Can you save money by moving to the public cloud? Of course, you can. Well, maybe. The answer really depends. What started as a response to the 2009 global financial crisis should not be generally applied to all scenarios where on-premise infrastructure is placed into the public cloud. There are always exceptions and best practices. MSP Zone Guest: Christopher Church, Mainstream Technologies
Does the MSP business model you are operating under still make sense? Is it still relevant to your clients? MSP Zone Guest: Rob Scott, Scott & Scott LLP
2020 is in the past. But, work from home may be a permanent change left from the global pandemic. How will work from home continue to evolve into 2021 and how should MSPs approach this change? MSP Zone Guest: Nick Emanuel - Webroot, an OpenText Company
Bad people know the generally applied practices for IT management. As such, managed services delivery procedures should be consistently reviewed. These best practices can help your MSP practice become more secure and transfer that security to your clients.
DNS over HTTPS is here. What is it? This episode of MSP Zone will discuss DoH, the threats it is attempting to solve, and how MSPs can use it in their managed services offerings. Program Highlights: What is DoH? When will this change happen? What are the advantages? What is there to worry about? What do my clients need to know? How does DNS Protection work with DoH? MSP Zone Guest: Jonathan Barnett, Product Manager, Webroot, an OpenText Company
Patching isn’t just a process every MSP should be doing. Patching is an essential component to keeping client systems safe and secure, and operational. MSP Zone Guest: Shane Cooper, Webroot, an OpenText company
What is ZTNA? As MSPs face increasing challenges in protecting their clients against global cyber threats, new ways of defense are needed. Could ZTNA be an effective new tool for MSPs? We will discuss. Program Highlights Applicability to public and private clouds How is it to manage? Best Practices for MSPs MSP Zone Guest: Robert Krug, AVAST
The supply chain in managed services involves numerous technology relationships with external parties. This is a normal practice. There are, however, some easy and necessary steps every MSP ought to take when reviewing their supply chain partners and making decisions that ultimately affect risk and profitability. MSP Zone Guest: Rob Scott, Scott & Scott LLP
Managing any object (as a managed service) requires skill. But, beyond mere expertise, there are several critical characteristics that can really make your private cloud managed services offering take off in 2021. Here are 4 fundamental process changes your MSP practice can implement in 2021 to improve your private cloud offering. Automating the back-office workflow Offering a self-service portal that can be accessed by both end-customers and the internal help desk Automating service fulfillment...
2020 will be a historic year, not just because we had a global pandemic. The managed services profession achieved some significant milestones this year. We will examine a few of the highlights in this year-end review of 2020. MSPs Rose to the Challenge in 2020 The pandemic caused a major separation between professional MSPs and other IT providers Regulation of IT is now upon us Managed services contracts went through some changes this year. Terms, risk strategies, even negotiating tactics Cyber ...
MSP regulation is upon us. But, could there be unintended consequences not foreseen by the regulators and legislators passing such laws? Today, we talk to a Louisiana based MSP to get his thoughts on what impact MSP regulation may have on managed service providers. Landon Futch - Essential Solutions, LLC Will the laws & regulations actually make MSPs and their clients safer? Is MSP regulation an excuse for poor client cyber hygiene? Will new security laws force better IT security behavior am...
If you are wanting to accelerate your steps towards offering managed security, you have a few options, including build or partner. Today’s episode discusses some of the pros and cons of both the build and partner methods. What are some of the common MSSP challenges? Should MSPs build or partner?Has Work From Home disrupted the legacy managed security deliverable? What is a SOC? Is it just a NOC with a SIEM?MSP Zone Guest: Brian Stoner, Stellar Cyber
Managed services agreements are crucial for MSPs and clients. Everything from the duration of the agreement, to pricing, limitation of liability, and other elements necessary to the relationship between MSP and client must be articulated within the managed services agreement. Today's program examines the current best practices as it pertains to how MSPs ought to construct their managed services agreements. Episode Highlights: Term of agreements - Monthly, 1 year, and 3-year options, each offerin...
As we near the end of 2020, a year that has brought significant global change to everyone, we also look at the ways how this year has impacted the managed services profession and the customers relying on MSPs. While 2020 brought undeniable change, it also brought opportunities to use change as a way to survive and improve upon outdated and even inefficient business practices. This is especially true in IT management. Program Highlights: The evolution of networks in the age of Covid and remote/mo...
A conversation with Ampersand, a managed services provider based in Alaska about their journey throughout the pandemic, meeting the needs of their clients, and in general about being an MSP in the last frontier.
Is the MSP profession ready for the channel? Of course it is, you might say. But, we are talking about the reselling of managed services as a channel. Can this strategy be accomplished effectively and safely? What are some of the steps you should take if you are considering such a strategy? What are the legal risks? Is there a primary MSP relationship which should be established? How do you update your agreements? If you are the “channel partner” MSP, how do you adapt? MSP Zone Guest: Rob Scott,...
Passwords play such an important role in our society and our cybersecurity, we just can't talk about them enough. Today's episode features LogMeIn, creators of LastPass, in a discussion concerning password management for MSPs and password management for customers. MSP Zone Guest: Rebecca Stone, LogMeIn
When many people are uncertain about the outcome of the recent political elections, there is some certainty in the world. Specifically, there is some good news for managed service providers, regardless of who wins the elections. Future of managed services is very positive, regardless of who wins the political races. There appears to be bipartisan support for general data privacy and security protections, so expect that to continue regardless of political race outcomes. MSPs must lead with securi...
Last week's initial public offering (IPO) for Datto has broader consequences for the global managed services profession. Most of these consequences are good. Let's examine what some of them are.
Is there an MSP standard of care? Standards of care exist in other professions like medical, legal, etc. But, do they exist in the managed services profession? In today's episode, we will examine the concept of the MSP standard of care, when it would apply, and address ways MSPs can articulate what their standard of care is so clients are aware and educated. MSP Zone Guest: Rob Scott, Scott & Scott LLP
Are you better off with an MSP or without an MSP? That is today's question. We ask the question in order to realign the discussion of outsourcing IT management in light of recent attacks on MSPs in the past 24 months.
The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control recently issued and advisory bulletin on the potential sanctions risks of making ransomware payments. Payments to certain individuals, organizations, and even regions, may trigger a US sanction against you, possibly exposing you to further criminal and civil action. Today's episode discusses ways MSPs can approach ransomware (both internally and on behalf of clients) and we offer specific ways you can protect your MSP practice. Episod...
COVID-19 has been disruptive for many businesses, including some MSPs. Some businesses, however, have reacted better than others to the global pandemic; this also includes MSPs. Backup software company Altaro conducted a study of MSPs asking them a variety of questions about the economy, the state of managed services, and the future. Here are some of the highlights of our discussion with David and Stephen, the co-founders of Altaro.
MSPs are responsible for their own actions, but should they be responsible for the external service providers (i.e., vendors) they bring to their customers? This episode discusses this complicated question and makes the complex easy to understand. Episode highlights: Customers must be held liable for actions they take impacting their data privacy and security. Co-managed services doesn’t mean the MSP indemnifies the client against all scenarios MSPs are not responsible for their vendors. If the ...
MSPs have been reporting all year a similar story across many market verticals and geographies. In today's episode, we speak with Chris McHale of SPK and Associates about her clients (many of theme engineering firms) and how they have been doing throughout the pandemic. MSP Zone Guest: Chris McHale, SPK and Associates
Our interview with an MSP focusing heavily on healthcare offers some valuable insights into how that sector has done throughout the pandemic. Highlights: Pandemic has forced positive changes within a stagnant medical industry Internal IT for small and mid-sized medical practices not equipped for this new pandemic model Reallocation of IT resources to focus on core IT competencies and strategic goals Data security amongst smaller medical firms will need to be addressed Healthcare firms not famili...
It used to be that MSPs would manage servers, desktops, firewalls, and other business and infrastructure objects for their clients. Many still do. Yet, as software as a service (SaaS) continues to proliferate in today's changing business environment, MSPs need to be able to managed SaaS platforms as effectively as they did the servers and desktops of yesterday. Gavin Garbutt of Augmentt talks about his experiences with N-able, how the MSP profession has changed, and what MSPs need to do in order...
Managed Service Provider Ensono recently conducted a study of end-user organizations who reported some interested results related to IT spending and prioritization. 43% of IT decision makers feel their relationship with business leaders has improved since the start of the pandemic 1 in 3 have been given more scope to define IT spend 1 in 3 organisations are looking to increase IT budgets 56% of IT decision makers stated that there is now a greater urgency for digital transformation MSP Zone Gues...
The war on cybercrime is now upon us. Globally, organizations of all sizes face unprecedented attacks on their IT assets. Luckily, MSPs are on the job and ready to defend against these attacks. But, where are the attacks coming from and what methods are being used to fulfill these cyberattacks? MSP Zone Guest: Terry McGraw, president of PC Matic Federal
How do you achieve safe cyber hygiene with your managed services customers. How about your contracts? Managed services contracts are one of several effective ways you can influence your customers to adopt safe and secure cyber hygiene practices (not to mention protecting your managed services practice). MSP Zone Guest: Rob Scott, Scott & Scott LLP
