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.

public cloud competition
Battle for control of the public cloud intensifies

Battle for control of the public cloud intensifies

The fight for control over application workloads moving into the public cloud is starting to resemble a knock-down drag-out brawl. The catalyst for this conflict is the accelerated rate at which application workloads are moving into public clouds. A new...

/ January 23, 2018
co-seller models
Co-seller models find increased appeal in the age of the cloud

Co-seller models find increased appeal in the age of the cloud

The way IT vendors have historically sold products and services has revolved primarily around models where a channel partner either resold the product after acquiring it from the vendor or acted as an agent on behalf of the vendor. But,...

/ January 18, 2018
customer loyalty
Customer loyalty to cloud and IT service providers is not all that high

Customer loyalty to cloud and IT service providers is not all that high

It turns out that in terms of brand loyalty IT professionals are least loyal to cloud service providers (CSPs) and IT outsourcing/consulting partners. A survey of 535 IT professionals conducted by Spiceworks finds more than 70 percent of IT buyers are...

/ January 16, 2018
IT management
Most organizations still struggle with fundamentals of IT management

Most organizations still struggle with fundamentals of IT management

While there’s a lot of well-deserved focus on business and IT innovation these days, the fundamentals of delivering IT services never go away. In fact, a new survey published this week by Syncsort, a provider of data management software, indicates...

/ January 11, 2018
digital assistants
Digital assistants to become pervasive in 2018

Digital assistants to become pervasive in 2018

The one thing made clear this week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is that digital assistants will soon be everywhere. Google, for example, used to the conference to showcase how Google Assistant with challenge rival digital assistant software from...

/ January 9, 2018
digital business transformation
Digital business transformation emerges as top concern for business leaders

Digital business transformation emerges as top concern for business leaders

The most important thing any managed service provider needs to understand when wooing a new client is their state of mind. Not every customer has the same priorities. But, a recent survey of 728 business executives and board members conducted...

/ January 4, 2018
GDPR Rights
Awareness of GDPR rights builds slowly in the EU

Awareness of GDPR rights builds slowly in the EU

The first major issue many IT organizations will confront in the new year is the need to comply with the General Data Protection Rule (GDPR) that goes into effect in the European Union (EU) in 142 days. Scheduled to go into...

/ January 2, 2018
Big Data Analytics
Big Data analytics platforms in the cloud see wider adoption

Big Data analytics platforms in the cloud see wider adoption

A new report from Dresner Advisory Services suggests that managed Big Data analytics platforms based on instances of Hadoop delivered via the cloud gained significant traction in 2017. The research firm’s 2017 Big Data Analytics Market Study finds that instances of Hadoop...

/ December 28, 2017
VoIP
Transition to VoIP solutions has some hang-ups to overcome

Transition to VoIP solutions has some hang-ups to overcome

Voice-over-IP (VoIP) is at the root of many of the more advanced communications and collaboration applications that have been deployed in the past year. But a survey conducted jointly by Spiceworks and CenturyLink suggests there is plenty of room for...

/ December 26, 2017
revenue growth rates
Revenue growth rates rise sharply in 2017 across all classes of clouds

Revenue growth rates rise sharply in 2017 across all classes of clouds

They say a flood lifts all boats, but given the revenue growth rates across the entire cloud computing sector, something more akin to a tsunami is occurring. A report issued this week by Jeffries, an investment banking firm, says the...

/ December 21, 2017