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.

CompTIA’s Emerging Technology List is all about the Benjamins

CompTIA’s Emerging Technology List is all about the Benjamins

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been identified as the top emerging opportunity for the channel by a community of solution providers set up by CompTIA, a non-profit industry association that focuses on emerging technologies. 

/ September 20, 2018
MSPs need to promote more creative approaches to funding IT projects

MSPs need to promote more creative approaches to funding IT projects

With overall IT spending in many cases expected to be flat in 2019 managed service providers (MSPs) will need to find more creative ways to free up funding within IT budgets that all too often are not allocated in an...

/ September 18, 2018
IT spending forecast for 2019 predicts stronger headwinds for MSPs

IT spending forecast for 2019 predicts stronger headwinds for MSPs

According to a survey of 780 IT decision makers in North America and Europe conducted by Spiceworks, a provider of IT management tools, IT headwinds appear to be growing stronger. The survey data suggests that MSPs may need to focus...

/ September 13, 2018
Biggest cybersecurity challenge MSPs face today is pride and prejudice

Biggest cybersecurity challenge MSPs face today is pride and prejudice

A recent survey of 250 senior IT leaders suggests that when it comes to cybersecurity, organizations are reluctant to completely outsource the management of their security operations centers (SOCs). The State of SOAR Report 2018 survey was conducted by Virtual...

/ September 11, 2018
MSPs have much at stake as SD-WAN wars heat up

MSPs have much at stake as SD-WAN wars heat up

Software-defined wide area networking has emerged as one of the fastest growing and hotly contested segments in all of IT. In fact, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger at the recent VMworld 2018 conference noted that NSX SD-WAN by VeloCloud is the...

/ September 6, 2018
MSPs need to look to the future of managed services now more than ever

MSPs need to look to the future of managed services now more than ever

The rate at which routine functions are automated, such as delivering patch updates is about to accelerate considerably. While that may sound like an advance that will benefit managed service providers (MSPs), it turns out that the automation of those functions...

/ September 4, 2018 / 2 Comments
Report details scope of network management challenges faced by MSPs

Report details scope of network management challenges faced by MSPs

A report published this week by Auvik Networks finds more than three-quarters of managed service providers (MSPs) manage four or more network vendors across their client base. A third of MSPs are managing equipment from six to ten networking and...

/ August 30, 2018
VMworld
VMware NSX emerges as network management platform

VMware NSX emerges as network management platform

At the VMworld 2018 conference this week, VMware firmly established the role network virtualization overlays will play in managing disparate physical networks from here on in. In addition to revealing that VMware now has 7,500 customers for its NSX network virtualization...

/ August 28, 2018
IT equipment lifecycle
Extended lifecycle of IT equipment starts to force the managed services issue

Extended lifecycle of IT equipment starts to force the managed services issue

Most solution providers have added managed services to their portfolio to one degree or another. But, arguably far too many of them are still dependent on reselling products as their primary source of revenue. A new survey of 1,372 IT...

/ August 23, 2018
Data management issues are about to create a major opportunity for MSPs

Data management issues are about to create a major opportunity for MSPs

Given the extensive history most IT organizations have managing data leveraging all information to drive a wide variety of digital processes should be a simple enough proposition. But it turns out melding data sources is anything but easy. A new...

/ August 21, 2018