Virtual and physical systems can be very different from each other, much like real people differ from their online personas as demonstrated on the TV show “Catfish,” in which people in online-only relationships finally meet in person. If “Catfish” teaches us anything, it’s that you need to validate in order to ensure compatibility.
The needs of our customers change every day. Many of the trends in 2013 were distressing for MSPs, as more businesses moved to large cloud providers and PC sales continued to slump. Fortunately, many of the trends provided tremendous opportunities for IT providers who were able to leverage new technologies for their customers. As I […]
While MSPs know all the ins and outs of IT systems, they need to focus on a business’s goals if they want to gain more clients, and get those clients to sign on for bigger/more services.
In August, Gartner released its Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service. Gartner’s Lydia Leong summarized the results of the research as follows: “Little by little, AWS has systematically addressed the barriers to “mainstream” enterprise adoption.”
Independent films can be more profitable than blockbusters like The Avengers because successful independent films understand their niche. They can make huge profits by being fantastic examples of what their specific audience wants. This is a lesson that Hollywood often forgets, but it’s also relevant to IT and Cloud Services.
Customers choose their services providers based on the question, “What’s in it for me?” As an IT services provider, you have the right to ask the same question of your services vendors.
One of the top IT priorities for businesses is backup and recovery. It might be rarely needed, but when the unexpected strikes, it’s a lifesaver. For businesses that utilize an MSP, rapid and full recovery is a deal-breaker expectation. With that in mind, you need to understand what clients really expect and how to deliver it.
For as long as businesses have been using computers, people have been concerned about losing their data when a glitch occurs. First, we copied data onto floppy disks that were actually floppy (yes, I worked with them!); then we turned to tape. Backup solutions have become far more sophisticated in the last decade, making automated disk-based backup more robust.
To get the best performance and capabilities, organizations have traditionally bought the biggest or best servers, storage and networking equipment they could afford. They then configured all of the components from the various vendors to work together.
That was challenging even in the good old days, but with virtualization, it’s really become a chore. Virtual systems are more complex and interdependent, and IT departments need specialized skill sets just to keep everything working.
An MSP’s fee is the same whether they spend one hour or 10 maintaining a client’s environment. The key to greater profitability is the capacity to take on more clients by keeping that number closer to one.
When we find a technology that offers real advantages, we are often tempted to sell everyone on it. But there is no one-size-fits-all solution for IT. This is especially true of virtual desktops. Here’s how you can determine whether this technology is a fit for each of your customers.
Shakespeare declared, “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” He might be right about the flower, but in the cloud-sphere, I’m not so sure the same principle applies.
I don’t do most of my work on my mobile devices. If it requires significant typing, I save it for my computer. The screen on my tablet is too small to look at large consoles. The touch-screen keyboard takes up a lot of space, and typing is slow and inaccurate.
There’s been buzz about virtual desktops for many years. As Windows XP faded in favor of Windows 7, VDI was an alternative to refreshing PCs that couldn’t run the newer OS. And as the workforce became more mobile and remote access to systems increased, VDI was an ideal way to ensure anytime, anyplace access. With shrinking IT budgets, low-cost thin clients became more attractive. Finally, the BYOD movement encouraged IT departments to investigate alternate delivery of their desktops.
Most MSPs recognize the significant opportunity in providing cloud services, yet 48 percent of IT solution providers say they lost a sales opportunity because they couldn’t meet a customer’s cloud need.
Have you ever tried to help a toddler learn to tie his own shoes? You want to help this young child develop self-reliance and confidence, and in the long run you know that dressing himself will be more convenient for you. On the other hand, you have places to be and spending 20 minutes putting on a shoe is incredibly frustrating.
On March 15, Joe Panettieri blogged about
I recently read a Cisco research paper about cloud adoption among SMBs. I was struck by the number of microbusinesses (defined here as fewer than 10 employees) operating in the US today. There are about 21.7 million non-employer firms (self-employed, with no additional employees), with another 4.8 million businesses with 1–9 employees. The cloud is leading many small-to-medium businesses to completely outsource their IT. They are adopting cloud-based storage and backup, as well as software services such as Microsoft Office 365 or Adobe Creative Cloud. For MSPs who support SMB customers, that’s leading to dwindling business and profitability. Many MSPs are looking for ways to reverse this […] Virtual and physical IT don’t always line up, and we often struggle to integrate physical devices to support virtual systems.
Microbusinesses: The Untapped Cloud Market
SWOT’s Up with MSPs?
Don’t Get Catfished: Bridge the Physical and Virtual
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