MSPmentor

Does Apple want to be a managed service provider? In some ways, yes. But so far those efforts aren’t going too well. The company’s MobileMe service — a cloud-based system designed to manage your contacts and calendars across a range of devices — is taking a beating from critics. Even The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, typically an Apple advocate, is telling readers that MobileMe is filled with problems.

From Apple’s MobileMe to Amazon.com’s Simple Storage Service (S3), we are seeing multiple examples of consumer-oriented companies stumbling a bit as they introduce managed services, software as a service (SaaS) and cloud-based solutions. Read More >

More than 70 percent of successful managed service providers offer some form of managed storage, according to our MSPmentor 100 survey. Despite that lofty figure, the online storage market continues to enjoy strong growth.

One prime example: Vembu since February has attracted roughly 350 new online storage partners — pushing its worldwide customer base to more than 900 partners, according to Lakshmanan Narayan,  president for Vembu. Read More >

I’m speaking with David Farajun, president of Asigra, later today (July 22). Asigra specializes in online/offsite backup and recovery software, and works closely with managed service providers. If you have questions or thoughts for David, feel free to post comments below or send me email (joe [at] ninelivesmediainc.com).

Amazon.com’s Simple Storage Service (S3) suffered its second big service outage this year on Sunday, July 20, notes GigaOm. Om Malik reports that some S3 services were down for eight hours.

I’m packing at the moment for some business travel, so deeper analysis will have to wait. But here’s a quick thought: If Amazon.com can’t keep its cloud system online, should we all be hyping the reliability of cloud computing to our customers just a bit less?

Symantec Protection Network (SPN), a software as a service (SaaS) platform launched in May 2008, is off to a solid start with managed service providers and VARs, according to Symantec Senior Director Chris Schin.

Still, Schin concedes that SaaS and the IT channel “are warming up to each other slowly.” His point applies to SaaS across the board — and certainly isn’t limited to Symantec. I spoke with Schin today to get an update on SPN and Symantec’s SaaS strategy for partners. Here’s a quick recap of the conversation.

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Dell made a subtle but important move when the company announced storage management and data protection services on June 25.

Within the press release, which focused on Dell’s infrastructure consulting services, the company including this little note to partners and managed service providers: Read More >

Apparently, Symantec’s SaaS (software as a service) platform, known as Symantec Protection Network (SPN), hasn’t exactly set the world on fire since its launch earlier this year. In fact, Symantec has been unusually quiet about SPN’s progress in recent months.

But that changed last week, when the company described some of the bumps SPN has hit during Symantec Vision — a customer conference held in Las Vegas. Read More >

Symantec has made another move in the managed storage market, acquiring Swapdrive. The deal pushes Symantec deeper into online storage, where the company already offers the Symantec Protection Network (SPN).

While SPN is a software as a service (SaaS) option for VARs and MSPs, Swapdrive targets consumers.

Symantec-Swapdrive is the fifth deal added this month to our MSPmentor M&A Tracker, which charts MSP- and SaaS-oriented mergers, acquisitions and investments. Here’s a bit more about Swapdrive. Read More >