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.

Digital business transformation drives IT modernization opportunities

Digital business transformation drives IT modernization opportunities

Rising investments in digital business transformation initiatives are starting to deliver some surprising dividends for IT services providers in the form of modernization opportunities. Spiceworks, on behalf of CenturyLink a provider of telecommunications and managed services, recently conducted a survey...

/ February 7, 2019
How the rise of big data and AI will impact MSPs

How the rise of big data and AI will impact MSPs

IT organizations are starting to signal their intent to consolidate all the analytics applications they need to support around a common pool of “big data” whenever possible. A recent report from Dresner Advisory Services finds 60 percent of respondents would...

/ February 5, 2019 / 1 Comment
Tight market for IT labor hampers MSP expansion plans

Tight market for IT labor hampers MSP expansion plans

The single biggest inhibitor of growth for most managed service providers is staffing. Without access to additional talent, MSPs not only find it challenging to extend the size and scope of the existing services they offer, it becomes next to...

/ January 31, 2019
Gartner forecasts dramatic shift in IT spending through the end of the decade

Gartner forecasts dramatic shift in IT spending through the end of the decade

After seeing a 5.6 percent growth in IT services spending in the last year, Gartner forecasted that the spending on IT services will grow a more modest 4.7 and 4.8 percent in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

/ January 29, 2019 / 1 Comment
Survey highlights need for data sanitization services for outdated IT equipment

Survey highlights need for data sanitization services for outdated IT equipment

A global survey of 600 data center professionals published by Blancco Technology Group, a provider of data erasure tools, suggests that there is a major opportunity for managed service providers (MSPs) to create a practice around helping IT organizations retire...

/ January 24, 2019
Report highlights how AWS cloud is rapidly evolving

Report highlights how AWS cloud is rapidly evolving

In the age of the cloud, the most widely employed service doesn’t always reflect where the biggest emerging opportunities are for managed service providers (MSPs). With that issue in mind, 2nd Watch, a provider of managed and professional services for...

/ January 22, 2019
Increasing investments in IT automation will have profound implications for MSPs in 2019

Increasing investments in IT automation will have profound implications for MSPs in 2019

Arguably, whenever a new use case for IT is being considered, MSPs are presented with one of the best opportunities to engage the customer. In these circumstances, MSPs don’t usually have to contend with as much bias as relying on...

/ January 17, 2019
Retail sector emerges as a larger opportunity for MSPs

Retail sector emerges as a larger opportunity for MSPs

Many managed service providers (MSPs) initially got their start by providing support for point-of-sale (PoS) systems and digital signage deployed in retail outlets that are difficult for internal IT organizations short on staff to support. As IT continues to evolve...

/ January 15, 2019
5G network opportunity starts to come into focus for MSPs at CES

5G network opportunity starts to come into focus for MSPs at CES

5G networking was all the rage this week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Despite all the sound and fury emanating from providers of carrier services and manufacturers of processors, such as Intel, very little has changed in terms of...

/ January 10, 2019
Shifting IT infrastructure landscape ultimately favors the MSP

Shifting IT infrastructure landscape ultimately favors the MSP

A new survey of 500 IT professionals published by INAP, a provider of managed services, suggests the rate at which application workloads will be shifting away from on-premises IT environments in 2019 is about to accelerate. The INAP survey finds...

/ January 8, 2019