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.
1.) AVG CloudCare Integrates with Autotask Pro Software: AVG Technologies announced an AVG CloudCare integration with Autotask IT business management software .AVG also will team with Autotask for a webinar for managed service providers, to be held on June 11.
AVG integrated Autotask into the latest edition of AVG CloudCare, its free, easy-to-use cloud based administration platform that provides for remote deployment and management of IT and security services for SMBs. Now, with a single sign-on connection, partners can access LiveLinks for navigation between Autotask and AVG CloudCare’s customer summaries, new customers, alerts, reports, policy templates, settings, support, invoices, payments and more. The Autotask integration also provides seamless invoice integration with Autotask customer billing software.
2.) OpenDNS Simplifies Deployment of Cloud Web Security for MSPs: OpenDNS, announced a new management console and business processes that enable MSPs to deliver Umbrella by OpenDNS to customers more quickly and profitably. The combination of a multi-tenant dashboard for centralized provisioning with monthly billing and volume pricing makes protecting customers against malware, botnet and phishing threats a simple activation exercise for MSPs.
The cloud-delivered Umbrella service enables MSPs to deliver powerful malware, botnet and phishing protection for customers, without deploying or maintaining any customer premises equipment. Each day, Umbrella blocks 80 million requests for malware, botnet and phishing sites. Meanwhile, the Umbrella Security Labs research team discovers hundreds of thousands of new malicious sites daily and adds these to Umbrella's block lists.
The new Umbrella MSP console, which includes monthly billing and volume pricing, is available immediately from OpenDNS.
3.) Novus adds KEMP Technologies as Load Balancing Gear Partner: Novus said that it has added KEMP Technologies as a partner, and will resell its entire line of LoadMaster load-balancing gear, including those approved for Microsoft Lync environments.
The deal encompasses KEMP’s hardware load balancers, virtual load balancers, multi-site load balancers and Cisco USC load balancers. All are geared toward small and mid-sized businesses and are price/performance leaders.
KEMP’s load balancers, which are “Approved” by Microsoft, optimize traffic for Exchange, Lync, SharePoint and Windows Terminal Services environments. They provide high-speed load balancing and content switching with application acceleration, data compression, content caching, SSL offload and network traffic optimization for robust application and traffic optimization.
4.) Avangate Launches Customer Centric Commerce Solution for Cloud Services Businesses: Avangate last week announced its SkyCommerce Summer ‘13 release as part of its Customer Centric Commerce solution. The newest version of the SkyCommerce Suite makes it possible for software companies to address the disruption of their traditional business and sales models, as individuals, whether consumers or businesses, continue to be empowered to dictate what channels they prefer to buy through and with what purchasing models.
Solving Software companies’ problem of fragmented commerce systems that prevent keeping up with these customer demands, the Summer ‘13 release extends Avangate’s advanced subscriptions setup and management, usage-based billing, advanced retention management, cross distribution channel management to unify data and treatment from direct and indirect channels.
5.) Ingram Micro Expands IM Link with IBM Professional Services Specialists: The North America Services Division of Ingram Micro Inc. has expanded its IM Link services network to include an IBM Professional Services specialization that is available immediately to channel partners in the U.S. and Canada.
Unveiled in April 2013 at the Ingram Micro Cloud Summit, IM Link is a unique online professional services network that makes it easier for channel partners throughout North America to collaborate and insource technology lifecycle services from a select community of highly-qualified IT service providers. IM Link operates under a simple, non-competitive service delivery framework that is comprised of four distinct categories. These include planning, implementation, management and support.
