In order to survive, managed service providers must distinguish themselves in innovative and unique ways, offering their customers the services which they need, often before they even know they need them. With so many different services now moving to a cloud model, managed service providers have a wide range of different services which they canRead more >>

Avnet Technology Solutions, a leader in global IT solutions distribution, has announced the launch of a dedicated team focused on off-premise cloud solutions for value-added reseller (VAR), integrated software vendor (ISV), and managed service provider (MSP) partners throughout the United States and Canada. “Avnet invested more than a year of research and development into theRead more >>

As a managed service provider, your core business depends upon being able to provide services for a lower cost than your customers could do it themselves, and better than your competitors can. Keeping ahead of the competition is critical to the success of your business, and differentiating yourself from the other MSPs your customers haveRead more >>

Google Apps. is the brand for Google’s various products, targeting businesses in the SMB and enterprise space, as well as education. It centers around Google’s flagship email platform, but also includes calendars, documents, sites, collaboration with Microsoft Office, and a marketplace where customers can obtain applications that will integrate with their business Gmail in categoriesRead more >>

February through April seems to be when all the technology associations plan their parties, conferences, and roadshows. While the travel can be hectic, I personally enjoy most of these events. Even through the constant chatter of cloud and managed services, I find the events refreshing for me; they serve as a recharge and a breakRead more >>

In our series of “Straight from the Channel” we interview companies that play an important role in the IT Channel. This week we’ve got in touch with Phil from Cumulus, a provider of cloud hosting for resellers in the UK. These are some of the questions that we asked Phil: Can you explain how Cumulus developedRead more >>

Global leader in the provision of security, storage and systems management solutions, Symantec has announced the release of its cloud information protection platform, Symantec O3 Cloud Identity and Access Control. As a response to organizational concern over moving business-critical applications to the cloud, Symantec O3 establishes a new security control point, enabling organizations to applyRead more >>

If you attend any conference these days in the IT industry you are bound to be pitched by more than one cloud computing company. It can be quite sickening to hear from all these companies. Because of my unique background, I have had the privilege of hearing a lot of valid and “wanna-be” cloud providers out there.Read more >>

Gartner, the world’s leading IT research and advisory company, has addressed the Platform as a service (PaaS) trend in the Gartner Special Report, “PaaS 2012: Tactical Risks and Strategic Rewards.” PaaS is a commonly used reference to the layer of cloud technology architecture that contains all application infrastructure services, or ‘middleware’. It is the technologyRead more >>

Joyent, the global cloud computing software and service provider, and ICOS, the leading Italian distributor of IT enterprise infrastructure solutions, have announced an agreement to provide SmartDataCenter software to local channel providers and service partners. SmartDataCenter, a cloud infrastructure software program developed by Joyent, requires lower infrastructure investment owing to higher hardware utilization rates, fasterRead more >>