Mike Vizard

All posts by Mike Vizard

Mike Vizard has covered IT for more than 25 years, and has edited or contributed to a number of tech publications including InfoWorld, eWeek, CRN, Baseline, ComputerWorld, TMCNet, and Digital Review. He currently blogs for IT Business Edge and contributes to CIOinsight, The Channel Insider, Programmableweb and Slashdot. Mike blogs about emerging cloud technology for Smarter MSP.

MSPs need to help clients update business continuity plans ASAP

MSPs need to help clients update business continuity plans ASAP

Managed service providers (MSPs) have a lot more to share than they realize when it comes to teaching organizations how to work remotely. Beyond providing secure connectivity, many MSPs tend to have large amounts of expertise in maintaining business continuity...

/ March 18, 2020
The best and worst of data protection times are upon MSPs

The best and worst of data protection times are upon MSPs

A survey of nearly 1,000 IT professionals published finds that when it comes to data protection, it is truly the best and worst of times. Conducted by The Ponemon Institute on behalf of Experian, a provider of IT services, the...

/ March 18, 2020
Coronavirus will drive organizations toward MSPs for remote computing expertise

Coronavirus will drive organizations toward MSPs for remote computing expertise

The global spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus is driving more employees to work from home. Meanwhile, many organizations are starting to discover just how unprepared they are to enable every employee to work outside the office. It’s one thing to...

/ March 11, 2020
The cloud opportunity for MSPs extends well into on-premises IT environments

The cloud opportunity for MSPs extends well into on-premises IT environments

There’s no doubt that the rate application workloads are moving into the public clouds is starting to accelerate. However, it is less clear what the biggest opportunities are for managed service providers (MSPs). There is money to be made by...

/ February 26, 2020
Survey identifies data protection as top service being delivered by third-parties

Survey identifies data protection as top service being delivered by third-parties

A survey of 110 IT decision-makers based in the U.S. suggests that the reliance on third-party IT services is starting to increase as IT becomes more complex. Conducted by US Signal, a provider of data center services, the survey finds...

/ February 20, 2020
Compliance mandates provide a boon to MSPs

Compliance mandates provide a boon to MSPs

Most business executives are not especially fond of regulations. However, it turns out the need to comply with a myriad of regulations has been something of a boon to managed service providers (MSPs). A survey of 50 MSPs conducted by...

/ February 12, 2020
Cybersecurity attacks on MSPs begin to shake customer confidence

Cybersecurity attacks on MSPs begin to shake customer confidence

The interest in managed security services is on the rise. However, it turns out that it’s not only becoming more difficult to deliver those services, customers of managed security service providers (MSSPs) are also becoming less satisfied. Dark Cubed, a...

/ February 5, 2020
Talent crunch gets tighter as IT salaries rose sharply in 2019

Talent crunch gets tighter as IT salaries rose sharply in 2019

Most IT service providers are competing against much larger organizations for a very finite amount of IT talent. The trouble is finding and retaining IT talent keeps getting more expensive. The annual free global survey of 12,200 IT professionals published...

/ January 29, 2020
Reliance on managed security services will increase in 2020

Reliance on managed security services will increase in 2020

A survey of 1,536 cybersecurity professionals suggests that 2020 will prove to be a big year in terms of managed security services adoption. The report, published by Cynet, a provider of a platform for managing data breaches, finds that the...

/ January 22, 2020
Hybrid cloud computing comes to MSPs

Hybrid cloud computing comes to MSPs

By now, it’s apparent that no single provider of cloud services is likely to dominate the market any time soon. A recent survey of 100 IT executives at Global 2000 companies conducted by Goldman Sachs finds slightly more organizations are...

/ January 15, 2020