s all server class gear. More compelling reasons for VDI.
Meanwhile, MSPmentor performed a spot check of Apple Stores and Best Buy stores on Long Island. In all cases, Apple’s iPad has been sold out for several days. I’ve got a 3G/WiFi model on order…
5. What Comes After SAS 70?: A source at NetSuite tells me there’s a proposed successor to the SAS-70 standard. It’s call ISAE-3402. I’m not a SAS-70 expert. But i do know plenty of MSPs that have SAS-70 compliant businesses. So I will take a closer look at ISAE-3402.
4. Wait List: Several ConnectWise user groups in North America now have waiting lists to get in. The two largest have about 150 members each, plus about 40 people each waiting to get in.
3. Ready to Talk Managed Services?: Both Hewlett-Packard (Las Vegas) and Cisco Systems (Los Angeles) will host their partner conferences the week of April 26. We hear Cisco plans to take steps to begin promoting Master MSPs. We’re curious to see if new HP Channel Chief Stephen DiFranco takes similar steps at Hewlett-Packard.
2. Goodbye WiFi Fees?: I’m now a Verizon Wireless MiFi customer. The device and attached service allows me to connect up to 5 WiFi devices simultaneously to Verizon’s 3G network. In theory, I’ll never pay hotel, airport and coffee shop WiFi fees again.
2. Eager to Read It: Larry Kesslin of 4Profit is working on a book that identifies seven key hurdles companies need to overcome as they march toward $100 million in annual revenues 100 employees. Kesslin told me a bit about the book during the Autotask Community Live conference. Now, I’m waiting for the publication date…
1. Money to Burn?: If you think the M&A market is due to slow down, guess again. The 10 largest technology companies added more than $65 billion to their reserves since the depths of the slump a year ago, according to a Financial Times analysis. Apple, for one, is now sitting on $42 billion in cash and reserves. You gotta think the tech giants (A) will begin hiring more aggressively soon and (B) may be looking to buy up a few rivals or upstarts along the way.
Side note: If you’re attending HP Americas Partner Conference or the Cisco Partner Summit this week and want to potentially meet, please send email to joe [at] NineLivesMediaInc.com.
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