MSPmentor

All About Nortel, a solid blog from Mark Evans, raises an interesting question about Deloitte’s decision to leverage managed telepresence services from Nortel Networks. Here’s a look at Mark’s analysis. I’m not suggesting there’s anything shady about the Nortel-Deloitte deal. But Evans is smart to point out the irony.

Cisco Systems has publicly vowed that it won’t become managed service provider. However, Cisco aggressively promotes its equipment to MSPs. And now, Cisco is pointing to a new report from Synergy Research Group, which claims Cisco’s equipment dominates the managed WAN industry. Here’s a quick look at Cisco’s victory dance.

When I mentioned the clear connection between digital signage and managed services back in February 2008, a lot of readers said “tell me more.”

Since that time, Cisco Systems has introduced an academy of digital signage, to help solutions  providers master content creation and distribution over digital signage networks. And now, C-nario on June 18 will introduce a managed  digital signage service for North American MSPs.

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The last thing the tech world needs is another acronym. But I was rather intrigued to learn about a managed service provider that offers so-called communications as a service (CaaS). The telecom company, Cypress Communications, is successfully branding CaaS as a way to describe hosted unified communications and VoIP services to customers. Here’s how.

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During the Kaseya User Conference here in Las Vegas, several managed service providers mentioned that they have absolutely no plans to embrace hardware as a service (HaaS). But does that mean HaaS is dead? No exactly. Let me explain.

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I’ve been predicting for a few months that TelePresence — loosely defined as next-generation videoconferencing gear — will emerge as a big opportunity for managed service providers.

Cisco and AT&T finally backed up my claims this week, by announcing a managed  TelePresence initiative. The official press release included the standard jargon. But Cisco’s own company blog actually adds some timely perspective to the news. Here’s why.

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Chris Lyman is setting in the middle of a perfect storm. As CEO of Fonality, Lyman is building an IP-PBX company that leverages Asterisk (an open source platform) and embraces managed service providers. In other words, Fonality has converged three hot markets (unified communications, open source and managed services) into a single solution.

I realize that big vendors — Avaya, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Nortel Networks, etc. — are promoting unified communications solutions. But if you’re an MSP looking to get into IP telephony, it may be hard to ignore Fonality’s value proposition. Read More >

Most managed service providers have heard of hardware as a service (HaaS). Now, here comes “desktops as a service.” The term popped up during a chat I had earlier this week with MokaFive President and CEO Bill Demas.

Many tech media sites describe MokaFive as a desktop virtualization company. But MokaFive’s ability to meld desktop computing with software as a service has some potential implications for MSPs. Here’s a bit more about the company’s strategy, and desktop as a service vision. Read More >