Category: Tech Insight
Bots with conversational interfaces come to Managed Services
Managed service providers (MSPs) should start moving now toward incorporating conversational interfaces into their customer service applications. Chat bots that rely on natural language interfaces are already employed on the Web. The next wave of these bots, however, will support...
Customization can help your clients overcome software limitations
When the Model T Fords came out, Henry Ford used to say, “You can have any color you want, as long as it’s black.” Ford, who was among the first to mass produce cars on an assembly line, was apparently...
Brownouts make organizations just as blue as outages
Typically, when managed service providers (MSPs) make the initial case for their services much of their focus tends to be trying to determine the number of outages any organization has experienced. The theory is that organizations that have experienced the...
Oracle’s autonomous cloud tools should get you thinking about automation
Even with the shift to the cloud, it’s still up to IT to make sure that Linux is being patched and updated on a regular basis — which is often a tedious job. Oracle announced a product this week to help: a...
Tech Time Warp: NeXTSTEP paved the way for OS X and iOS
Steve Jobs’ story has many fascinating chapters, including the story of NeXTSTEP, the operating system that proved to be the first step toward OS X and iOS.
Gartner analyst lifts veil on IT solution purchasing processes
At the 2019 UK London Managed Services & Hosting Summit this week, a Gartner analyst delivered some “good news.” Gartner research director Mark Paine told conference attendees it’s now only taking customers 50 percent longer to buy an IT solution,...
Ask an MSP Expert: Should I outsource NOC and Help Desk services?
Q: My managed service business is at a stage where we need more technicians to focus on resolving support tickets and provide help desk support. I am debating between hiring a Level 1 help desk agent or outsource to a...
Tech Time Warp: Bank of America introduces ERMA and revolutionizes checking
It’s easy to write checks off as passé, but according to Next Gen Personal Finance, the average American still writes 38 checks a year. Next time you pull out your checkbook, consider the extraordinary staying power of checking technology, which...
MSPs need to embrace Kubernetes to drive hybrid cloud computing
Hybrid cloud computing seems to be one of those goals everyone wants to achieve, but no one is quite sure how to accomplish. Most cloud computing platforms are managed today in isolation from one another. If a managed service provider...
Ask an MSP Expert: How can I convince customers to invest in backup and recovery?
Q: Many SMB customers say they want to be increase their cybersecurity posture, but they decide to forego backup and disaster recovery services. How can I convince them that this is still an essential component to protecting their business? We’ve...
