Seven Managed Services Blogs MSPmentor Didn't Write: Nov. 26

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to MSPmentor’s US readers. Even as the MSPmentor staff relaxes for the holiday, our team is hard-at-work on some surprises for December 2010. That means, once again, we didn’t have time to complete every news story we pursued this past week. So here are seven managed services blog entries the MSPmentor team didn’t write for the week ending Nov. 26,  2010.

7. Triple Play: LabTech Software, the remote monitoring and management software specialist, has inked a freemium relationship with Doyenz Inc. and StorageCraft Technology Corp. The relationship allows LabTech partners to protect their LabTech server in the Doyenz Shadowcloud.

6. Big Deal: OneNeck, which specializes in Microsoft Dynamics AX hosting, has won a five-year contract with Sprouts Farmers Markets. Under the terms of the contract, OneNeck will deploy a virtual addition to Sprouts’ current IT environment. The new environment will offer network management, system administration, system backups and a disaster recovery environment. The deployment will be a combination of physical and virtual servers that will host Dynamics AX, SharePoint, Exchange and SQL Server, according to a press relase. The OneNeck win is significant, especially since NetSuite has been actively attacking the Microsoft Dynamics installed base.

5. Start of Something Bigger?: CharTec, the hardware as a service (HaaS) specialist, has partnered up with Live Virtual Help Desk. That’s interesting for multiple reasons. You’ll recall that CharTec attracted investment money from ConnectWise Capital earlier this year. And ConnectWise CEO Arnie Bellini has been evangelizing help desk services in recent weeks. Hmmm…

4. Twice The Fun: ServInt, which provides managed hosting for enterprises worldwide, says it has surpassed its goal of doubling the size of its Managed Services Team (MST) in 2010. ServInt also has completed and occupied a new Network Operations Center (NOC) facility in McLean, Va.

3. Small Business Saturday: If you live in the US, you’re familiar with Black Friday — the biggest holiday shopping day of the year. Now, American Express is promoting Small Business Saturday — an attempt to ensure consumers visit small, independent retail stores as well during the US holiday season. Can MSPs cash in? I suspect the answer is yes.

2. Executive Moves: As you’ll recall, Intronis, the online backup specialist, recently announced a new CEO. We expect additional CXO moves in the managed services market this December or so. In particular, keep an eye on CFO positions — both established and new.

1. December 2010 Launch?: It sounds like Synnex, the large distributor, will announce an updated managed services strategy in December 2010. Rumors have involved Level Platforms as a potential partner but we’ve yet to confirm anything. We’ll be digging for deeper details starting Monday, Nov. 29. As you’ll recall, Synnex and previous partner IT Control Solutions announced a managed services divorce in mid-November 2010.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading MSPmentor and continuing to engage in a dialog with our blogging team.

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