SMB Nation Blog

Kaseya said this morning that it has appointed a new CMO and CSO. The appointment of the company’s new CMO comes just a week after its former CMO, Bob Davis, parted ways with the company.

We heard from N-able today that the recently acquired RMM has launched Report Manager 4.1, designed to deliver business reporting to N-able MSPs worldwide. Highlighting the new release is a new executive summary report designed to transform and simplify the way MSPs quantify, communicate and visually demonstrate the business and technical value of their services to customers, prospects and other influencers such as line of business owners and board of directors.

ZyXEL Communications is now offering complete series of Layer 2 10G and gigabit managed switches designed with enterprise-class features for uninterruptable operation, redundancy, optimal routing and bandwidth management and high power Power Over Ethernet Plus (PoE+) support. The 3700 series includes a combination of 10G / gigabit, 24 / 48 ports, PoE+ / non-PoE switches that are ideally suited to data centers, SMB core networks, and other mission-critical PoE applications.

You remember Obama’s “Cash for Clunkers” incentive from a few years back? Well VaultLogix has its own incentive, yet their spin is a bit different. The cloud backup service provider is now offering its “Cash for Clients” incentive program through the end of 2013 for its certified VAR partners.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior.

 In addition, here at SMB Nation, we are already gearing up for our annual fall event to be held Oct. 10-12 in Las Vegas at the Rio! We have put together a brand new Web site specifically for this event, which you must check out today: http://fall.smbnation.com/. For additional information on the new Web site, our cool XP Migrations video produced by Bigger Brains, and our fall conference, check out our blog post here.

For the last two years, it has been no secret that Zenith Infotech has experienced its share of headlines discussing its current financial situations. It was first noted in October 2011 that the company had defaulted on $85 million in foreign currency convertible bonds. Now, just last week, The Economic Times of India (Zenith is based in Mumbai, but has U.S. headquarters outside of Pittsburgh, PA) reported that the “Bombay High Court has admitted the winding-up petition (meaning an order has been sought to put a company into compulsory liquidation) filed by foreign lenders. In addition, the article said that the court has appointed an advocate as a provisional liquidator.

Datto said earlier this week that it is now offering Kroll Ontrack PowerControls 7.0 through Datto’s integrated software. According to Datto, this new implementation makes Datto the only BDR solution provider to offer granular recovery support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 in addition to having new functionality for preserving and exporting Exchange/SharePoint source and metadata.

independenceIT has made some changes to its leadership team with MSP cloud services pioneer Jim Lippie promoted to CEO and corporate development veteran Seth Bostock as president and COO.

iIT’s flagship offering, the Cloud Workspace Suite, is widely recognized as the industry’s most comprehensive channel-only Desktop as a Service (DaaS) solution, delivering recurring revenue for VARs, ISPs and MSPs.

AVG seems to be staying true to its word of maintaining its commitment to the channel via its acquisition of LPI Level Platforms last month. The company said earlier this week that it has hired a former N-able staffer away as its new VP Channels North America. Marco La Vecchia, is set to begin his AVG tenure on August 15.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior.

In addition, here at SMB Nation, we are already gearing up for our annual fall event to be held Oct. 10-12 in Las Vegas at the Rio! We have been hard at work designing a brand new Web site specifically for this event, which you must check out today: http://fall.smbnation.com/. For additional information on the new Web site, our cool XP Migrations video produced by Bigger Brains, and our fall conference, check out our blog post here.

CloudBerry Lab, a vendor of an Amazon Web Services powered cloud backup solution for Managed Service Providers has enhanced its Managed Backup service by offering advanced level remote management.

By Laura Shafer, Director of Product Marketing, StorageCraft

There are few terms that stop people cold quite as much as the phrase End of Life. No matter what the context, the subject is very ominous. Even in most discussions that I have about software end of life here at StorageCraft, the subject brings on some squeamishness and a lot of squirming. We even give it an acronym—E.O.L.—to make sure we don’t have to think about its darker context.

MegaPath Corporation has launched its “any-to-any” Broadband Managed Failover services. The new product complements MegaPath’s Failover service released in June of this year. MegaPath’s Managed Failover services provide customers with a high-availability, cost-effective business continuity solution for maintaining critical business operations in the event that their primary data connection is disrupted.

We heard today that more Level Platforms staffers have left the recently acquired company to join another channel-related vendor, Datto. This time it’s Urvish Badiani and Nadia Karatsoreos, who had both previously worked at LPI as Partner Development Managers. Badiani had been with LPI since 2006, and Karatsoreos was with the company for the last three years.

(Pictured): Former LPI Partner Development Managers Urvish Badiani and Nadia Karatsoreos will be joining Datto on August 12 in similar capacities.

Unitrends said today that it is launching a new Service Provider Program, which equips hosting, managed services and cloud providers with the agile infrastructure needed to simply and cost-effectively offer onsite and offsite backup and disaster recovery services to their customers. 

XPMigrations.com, a new co-op community of talented expert certified SMB IT Pros (“Geeks”), was launched today for the purpose of assisting small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) with upgrading away from Windows XP prior to the April 8, 2014 end-of-life deadline.

WatchGuard Technologies earlier this week introduced its Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solution for its Unified Threat Management (UTM) platform that simplifies compliance with regulatory standards in key markets worldwide. Users can select from a pre-configured library of more than 200 rules that monitor multiple file types, standards and sensitive data. This includes national identification numbers and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII), and can enable complex checks for HIPAA and PCI with a single click. This allows businesses to instantly protect data and prevent costly regulatory violations, which can top $5.4 million per breach.

On its third and final day of its annual industry event, CompTIA’s ChannelCon (formerly Breakaway) featured meetings of several CompTIA member communities and advisory councils. These groups of industry thought leaders help shape the association’s initiatives, programs, education and research.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior.

 In addition, here at SMB Nation, we are already gearing up for our annual fall event to be held Oct. 10-12 in Las Vegas at the Rio! We have been hard at work designing a brand new Web site specifically for this event, which you must check out today: http://fall.smbnation.com/. For additional information on the new Web site, our cool XP Migrations video produced by Bigger Brains, and our fall conference, check out our blog post here.

By Brian Ferguson, Product Marketing Manager, Digium

The term Unified Communications (UC) has been poorly defined by the industry and clouded by mixed marketing messages. Every major IP communications vendor has a UC section on its Web site with hyperbolic statements such as, “UC is changing the way you do business” or “Reinvent your productivity capacity with UC!” To help clear it up for those SMBs that may be in the market for a UC system, let’s first define Unified Communications: UC is the merging of many different communication methods including voice, email, video and instant messaging into one unified system.

GFI MAX revealed today the results of a recent survey, which explored the agility, utilization and profitability of software solutions used by managed services providers (MSPs), as well as the business challenges facing the MSP community.

According to the survey, nearly two-thirds of respondents said that demand for managed services has increased over the last year, revealing a growing need for the services that MSPs provide to address their customers’ current and future requirements.

This week in Orlando, CompTIA is hosted its annual industry event (formerly known as Breakaway) renamed ChannelCon. Of course, as with every industry event, especially in the IT world, there are always going to be announcements and new product launches and this week’s event is no exception.

By Michael Maiello, Senior Vice President, Home and Business Networks, Schneider Electric

In today’s fast-paced and digitally-dependent world, companies are always looking to reduce IT operating expenses while also keeping their networks at 100 percent availability. To meet this growing demand for high availability at low cost, IT departments are increasingly turning to cloud applications and co-location strategies for physical IT infrastructure. In fact, Gartner recently forecast an 18.5 percent growth rate for public global cloud services in 2013, worth $131 billion worldwide, with companies poised to spend $677 billion on cloud services worldwide through 2016.*

Fortinet said earlier this week that it has added its newest product line known as FortiGate Unified Threat Management (UTM) designed for SMBs, distributed enterprises, retail networks and branch/home offices.

The 10 new products include the FortiGate-200D series, which includes the FortiGate-240D andFortiGate-200D, the FortiGate-100D series, which includes the FortiGate-140D, FortiGate-140D-POE, FortiGate-140D-POE-T1 and FortiGate-100D, FortiGate-90D/FortiWiFi-90D and FortiGate-30D/  FortiWiFi-30D, providing SMB customers with an unparalleled range of security and deployment options to meet their unique security requirements.

Canon U.S.A. has joined the Managed Print Services realm with the launch of its new MPS program known as imageCLASS Printonomics. The program is designed for resellers enrolled in its imageCLASS Premier Partner Program.

It’s a big week for announcements in the channel as it relates to new hires and channel programs, and cloud backup provider Intronis is no exception. The company announced this morning that it has appointed Aaron Dun as its first-ever Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). In this newly created position, Dun will be tasked to further enable Intronis’ growth and partner development plans.

This morning, LogMeIn unveiled its channel partner program, which is designed to help MSPs, VARs and other outsourced IT providers help capitalize on the increasing shift to cloud-based apps and employee-introduced technology.

The new program, which will be known as LogMeIn Elevate, will give channel partners new ways for managing users across devices that blur work and personal lines, as well as across cloud-based apps and related data that span this myriad of devices.  The channel program will also open the doors to resell LogMeIn’s cloud collaboration apps, like join.me and Cubby, giving MSPs, VARs and IT service providers new ways to establish and grow client relationships. 

Earlier this month, BDR provider Datto announced that it had hired Rob Rae as the company’s new VP of Business Development. Definitely no stranger to both the channel and the SMB industry, Rae is best-known for his tenure as Director of Partner Development and Operations at Level Platforms, where had been for the last six years prior to joining Datto last week.

For those of you that have met Rae personally, you will undoubtedly know that his commitment to the channel and the partners that serve our SMB industry is always something that’s top of his mind. This was always his mantra while he was with LPI, and he says it is something he will be taking over to his new position at Datto.

Former head of Sage's Channel Program to lead Net@Work's Partner Development Practice; Miller to provide strategic direction to the company's Alliance Program and support to resellers, integrators and professional services firms looking to offer comprehensive business solutions to SMB customers.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior.

 In addition, here at SMB Nation, we are already gearing up for our annual fall event to be held Oct. 10-12 in Las Vegas at the Rio! We have been hard at work designing a brand new Web site specifically for this event, which you must check out today: http://fall.smbnation.com/. For additional information on the new Web site, our cool XP Migrations video produced by Bigger Brains, and our fall conference, check out our blog post here.

NETGEAR said that it has added new 2U devices to its ReadyNAS group of products--ReadyNAS 3220 and ReadyNAS 4220, powerful new additions to the ReadyNAS product family. The new devices are latest NAS products to run on the ReadyNAS OS, introduced in March 2013, that delivers storage with enterprise features to SMBs. Available for the first time in 2U rackmount form with 12-bay capacity, the new ReadyNAS 3220 and 4220 enable easy storage for businesses supporting up to 500 concurrent users.

Datto said today that it has acquired distribution partner Paradeon Technologies in order to further expand into the UK and EU markets. Marking the first stop of an ongoing international expansion program, the UK site will include a dedicated office with sales, operations and marketing teams focused on the UK and broader EU sectors.

RMM company Naverisk, which has offices in New Zealand and Europe, said that it has opened its first U.S.-based office in Tampa Bay, FL.

Another milestone in Naverisk’s global expansion program, the US office opening follows on from the successful opening of Naverisk offices in the United Kingdom at the end of 2012.

Built as a complete “all in one” package from the ground up, Naverisk positions itself as “the only solution that offers RMM (Remote Monitoring and Management) and a complete Service Desk at an affordable and fair price for SMB focused MSPs and IT Service Providers.”

This year’s ASCII Group Summit road show stop for the NY/NJ area moved its location further south from Woodbridge to Atlantic City, NJ. Held at Caesar’s (no, not where the real Caesar lived), the event attracted a healthy mix of MSPs, VARs, vendors and distributors. I even managed to reconnect with a friend that I have known since first grade, who coincidently was attending with her husband, Joseph Fulgieri, a Long Island-based VAR.

(Pictured): ASCII Summit attendees gathered today at Caesar's in Atlantic City for a full day of business strategy tactics and education.

CompTIA yesterday released its IT Industry Business Confidence Index, which has held steady in Q3, coming in at 57.9 on a 100-point scale compared to a 58.0 reading in Q2. The Index is a measurement of technology business sentiment produced for the past five years by CompTIA, the leading non-profit association for the IT industry.

About 12 months ago, SMB Nation and Vocalocity teamed up on a partnership in which the hosted PBX provider would offer our company phone services for all of its employees at its Bainbridge Island, WA headquarters, and also those who work out of their home offices.

Aria Systems today launched Unified Channel Billing, a breakthrough solution for businesses selling recurring revenue products and services through channels. Aria’s Unified Channel Billing provides end-to-end cloud billing for business partnerships with multiple levels of complexity. All the advantages of a recurring revenue strategy are now available for channel businesses, exclusively from Aria Systems.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior.

 In addition, here at SMB Nation, we are already gearing up for our annual fall event to be held Oct. 10-12 in Las Vegas at the Rio! We have been hard at work designing a brand new Web site specifically for this event, which you must check out today: http://fall.smbnation.com/. For additional information on the new Web site and our fall conference, check out our blog post here.

Speaking of live events, yours truly will be attending this week’s ASCII Group Summit stop at Caesar’s in Atlantic City, NJ. I will be working the booth on the show floor, promoting both our Fall Conference and newly announced SMB Nation Peer Groups. Stop on by, and give a shout if you are attending, and let’s chat!

Plantronics has hired former Cisco executive Erna Arnesen as vice president of Global Channel and Partner Marketing. Arnesen, who most recently was vice president of Global & Strategic Partners for Cisco Services, will now be tasked for developing Plantronics’ global channel and strategic alliance marketing strategies.

Just about a week or so after completing its acquisition of business service management company Zyrion, Kaseya has again picked up another company, this time its Rover Apps, a provider of cloud solutions that enable users to securely work with enterprise resources using their personal devices without giving up complete control of the device to the enterprise. Terms of the acquisition are undisclosed.

D&H Distributing said that it wants to teach its SMB resellers to take a strategic sales stance, offering a roster of products that can save time, money, energy and physical resources for small business environments.  The distributor currently carries a multitude of merchandise that can create efficiencies and decrease total cost of ownership in the SMB office space.  This caters to the conservative budgets typically associated with the small business sector.

Companies are increasingly switching their IT budgets from routine maintenance toward more innovative projects that enable revenue-generating services, according to the CA Technologies Channel Index 2013.

Of the more than 550 partners worldwide who participated in the company’s online survey, it was revealed that, on average, partners spend 34 percent of their time helping customers with innovation projects that enable new revenue-generating services. The conventional wisdom is that 80 percent of a company’s IT budget is typically spent on maintenance and operations, leaving just 20 percent for innovation initiatives.

Two priority areas for IT investment emerged from this research: enterprise mobility and cloud. Enterprise mobility is becoming increasingly more widespread, providing customers and employees with new and convenient ways of accessing enterprise applications. With this comes added complexity to the IT environment and new challenges to manage and keep the IT environment secure.

We heard today from Amy Luby that she has joined Mailprotector as the company’s Global VP of Sales & Marketing. Virtual Connect Technologies, the company behind the Mailprotector brand of email security, management and hosting tools, announced today the hiring of Amy Luby as the company’s Global Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

By Ari Rabban, CEO and Co-Founder, Phone.com

For small businesses, part of the appeal of cloud-based IT and communications services is that they provide access to technologies they otherwise couldn’t afford. That access helps level the playing field because small businesses now are better able to provide service and support on par with large enterprises.

Here are five examples of cloud technologies that are bridging the digital divide to give small businesses a large enterprise cachet...

With just 11 days into July, and the new fiscal year just beginning this month, it’s true that changes will always occur. In fact, just after the July 4th holiday, Kaseya was in the news, yet again, this time announcing that it had acquired Zyrion, a provider of cloud and IT service monitoring software solutions.

Aside from all of the M&As that are ongoing within the RMM and MSP circles, it’s no surprise that Microsoft is also making its voice heard regarding realigments and restructuring. With the tech giant holding its annual WPC event in Houston this week, of course there has been buzz about new products, new strategies and new services for both end users and partners. But today, Microsoft posted a blog that contained the full text of an email from Steve Ballmer, the company’s CEO regarding changes in the senior leadership team at the company.

Pictured: Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft, discusses the "new Microsoft" with employees today.

SMB Nation announced today that it has launched what is known as “The New SMB Nation.” As part of this initiative, this leading small and medium business (SMB) community has established a new division known as SMB Nation Peer Groups. The groups, which are designed to bring together like-minded business people, with the common goal of leading successful IT practices, will be made up of YOU, based on what YOU want out of a group, and evolving with YOU as your business grows and changes.

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 75.6 million units in the second quarter of 2013 (2Q13), down -11.4% compared to the same quarter in 2012 but slightly better than expected, according to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. Total shipments were effectively right on forecasts of 75.4 million and growth of -11.7%, although Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan)(APeJ) were a few points below expectations with the difference made up in the United States.

At this week’s Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston, there are sessions, keynotes, and also various awards ceremonies. With that being said, we hear from the US Licensing Group that it has been named the recipient of the 2013 ASPIRE Award. The prize is granted to the top partner organization for excellence in strategic marketing.

By Jeff McNaught, Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Director of Marketing, Dell Cloud Client Computing

You've adopted server and storage virtualization, but didn't think of virtualizing your desktops. Here's why you should.

In recent years, IT managers have embraced server and storage virtualization, but hesitate with desktop virtualization. Concerns include up-front investment, implementation and perceptions of performance and security risks. However, IT managers who adopt desktop virtualization realize long-term benefits including stronger security protection, reduced maintenance costs, and increased flexibility and productivity.

It was announced today by Datto that the BDR provider has hired Rob Rae to the position of VP of Business Development. Rae, who is known by most in the SMB channel for his work as VP of Partner Development at Level Platforms, will begin his tenure at Datto on Monday, August 5.

Just a few weeks ago, Kaseya announced that it had been acquired by Insight Venture partners, a NYC-based venture capitalist firm. In addition, the company said that CEO Gerald Blackie and his co-founders would step down to make way for a new CEO—Yogesh Gupta.

Now, today, the tables have been turned with the RMM acquiring Zyrion, a provider of cloud and IT service monitoring software solutions. Like the Kaseya/Insight Venture Partners acquisition, the terms of this deal were also not disclosed.

And the news out of Microsoft’s WPC event this week just keeps on a comin!

Chinook Communications said today that it has made enhancements to Total Connect, a fully integrated advanced collaboration and communication bundle for SMBs. The Total Connect updates are enabled by Chinook Communication’s production release of Microsoft’s Lync Server 2013 Multitenant Hosting Pack.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior.

In addition, here at SMB Nation, we are already gearing up for our annual fall event to be held Oct. 10-12 in Las Vegas at the Rio! We have been hard at work designing a brand new Web site specifically for this event, which you must check out today: http://fall.smbnation.com/. For additional information on the new Web site and our fall conference, check out our blog post here.

Speaking of live events, Harrybbb will be virtually attending this week’s Microsoft WPC event held in Houston this week. Harry will be viewing the event and reporting live from his home office on Bainbridge Island…it’s the “new new” business model known as hybrid conferencing! Join Harry virtually at WPC by logging on to: http://www.digitalwpc.com.

About a month or so ago, it was reported that Maurice Saluan, had stepped down from his position as VP of Sales at Zenith Infotech. I spoke with Saluan following the news, and he told me that he was in talks with a few companies, but was waiting for the best opportunity to come along. 

Well now, today, Maurice informed us that he has joined EmeCloud as VP of Sales. The Bradenton, FL-based company partners with IT Service Providers worldwide to help them capitalize on Cloud Computing opportunities; this could be a small, 5 user-environment to hundreds of users in multiple locations. EmeCloud’s clients enjoy the benefits of a unified solution where they can access their data in the cloud from anywhere.

Parallels this week at the Microsoft WPC has launched support for a Microsoft Azure Pack for Hosting Providers and updates to a collection of cloud service delivery solutions for Microsoft partners. The solution, developed in collaboration with Microsoft’s server and tools business group, is in addition to the new support of Microsoft Azure Pack for Hosting.

McAfee said today that it has made progress in its acquisition of Stonesoft Oyj by completing the tender offer that was announced on May 6.  Stonesoft is known for its next-generation firewall, which is being positioned as “visionary” in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Network Firewalls.  With the completion of the tender offer, Stonesoft is now a McAfee group company, and all Stonesoft products and technologies are part of the McAfee portfolio. 

By Grant Thompson, Managing Partner/Solutions Architect MG Technology Group

Part Two of a Four-Part Series offering guidance, hope and solutions for MSPs and VARs who are struggling to make money in the cloud.

In the first part of this series (go to: http://www.smbnation.com/magazine to download the Q1 2013 issue), I covered core cloud services and discussed some of the more profitable services. In this issue I will be covering successful positioning of services.  

We heard yesterday from Microsoft that the company has formally launched its new Microsoft Devices program to bring its Microsoft Surface tablet to the channel.  As outlined in a blog posted by Jenni Flinders, Microsoft’s VP US Partner Group, the new program will involve the Surface device to be distributed via a partner ecosystem that can sell the device to organizations of all sizes; participating distributors include Ingram Micro, SYNNEX Corporation and Tech Data. Resellers included in the program are: CDW, CompuCom Systems, Inc., En Pointe Technologies, Insight Enterprises, Inc., PC Connection, Inc., PCM, Inc., Softchoice, Softmart, SHI International Corp., and Zones Inc.

ChannelPro-SMB announced this morning the winners of its 2013 Readers’ Choice Awards of which SMB Nation, for the second year in a row, is a winner. Our company once again took away the Silver prize for Best IT Community. Industry organization CompTIA took home the Gold with the ASCII Group coming in third with a Bronze Award.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior.

 In addition, here at SMB Nation, we are already gearing up for our annual fall event to be held Oct. 10-12 in Las Vegas at the Rio! We have been hard at work designing a brand new Web site specifically for this event, which you must check out today: http://fall.smbnation.com/. For additional information on the new Web site and our fall conference, check out our blog post here.

Due to the short holiday week here in the U.S., there are no industry events scheduled. SMB Nation’s offices will be closed on Thursday, July 4, in honor of Independence Day…a safe and Happy 4th to all of our readers!

MSP firm TechSquad IT said today that it has partnered with Bigger Brains to create a new MSP-focused marketing enhancement program called BiggerMSP.  

BiggerMSP is based on Bigger Brains’ premium, high-definition video training courses, which have all been developed in the uniquely engaging “Teacher/Learner” style. Each course is divided into short, 10-minute video modules, to make it conveniently easy to learn whenever your schedule permits, and to jump straight to the training modules you need right away with our unique search function.

In an effort to help drive down the cost and complexity of migrating clients to Office 365, Cloud|AG has selected SkyKick as their cloud migration service of choice.

WD today launched the fourth generation of WD Arkeia network backup appliances, delivering an all-in-one BDR solution for SMBs.

The new line up consists of four rack-mount appliance models with larger internal disk capacities, faster processors, increased memory, and integrated solid state drives (SSDs) to shorten backup time and accelerate data recovery. The bundled WD Arkeia v10.1 software delivers new support for "seed and feed" technology to support hybrid cloud backups. This allows companies to move backups offsite via network replication rather than shipment of tapes.

Avaya said it has launched a consulting services division to provide businesses with a strategic, operational plan for tapping the full potential of their collaboration solutions. The new consulting services address technologies impacting enterprise communications today—including cloud solutions, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) technologies, network security and self-service automation—and help remove the complexity and minimize the risk associated with adopting advanced collaboration for improved business results.

Our own Harrybbb was the featured guest on a podcast today for Catching Bytes in which he discussed his experiences with the new BlackBerry Z10 device.

Click here to listen in on this broadcast, which features Harry being interviewed by Charles Keating, President, West Sound Technology Association (WSTA).

With Kaseya being the third RMM in the last month to announce its acquisition, obviously, just like the Level Platforms and N-able acquisitions, the RMM’s partners have many questions, concerns and feelings of: “So, what do I do now?”

I spoke to newly hired Kaseya CEO Yogesh Gupta yesterday about this, and he said (in a related blog post) that MSPs need not to worry, and that any concerns they have will be addressed. To learn more about some of these concerns, I chatted with Chris Wiser, (pictured) Founder and CEO, TechSquad IT, a Milwaukee-based MSP who has been a Kaseya partner since 2004.

Earlier this week, Kaseya announced that Insight Venture Partners, a private equity investment firm in New York City, had made a significant investment in the RMM for an undisclosed amount of cash. Aside from Kaseya being the third RMM to be acquired in the last month, behind Level Platforms and N-able, the company also announced that its CEO Gerald Blackie, and his co-founders, were stepping down to pursue other opportunities. Yogesh Gupta has been named the new President and CEO of Kaseya, effective immediately.

(Pictured): Yogesh Gupta, Kaseya's new President and CEO.

HP today announced enhancements to its flagship PartnerOne program, helping HP partners to accelerate growth and profitability, while strengthening their competitive differentiation in the market.

According to a press release issued today by HP, the changes to the program will be effective Nov. 1, 2013.

As many of our readers have observed, we have spoken with Continuum a few times in the last couple of months regarding the changes and expansions the RMM is undergoing. Today, the company announced another one of its initiatives, this time regarding its Network Operations Center (NOC).

In just a few moments, at 9 am PST (12 Noon EST), Karl Palachuk and his team at Small Biz Thoughts will be kicking off their 3-day virtual event known as the SMB Online Conference. From today through Thursday, Karl and his team of speakers, all of whom are some of the industry’s most prolific thought leaders, will be offering insight and guidance on some of the industry’s most pressing issues.

It seems as though there is no stopping acquisitions in the RMM world. Last month it was SolarWinds' acquisition of N-able, and then a couple of weeks back, Level Platforms shocked its partners when it announced that it was acquired by anti-virus giant AVG. The latest victim is Kaseya, which announced late today that it was acquired by Insight Venture Partners, which has made a significant investment in the RMM. According to a press release issued by Kaseya, terms of the agreement are undisclosed.

Anturis has moved from Beta to its official commercial launch and availability of its new and enhanced cloud-based monitoring and troubleshooting solution for web services and IT infrastructure. Designed for SMBs that generally do not have access to, or budgets for, a dedicated IT department, the Anturis commercial service delivers enterprise-grade IT infrastructure monitoring and troubleshooting in a simple, easy-to-setup and use browser-based cloud solution.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior.

In addition, here at SMB Nation, we are already gearing up for our annual fall event to be held Oct. 10-12 in Las Vegas at the Rio! We have been hard at work designing a brand new Web site specifically for this event, which you must check out today: http://fall.smbnation.com/. For additional information on the new Web site and our fall conference, check out our blog post here.

The International Association of Cloud & Managed Service Providers (MSPAlliance) has released guidelines designed to provide businesses of all sizes information and knowledge so they can make smart and informed decisions regarding how their data interacts with the cloud. The guidelines, based in part on the Unified Certification Standard for Cloud & Managed Service Providers (UCS), also utilize the MSPAlliance Code of Ethics and Conduct, as well as the Consumer Bill of Rights.

Yesterday I posted a blog based on a conversation I had with Michael George, CEO, Continuum, regarding AVG's acquisition of LPI. Today, in the second part of this two-part article, we'll focus on a discussion I had with Dave Sobel (pictured), who is VP of LPI’s partner community, and whom I have known back from when he was on the other side, as the CEO of his own MSP firm Evolve Technologies.

According to a recent survey by GFI Software, SMBs are losing critical business information as a result of failed backups, and have suffered significant impacts as a result.  Many IT administrators surveyed revealed that a failed backup has led to a loss of revenue and important company documents, including financial records, employee emails and confidential information such as social security numbers. As a result, respondents indicated that failed backups have affected customer relations, business operations and brand reputation.

At the mid-way mark through the year, businesses are looking for new ways to save money for the second half of 2013. One of the most underrated means to save thousands of dollars each year is by changing phone service.

To help companies save a few extra dollars this year, My VoIP Provider is announcing the top 5 best VoIP providers to save businesses money this summer and the rest of 2013. 

At this time last week, we reported on the news that AVG acquired the business of LPI Level Platforms. While it is being hailed as a move that is a smart one for LPI, and will also improve the ecosystems of both companies, there are others in the industry who, while they are in agreement that the move was a smart one, feel it might affect LPI’s channel partner program.

(Pictured): Michael George, CEO, Continuum RMM

independenceIT and Artisan Infrastructure have established a partnership that delivers more control to partners so they can realize higher profits and deliver better cloud services. As a result of the agreement, iIT is the software company exclusively focused on driving recurring revenue for channel partners through its Cloud Workspace Suite, and Artisan Infrastructure is the wholesale Infrastructure as a Service provider (IaaS). 

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior. Last week was quite a busy week in terms of news, which was headlined by AVG Technologies announcing that it had acquired the business of LPI Level Platforms. I offered my own analysis here, and Harrybbb also provided his take on what MSPs need to consider as a result of the acquisition.

We were alerted today by Microsoft that Office 365 subscribers who are iPhone users can now, conveniently take advantage of a free Apple Store Apps known as “Office Mobile for iPhone.

Analyst firm Techaisle today released its 2013 SMB Channel Partner Trends study, which demonstrates that there has been a big leap in percentage of SMB channel partners offering cloud computing services to SMBs in the last year.

In a game-changing move yesterday for the SMB channel,  AVG announced that it acquired the business of LPI Level Platforms, which includes the company’s NOC, RMM and Managed Workplace platform. Obviously, the news might have come as a surprise to some in the industry, and also many are probably wondering how AVG and LPI became “hooked up” in the first place.

This coming Monday kicks off the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) annual National Small Business Week, which will include meetings and celebrations throughout the country.  In conjunction with the SBA, Microsoft is hosting its Small Business Week activities on June 17 at its Redmond Campus.

By Billy Chia, Technical Marketing Specialist, Digium

Unified Communications (UC) presents unique security challenges because it brings disparate technologies, such as VoIP, video, chat, email and presence, together into one unified messaging system. As the technology has become more complex and more accessible from the public Internet, the security threat has increased. While large businesses can dedicate substantial resources toward securing their communications, SMBs need solutions that are both effective and simple to manage security.

Schneider Electric, has installed its EcoBreeze modular, indirect evaporative cooling solution at a new colocation and cloud services facility in Barrie, Canada. The facility is operated by Cogeco Data Services, an ICT provider that provides data center, managed IT, cloud and connectivity services to some of Canada's largest companies and public sector organizations.

HP today announced the first phase of HP SMB IT in a Box—a “one-stop shop” technology solution for SMBs.

Marked by HP’s entry into the Google Apps Reseller program today, HP SMB IT in a Box will leverage existing innovative HP hardware, including PCs and printers, with Google Apps for Business, Google’s cloud-based communication and collaboration tools. HP SMB IT in a Box can now simplify customers’ IT environment and help reduce their operating costs and infrastructure requirements while improving their workflows and workforce productivity.

This morning, we heard another big news announcement, having just recovered from the announcement that SolarWinds acquired N-able last month: AVG Technologies said today that it plans to purchase (subject to closing) the business of LPI Level Platforms.

HP today announced new cloud solutions that help organizations improve efficiency and productivity while helping to ensure secure access to business information virtually anytime, anywhere.  

The company also introduced a new offering that enables channel partners to enhance their customer service and deliver on their own business objectives.

The HP Managed Print Specialist Resell program delivers cloud-based tools and sales options that help qualified partners control the managed print services (MPS) selling process and retain direct contract ownership without making a substantial investment in new infrastructure.  

Trekkies on alert! Click here to view this cool video from our friend Karl Palachuk of Great Little Book Publishing Co., discussing his SMB Online Conference. In the video, Karl discusses this fantastic promotion that you must take advantage of (whether you are a Trekkie or not)…simply refer one of your friends to the SMB Online Conference and tell them to be sure to put your name in the "How did you hear about us" box.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior. Here at SMB Nation, we are already gearing up for our annual fall event to be held Oct. 10-12 in Las Vegas at the Rio! We have been hard at work designing a brand new Web site specifically for this event, which you must check out today: http://fall.smbnation.com/. For additional information on the new Web site and our fall conference, check out our blog post here. Speaking of live events, Harrybbb will be attending a Seattle Accounting Technology Boot Camp at the Edgewater Hotel on Thursday evening.

SMB Nation announced that it will hold its 11th Annual Fall Conference Oct 10-12, 2013, at the Rio Conference Center in Las Vegas. With the conference kicking off officially with pre-day sessions on Wednesday, Oct. 9, this year’s theme is based on “LivExperience” and will be touted as an event that will give attendees the opportunity to master emerging technologies, explore the industry trends impacting their MSP practices and customers, and will feature numerous opportunities to network and meet potential business partners.

The combined consumer and enterprise worldwide WLAN market segments experienced year-over-year growth of 12.5% in the first quarter of 2013 (1Q13). According to the results published in the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly WLAN Tracker, the enterprise segment continued to grow at a healthy rate of 19.3% over the same period last year. The first quarter of 2013 was the thirteenth consecutive quarter with annual growth greater than 15%. The consumer WLAN market also started the year 2013 on a relative high note, growing 6.2% year over year.

Many of you likely remember when BlackBerry, with much fanfare, announced its BlackBerry 10 phone family back in January. With launches occurring around the globe, I was able to watch virtually, the launch that occurred in New York City…even Top 40 musician Alicia Keys showed up to the event! We also managed to give away Z10 devices courtesy of BlackBerry for our SMB 150 winners...Harrybbb, and Harry Jr., also review the Z10 here.

By Lawrence Kohan, Senior Consultant, LogicsOne

The following article was originally published via Green Pages Technology Solutions’ blog, JourneytotheCloud.com.

We’re well into an exciting new era in the technology world.  The buzz-words are flying around at light speeds, and talk of “Cloud” and “software-defined-everything” is all the rage. Advances in virtualization, which allows software processes to be decoupled from underlying hardware, is giving way to amazing possibilities for moving around workloads as needed; either between racks in a datacenter, or even between datacenters!  In addition, the concept of “Cloud” is very exciting with the possibilities it offers businesses to leverage these advances by being able to move workloads offsite for greater availability, redundancy, disaster recovery.

Washington, DC-based MSP eGuard Technology Services said that it experienced significant year-over-year corporate growth in 2012 as it relates to Cloud services. This revenue growth is attributed to the MSP adding multiple clients per month to its popular eGuard Cloud Care platform, and its formidable presence by serving various vertical markets of the SMB community within the Metro DC region. In addition, eGuard Tech reports that in 2012, its Cloud services sales were up 350%, net Cloud profit increased 45%, and monthly recurring Cloud revenue was up over 200% from 2011.

(Pictured): Khaled Farhang, Founder and CEO, eGuard Technology Services

D&H Distributing said today that it is expanding its Solutions Specialist program. D&H’s Solutions Specialist Team is a group of subject-matter experts that are at the disposal of resellers.  The team is expanding to provide more dedicated support on particular vertical markets, technologies and vendor solutions.  

Challenging economic times, new technologies and new methods for selling IT solutions have contributed to an increase in conflicts between vendors and their channel partners, according to a new study released today by CompTIA.

Cisco announced during its Partner Summit this week its intentions on a renewed focus related to the midmarket enterprise segment…basically end users with 100-1,000 employees. According to a blog post yesterday by Andrew Sage, Cisco’s Vice President, Worldwide Partner Led Worldwide Partner Organization, the company is officially turning the spotlight on this segment. “With 1.4 million midsize businesses – which we define as companies with 100-1000 employees – spending an estimated $25 billion on technology and $30 billion on services by 2016, we know this is the right market to focus on with our channel partners,” he said.

D&H Distributing invites its customers to attend its latest Solutions Lab presentation, “An Introduction to Cisco UCS for SMB,” on June 11 at 2:00 p.m. EDT.  During this one-hour webcast, resellers will learn the basics of Cisco’s Unified Computing System servers, including the Cisco C22 and C24 servers for SMB.  Jeff Hunt, D&H’s resident Cisco sales engineer, will lead the session.  It will include a demonstration of a remote OS installation that leverages the Cisco CIMC (Cisco Integrated Management Controller) interface.