Transitioning from being a VAR to an MSP is a natural evolution that can benefit your business long-term. There are numerous financial incentives that can motivate a VAR to become an MSP. As a member of the leadership team at Marco Technologies, I’ve learned first-hand how making this change has improved our business in a variety of ways.
If Geek Squad is a nursery school for MSPs, its founder Robert Stephens, is the headmaster. I sat down with Stephens in Phoenix last week at the SolarWinds Empower user conference. Among many interesting points in our conversation were exchanges about IT Services marketing and pricing.
Back when Channel Executive was named Business Solutions and VARinsights.com was BSMinfo.com, those publications used to host Channel Transitions conferences. The name of those events was quite literal – they were designed to help VARs in the IT channel transition to a managed services business model. Our brand names have changed, but we are still providing content to help break/fix VARs transition to the wonderful world of recurring revenue. I distinctly remember several panelists at Channel Transitions conferences advising audience members to tackle the VAR-to-MSP transition gradually: start with a small handful of customers, and only add more when your cash flow allows it.
There’s a repetitive scene that plays out each month as my team sits down to review and plan our varinsights.com and Channel Executive magazine editorial content. Our modus operandi, in a nutshell, is to feature executives who apply innovative solutions to often complex problems associated with being in the IT services business. With that M.O. in mind, we struggle to strike a balance between our coverage of traditional VARs and that of managed service providers.
The work my friend and colleague Abby Sorensen put into the IT Channel is paying dividends even after she shifted her focus to the greater software business community. Last week at its RetailNOW event, the Retail Solutions Providers Association’s Women-to-Women (W2W) Committee named her its 2018 Leader Of The Year. Committee Chair and business owner Kelli Stewart, owner/operations manager at Advanced Data Systems, bestowed the honors from the mainstage.
At the top of the New Year, ConnectWise and HTG Peer Groups collaboratively announced that the former was acquiring the latter. Among the HTG associate, member, and greater MSP communities, the news incited a lot of speculation about the future of the HTG empire led by Arlin Sorensen and family. This week, the speculation was put to rest. HTG is now IT Nation Evolve, a new brand that reflects the Arnie Bellini-inspired ConnectWise flavor of channel community building.
As more companies shift their IT infrastructure, data, and applications to the cloud, the need for reliable cloud security has become more acute. Fact is, the cloud has increasingly become a target for cyberattacks, as criminals follow the data from on-premises servers to cloud platforms.
Low-tech security strategies are a vital part of protecting customers from email-borne threats.
For MSPs, the traditional approach to cybersecurity focuses on defense and prevention, but as cybercriminals get bolder and more sophisticated, that’s no longer enough. What’s needed is a proactive security posture that MSPs can enforce with their clients using these nine best practices.
For many resellers, vendor relationships don’t extend much beyond the contract signing and some initial training. That may be fine for some product lines, but if you aren’t fostering a closer working relationship with a vendor, you’re probably leaving money on the table.
Most VARs are aware that cross-selling and upselling can boost their revenue, but not as many put the required effort into executing this type of program.
Educating users is an undeniably effective way to protect them from phishing and other malware, but it takes much more than that to stop attacks. There are many risks to networks that user education can’t reduce—from malicious sites mistakenly categorized as benign to watering-hole attacks that infect trusted sites. To combat these challenges, businesses need well-designed antimalware that protects across a variety of attack vectors and infection stages. That’s where multi-vector protection comes in.
As cloud storage becomes more affordable, organizations of all sizes are exploring new ways to meet their increased storage demands and streamline operations. This steady decline in cost and improvements in security have made cloud storage a viable alternative to traditional on-premises storage options.
First popularized in terminology several years ago, threat intelligence means many things to many people. This is due, in part, to the wide variety of producers, consumers, formats, intended uses, and quality of this type of data. This wide variety of definitions is exacerbated by the spectrum of qualitative and quantitative data called threat intelligence.
Webroot delivers intelligent cybersecurity for endpoint, mobile and web to channel partners, consumers, businesses, and enterprises worldwide. Powered by its BrightCloud® collective threat intelligence network, Webroot protects the internet of everything. Our cloud-based threat detection, high performance, lightweight agents, and single, web-based point of control have changed the way businesses think about protecting mobile devices, PCs and servers. Named a ‘Visionary’ in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms, Webroot’s smarter approach to security is why companies including Cisco, F5 Networks, GateProtect, HP, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Proofpoint, RSA and others choose our solutions for advanced threat protection for their security products and services.
CloudBerry Lab™ is a vendor for CloudBerry Backup, a leading cross-platform cloud backup and disaster recovery solution integrated with major public cloud services, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, and almost every S3-compatible or OpenStack based cloud storage service.
For more than 30 years, APG Cash Drawer has been designing and delivering cash drawers with a variety of size, color, interface, and integration options. An APG cash drawer will provide years of smooth, trouble free service with virtually no downtime, no service required, and no headaches. Our cash drawers are so well constructed and so reliable that our customers install them and forget them - even in the most demanding environments.
The ASCII Group is a vibrant community of independent MSPs, VARS and solution providers in North America. The organization offers members leveraged purchasing programs, education and training, knowledge sharing among peers, discounts on business services, and more. Founded in 1984 by Alan Weinberger, ASCII is the oldest and largest group of independent IT solution providers, integrators and VARS in the world.
| ConnectWise is the leading business management solution designed exclusively for technology organizations, such as IT solution providers, MSPs, software companies, hardware/software resellers, and System Integrators. |
SherWeb has been helping businesses around the world work smarter in the cloud since 1998. Our cloud solutions help companies be more agile in today’s competitive market and trim IT costs.
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Powerful, effective security solutions have become a necessity in today's threat landscape. But MSPs can ensure the tightest levels of security without tying up staff and draining profits. The current state of cybersecurity doesn’t have to be a liability. It can be an opportunity to drive revenue by providing additional essential security services to your clients.
Learn more about what what vendors are looking for in partners, and what steps you can take to make sure you’re partnering with the right vendors.
The Schrödinger’s backup is such a backup, that was not yet tested for a recovery. Having a full backup is essential for making sure you can recover everything, especially if you have a widespread system failure, compromised data, or even an employee error that leads to loss of a substantial part of your information. While traditional full backup methods used to be the only option for having a complete copy of your data, synthetic full backup is providing a new alternative.
If you care at all about the security of your data, you already know that you need a backup strategy in place. Cyber attacks, technology failures, and human error (especially human error) can all lead to loss of important information that can put you at risk. However, not all backup strategies are equal. To keep your data backed up and secure, follow these three tips.
In the last year, phishing was involved in 93% of successful security breaches. But we shouldn’t point the finger at human error alone. Today’s phishing attacks can be pretty convincing. And, ultimately, we’re all in this together. What your clients really need is a solution that empowers end users to be a strong line of defense. They need cybersecurity awareness training.
They say recognizing a problem is the first step in solving it. Whereas in the past many small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) didn’t believe they had a cybersecurity problem, today many executives in those businesses know that hackers will focus their attention on and exploit them. Particularly if they don’t have adequate cybersecurity defenses in place. The rampant growth in ransomware and increasing volume and velocity of cyber-attacks has meant the “it won’t happen to me” mentality is at last being left behind.
BLUETOOTH-ENABLED CASH DRAWERS
Need your POS device to become mobile? The BluePRO® Bluetooth device enables a cash drawer to pair with a mobile device allowing retailers to wirelessly synchronize and create direct relationship. The BluePRO® device requires integration with a trusted POS software.
APG’s NetPRO® interface for cash drawers are available in both wired and wireless configurations and will communicate with retailer’s mobile POS devices for cash drawer control. NetPRO® cash drawers have the ability to collect transaction data, supplying the information necessary to identify security issues and to validate cashier training. NetPRO® cash drawer access alert features can activate security cameras, time and date stamp security video recordings, and broadcast alert messages to a store manager’s mobile devices.
Small in size, the APG Series 100 Cash Drawer does not compromise efficiency. It actually improves upon it because it increases the effectiveness of your workstation.
Cloud backup service with centralized management and monitoring.
