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.

BI applications
Standing at the crossroads of managed BI cloud services

Standing at the crossroads of managed BI cloud services

Business intelligence (BI) applications have been moving steadily to the cloud for some time now. A new “2018 Cloud Computing and Business Intelligence Market Study” published by Dresner Advisory Services finds the number of organizations planning to increase spending on...

/ April 10, 2018
cybersecurity attacks
IT service providers are now focus of cybersecurity attacks

IT service providers are now focus of cybersecurity attacks

Most IT service providers are used to being the defenders of the cybersecurity realm. But, a new report published today by Trustwave, a managed security services provider (MSSP), suggests services providers themselves are increasingly becoming the targets of cybersecurity attacks....

/ April 5, 2018
Software defined network
SDNs need to extend to legacy networking equipment

SDNs need to extend to legacy networking equipment

Software-defined networks (SDNs) represent a huge opportunity for managed service providers to more efficiently manage networks. Instead of needing a technician to manually program each network device one at a time using a command line interface (CLI), an SDN enables...

/ April 4, 2018
wireless charging
Managed wireless charging is coming soon to a table near you

Managed wireless charging is coming soon to a table near you

The days when end users spent some portion of their day trying to find an outlet to power a mobile device are coming to an end. Wireless charging that enables the newest generation of mobile devices to be charged inductively...

/ March 29, 2018 / 1 Comment
Docker containers
How Docker containers accelerate cloud migrations

How Docker containers accelerate cloud migrations

By now most managed service providers are at least aware of Docker containers. But, far too many of them view Docker containers simply as a tool for building next-generation applications based on microservices. The most pressing use case for Docker...

/ March 27, 2018
Cloud security
Appreciating the complexity of cloud security

Appreciating the complexity of cloud security

It looks like IT organizations finally are starting to appreciate how difficult cloud security is to achieve and maintain. A new survey of 618 IT decision makers, conducted by Dimensional Research on behalf of Barracuda Networks, finds that 74 percent...

/ March 22, 2018
AI arms race
AI arms race bodes well for IT services providers

AI arms race bodes well for IT services providers

There’s a lot of hype about artificial intelligence (AI) applications that exceeds any reality. But, it is true that just about every application imaginable will soon be infused with machine- and deep-learning algorithms capable of automating a wide variety of...

/ March 20, 2018
cyber resiliency
MSPs need to focus more on cyber resiliency opportunity

MSPs need to focus more on cyber resiliency opportunity

Large numbers of managed security services providers are making a promise they know they can’t deliver on. There’s no such thing as perfect security. In fact, given the sophistication of social engineering attacks it’s probable malware is already lurking somewhere...

/ March 15, 2018
VoIP
VoIP services rapidly becoming table stakes for MSPs

VoIP services rapidly becoming table stakes for MSPs

Managed service providers tend to overlook voice communications as an opportunity, mainly because it’s a space that’s been dominated by telecommunications carriers for decades. There’s not a lot of love lost between carriers and MSPs, especially among MSPs that also...

/ March 13, 2018
Spiraling Cloud Costs Create Optimization Opportunity for MSPs

Spiraling Cloud Costs Create Optimization Opportunity for MSPs

The great paradox of cloud computing is that the primary reason most organizations embrace it is cost, and the number one issue they need to address after adopting cloud services is also cost. A new report from 451 Research drives...

/ March 12, 2018