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.

Survey highlights need for data sanitization services for outdated IT equipment

Survey highlights need for data sanitization services for outdated IT equipment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
Savvy MSPs track IT salaries to determine where to focus their efforts

Savvy MSPs track IT salaries to determine where to focus their efforts

The fundamental advantage any managed service provider (MSP) has is that they can aggregate the total cost of delivering an IT service across multiple customers. In contrast, an internal IT organization needs to absorb the entire cost for every full-time...

/ January 3, 2019 / 1 Comment
Edge computing emerges as major opportunity for MSPs in 2019

Edge computing emerges as major opportunity for MSPs in 2019

As the IT industry enters 2019, there’s a lot of excitement about edge computing. Of course, edge computing is not necessarily a new idea. IT organizations have been deploying applications in, for example, remote offices or on various classes of...

/ January 2, 2019
Reliance on MSPs expected to increase in 2019

Reliance on MSPs expected to increase in 2019

As hybrid cloud computing becomes more complex — thanks to rise of so-called cloud native computing models — there appears to be an increase in the willingness of IT organizations to rely on managed service providers (MSPs).

/ December 27, 2018 / 1 Comment
Twelve gifts MSPs want to receive this holiday season

Twelve gifts MSPs want to receive this holiday season

Managed service providers (MSPs) get excited about the holidays as much as anyone else. The only difference is that many MSPs will be keeping at least one eye on various consoles to make sure any potential disruption that might occur...

/ December 25, 2018