Managed Services News
By The Business Solutions Network
TeamViewer To Launch Channel Program
If you deliver IT services, there’s a strong chance that you’ve used TeamViewer to gain remote access to your customers’ machines. The company has seen the value in working closer with the MSP community, so it’s made some recent appointments and announcements to that end. More specifically, TeamViewer recently appointed Konstantin Ebert as director of channels. In his new role as director of channels, Ebert will be responsible for establishing and building the channel ecosystem for TeamViewer, while also leveraging partnerships and devising different business models. Ebert joins TeamViewer with 15 years of sales experience with companies such as T-Systems, Fujitsu, and most recently, NetApp. Expect future announcements regarding a new channel partner program.
Datto Makes Multiple Announcements
BCDR (business continuity and disaster recovery) vendor Datto recently made a number of product announcements. First, the company updated its Backupify product. This is a cloud-to-cloud backup and recovery solution that Datto acquired last year. The update includes Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint support.
Second, related to the company’s file, sync, and share product — Datto Drive — Datto is giving partners 1 TB of cloud storage free with Datto Drive for the first year. The company will also be adding more features to this solution, including Point-in-time Protection-as-a-Service and Agent-as-a-Service capabilities for MSP lead management.
Third, the company unveiled its new SIRIS 3XI (S3XI). The S3XI is an all-flash DRaaS (Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service) appliance designed to support single-server environments. It comes with 1 TB of storage, 16 GB of RAM, and the latest Intel CPUs, plus it includes a three-year warranty.
Finally, Datto has launched the new SIRIS 3, which received several architecture upgrades, such as an OS update to Ubuntu 16.04, a new KVM (kernel virtual machine) hypervisor (updated from VirtualBox), and Apache web server (updated from Cherokee). New features for SIRIS 3 include agentless backups for systems running VMware hypervisors, new agent technology to support both Linux and Apple Mac endpoints, diskless restores, the addition of rich NAS and iSCSI support, hybrid virtualization (previously only available on the Datto ALTO), and Linux backup screenshot verification. Datto’s SIRIS 3 appliances come with 10 gigabit Ethernet interfaces and the latest generation of Intel XEON CPUs for increased performance as well as IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface).
RapidFire Tools Unveils New Appliance
RapidFire Tools recently launched Detector, a new software appliance that enables VARs and MSPs to more easily identify internal threats to client networks, which according to industry reports, account for more than half of all breaches. Detector automatically scans a company’s network on a scheduled basis for suspicious anomalous user behaviors, unexpected network changes, and internal threats; and sends out daily alerts to the MSP regarding the detected issues. The alerts rank the severity of each category of issue, and can include suggested actions for the integrator based on the severity of the risk. In addition to the alerts, Detector also generates a weekly notice with a complete list of changes that have occurred on the network over the past week, giving the integrator a quick reference source and a means by which to document a historical chain of events.
The security tool also incorporates “machine learning” that allows it to become smarter the longer it is attached to a network. It also employs a proprietary “SMART-TAG” feature that allows the solution provider to fine-tune the tool with additional information to identify relationships and dramatically reduce false-positives. This approach delivers more detailed and relevant information about the client’s network, allowing the integrator to better mitigate risk and offer a meaningful internal IT security service.
Anomalies, changes, and threats that the Detector can uncover include identifying unauthorized and suspicious logins, unwanted network changes, improper security permissions, unauthorized connection to wireless networks by employees, lack of policy enforcement, and a roster of other policy breaches and transgressions.
SolarWinds Acquires LOGICnow
SolarWinds recently announced it has completed the acquisition of LOGICnow, backed by a consortium of investors led by Insight Venture Partners. With this acquisition, SolarWinds is bringing together LOGICnow and SolarWinds N-able to create SolarWinds MSP, uniting two complementary players in the managed services solutions market to deliver a portfolio of capabilities to MSPs of every size and scale worldwide. As a combined entity, SolarWinds MSP will serve more than 18,000 managed service providers worldwide, managing more than five million end-points and one million mailboxes.
Building on the track records of SolarWinds N-able and LOGICnow, the combined expertise of SolarWinds MSP will deliver a set of solutions in a tightly-integrated automation platform, including remote monitoring and management; remote control, access, and support; and security — including anti-malware, multi-vendor patch management, and web access control; backup and disaster recovery; risk and vulnerability assessment; email security and compliance-focused archiving; multi-platform support for Windows, Mac, Linux, VMware, Hyper-V, iOS, and Android; help desk and service management functionality; and advanced data analytics.
eFolder Unveils New Backup Appliance Family
eFolder recently announced the launch of the eFolder Replibit BDR Appliance product family. Replibit BDR Appliances are local BDR appliances, which feature eFolder FastFlash, DuraBit SSD storage technologies, and the patented Replibit Appliance software. With an all-SSD architecture, Replibit appliances deliver fast on-site system recovery for virtually any sized client environment. The FastFlash SSD architecture delivers IOPS and a 50x speed advantage during system recoveries vs. legacy BDR appliances.
The Replibit BDR appliance family includes the small form factor Replibit Mini for small business deployments, the Replibit Pro for medium-sized or growing clients, and the Replibit Rack model for larger, sophisticated clients or private cloud, multi-tenant vaulting applications. The Replibit Mini packs 1 TB or 2 TB of usable FastFlash storage, a 4-core Skylake i5 processor, and 16 GB or 32 GB of RAM into a tiny 8-inch x 8-inch x 2.5-inch form factor, while using less than 20W of power. The Pro unit starts at 3TB of all-flash storage, is field expandable up to 15TB, and includes an 8-core Xeon processor, 128 GB of RAM, and dual 10G networking. The 2U Rack is identical to the Pro but can be expanded up to 18TB of usable storage. All models deliver the full feature set of the patented Replibit software, including chain-free backups, instant local virtualization, and automated screenshot verification with file system integrity checking.
CompTIA Rolls Out New Industry Standard For MSPs
Continuing its push to expand usage of best business practices by technology companies, CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the technology industry, has released the second in its planned series of channel standards. The CompTIA Channel Standard for Managed IT Solution Providers is geared toward companies engaged in delivering technology solutions to customers via a managed services model.
“The standard provides a checklist of policies and practices that can help any managed IT solution provider raise the quality of the services they offer and the value they provide to their customers,” says Kelly Ricker, senior vice president, events and education, CompTIA.
Release of the CompTIA Channel Standard for Managed IT Solutions Providers occurs at a time when many companies in the MSP market anticipate growth in their services business. An upcoming CompTIA study reveals that 61 percent of small technology companies, 47 percent of mid-sized firms, and 52 percent of large companies expect to see high revenue growth in their managed services business over the next two years.
The CompTIA Channel Standard for Managed IT Solutions Providers details intelligent business practice fundamentals in five key areas: business generation, delivery and operations, customer relations, business management, and business direction.
When combined with the CompTIA Channel Standard for IT Solution Providers published earlier this year, companies have access to a collection of the technology industry’s best practices. CompTIA’s channel standards are not an endorsement of any particular solution. They are based on collective wisdom culled from scores of successful peers and professionals with years of industry experience.