IT services providers need to fill the digital business transformation void
The rise of digital business transformation initiative has the potential to be a major boon for IT services providers. Organizations of all sizes are starting to recognize they need to not only employ IT to become more efficient, they also...
Bots with conversational interfaces come to Managed Services
Managed service providers (MSPs) should start moving now toward incorporating conversational interfaces into their customer service applications. Chat bots that rely on natural language interfaces are already employed on the Web. The next wave of these bots, however, will support...
What it really takes to become a Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP)
If an IT solution provider wants to become a managed security services provider (MSSP), they will need the ability to remediate a cybersecurity breach in well under two hours, based on how long it currently takes the average IT organization...
Spending survey indicates MSPs are holding, but not gaining, ground
One of the first IT spending forecasts for 2020 contains both good and somewhat disappointing news for managed service providers (MSPs). Based on a Spiceworks survey of 1,105 IT leaders in the U.S. and Europe, spending driven by the need...
Survey finds increased appreciation for external IT service provider expertise
Far too many leaders of small to medium businesses (SMBs) still don’t appreciate the strategic role IT can play in the success of their organizations. However, a survey of 250 business executives at organizations with $5 to $50 million in...
Brownouts make organizations just as blue as outages
Typically, when managed service providers (MSPs) make the initial case for their services much of their focus tends to be trying to determine the number of outages any organization has experienced. The theory is that organizations that have experienced the...
Gartner analyst lifts veil on IT solution purchasing processes
At the 2019 UK London Managed Services & Hosting Summit this week, a Gartner analyst delivered some “good news.” Gartner research director Mark Paine told conference attendees it’s now only taking customers 50 percent longer to buy an IT solution,...
Long road to achieving GDPR compliance still lies ahead
A survey of 1,263 IT professionals conducted by the Ponemon Institute, on behalf of the law firm McDermott Will & Emery LLP, suggests that even some of the best laid plans to comply with the General Data Protection Rule (GDPR)...
MSPs need to embrace Kubernetes to drive hybrid cloud computing
Hybrid cloud computing seems to be one of those goals everyone wants to achieve, but no one is quite sure how to accomplish. Most cloud computing platforms are managed today in isolation from one another. If a managed service provider...
Survey highlights growing shift in IT attitude among customers
When it comes to prospective customers, managed service providers (MSPs) often find themselves trying to navigate between two extremes. On one hand, there are organizations with highly competent IT teams that feel they are the equal with MSPs in terms...