MSPs in the Cloud

Cloud computing isn’t the death knell for IT channel companies, but it is creating a whole new set up challenges for firms offering manager IT services to their customers.

“We’ve been using the cloud for a long time,” Rex Frank, founder and president of Sea-Level Operations, a Covington, Wash.-based firm focused specifically on the IT managed services industry, said during a panel discussion of the CompTIA MSP Partners Community Monday at Breakaway 2012.

“I don’t think the cloud is going to make us go away in any way,” he continued. “It’s our responsibility to leverage the cloud for our customers when it’s appropriate.

“The cloud is another type of service that everyone on this room can offer,” concurred Michael Minnich, chief executive officer, NetGain Information Systems, Bellefontaine, Ohio, a, provider of IT cloud and managed services.

“The challenge is how do you offer it? Is it through a local cloud that you manage or are you a cloud broker re-selling someone else’s service? It’s not a threat as much as it is an opportunity.”

But while it may be simply another way to deliver technology services to customers, one of the big changes brought on by the cloud is what happens – and who is responsible – when something goes wrong.

“Are the cloud vendors in it with me, or is it ‘Hey, good luck with that,’” said Vince Tinnirello, chief executive officer, Anchor Network Solutions Inc., a Lone Tree, Colo., MSP.

The most important factor in being prepared for the inevitable service outage is in having clear, comprehensive service level agreements (SLAs) with cloud vendors and partners, which can then be turned into customer SLAs.

“It’s not just reading what they hand you, but understanding it and questioning it if necessary,” said Wendy Frank, president, Accell Security Inc., Birdsboro, Pa. “The right way to do things is to have separate SLAs for each service you offer. It may seem like a lot to manage, but it’s the right way to go.”

Panel moderator Amy Luby, global SMB product and solution marketing manager for Trend Micro, noted that the challenge is made more complicated because so in their rush to get into the cloud market, many companies have failed to give sufficient through to SLA requirements and pricing models.

 

Mobile Device Management: Hype or Happening?

The managed services panel also discussed opportunities in the mobility market, including whether mobile device management is reality or hype.

Speakers and panelists said that today’s opportunities in mobile fall into a handful of categories. Mobile access and integration with existing desktop applications; and security, such as the ability to remotely wipe data from a lost or stolen device are two examples. There also are opportunities in specific markets, such as healthcare, where there is high usage of handheld and mobile devices and a great need for high levels of security.