Seven Managed Services Blogs MSPmentor Didn’t Write: Jan. 21

Another loooong week has (nearly) ended. My word of the week would be “Optimism.” I don’t want to hype the managed services market. But most of the sources with whom I met this  week expressed optimism about their Q1 2011 outlooks. The only thing that depresses me a bit: There are a bunch of blog entries the MSPmentor team didn’t have time to write for the week ending January 21, 2011. Here are seven of them:

7. Making Her Move: A well-known PR veteran in the MSP market has apparently joined a major NOC (network operations center) specialist in Northern California. If true can someone please confirm?

6. Managed Virtualization: For the most part, MSPs already manage PCs, servers and mobile devices. Now, SolarWinds is hoping to help MSPs manage virtual machines. Key to the effort: SolarWinds’ buyout of Hyper9.

5. Money Matters: Ricoh is investing roughly $300 million in managed document services and managed print services over the next three years. The news comes two weeks after Konica Minolta acquired All Covered, a national managed IT services provider. We’ll be watching to see if Ricoh’s efforts involve the channel.

4. Breaking Down the Wall: Sounds like ConnectWise is set to more aggressively promote StreamlineIT, which knocks down the wall between MSPs and corporate IT departments. It sounds similar to Autotask’s TaskFire. But here’s my usual qualifier that puts loyal readers to sleep: I don’t actually run this stuff. We’ll be checking around to see how ConnectWise partners are using StreamlineIT, and we’re doing the same poking around in the Autotask camp.

3. Compliant Coming?: Yes, I’m aware a video company alleges there’s an unpaid invoice issue with a managed services marketing company. It’s the second allegation against the managed services marketing company in recent weeks. Who’s right and who’s wrong? I can’t say for sure. I know and respect sources on both sides of the fence, and I hope the matters get resolved. If the allegations ever turn into a legal case we’ll be sure to name and cover all parties responsibly. In the meantime one request: I wish the Florida VAR would halt its email flame war against the managed services marketing company, and instead simply state the alleged facts of the case…

2. Done Deal: We’ve completed our work on the MSPmentor 100 survey results. The entire list will be unveiled during a live webcast on February 16. But here’s a teaser: We’ve got enough data to break out results for North America, Europe, Australia and Africa. We’ll be writing the accompanying report during a flight to San Francisco on January 26. If you want a sneak peek be sure to look over my shoulder.

1. New Dashboard?: Cisco apparently is beta testing some type of managed services dashboard. Alleged code-names include (A) Winkin’ Owl, (B) Chocolate Sauce… (C) Thunderbolt and (D) Tampa Lightning. (Hint: Always go with C when in doubt.) We’ve asked Cisco for confirmation of the effort.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading.

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