Dun & Bradstreet Inc. is taking its services to the channel and wants Microsoft partners to spearhead the effort.
Also known as D&B, the 171-year-old firm is a purveyor of an earlier type of business intelligence -- keeping carefully curated files on companies that could help D&B customers with credit decisions and business-to-business marketing. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 05, 20121 comments
As the iPad's corporate momentum encourages more solution providers to consider partnering with Apple, one of Microsoft's top U.S. partners recently publicized its deepening ties with Cupertino.
Capax Global, a Microsoft National Systems Integrator partner based in Parsippany, N.J., late last month promoted the validation of its mobile device management practice through its achievement of the Apple Mobility Technical Competency. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 05, 20120 comments
The conventional wisdom is that Mitt Romney beat Barack Obama in the first presidential debate, but there was another winner in terms of attention Wednesday night: America's small businesses.
"Small business," a term that describes most Microsoft partner companies and many of their customers, appeared 27 times in this transcript of the debate and featured prominently in both candidates' opening statements. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 05, 20120 comments
Datto Inc. continued its march to integrate its backup solutions with major managed service provider offerings with the announcement on Thursday of product integration with Kaseya.
Datto's hardware-based on-site and off-site backup, disaster recovery and business continuity solutions now work tightly with Kaseya's remote monitoring and management software. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 04, 20120 comments
There may be a bigger opportunity for partners in helping their customers protect their Apple iPhones and iPads than anyone realized.
Sure, many of us have heard that MSPs and other partners can help customers lock down their Apple devices. But assisting customers in configuring their devices using Apple's cloud to have them ready to lock, wipe or locate devices that are swiped by criminals seemed like something of a niche. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 03, 20121 comments
Tell me you haven't wanted to do this if you've ever worked with servers? More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 02, 20120 comments
For the last few years, IBM has been quietly working with managed service providers to offer their MSP solutions on IBM services, software and hardware. On Wednesday, Big Blue made it official.
"I think in many ways, this announcement is about pulling it all together -- creating a public program and saying to MSPs that these are the paths you can be on in terms of investing with IBM, and these are what the benefits are," said Mike McClurg, vice president of IBM Global and Midmarket Sales and Strategy. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on September 26, 20120 comments
The prices for the Microsoft Surface devices may range from $300 to $800, according to a big hint from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in a newspaper interview.
Asked in a Q&A with the Seattle Times about Surface pricing, Ballmer first replied that Microsoft hasn't announced pricing. But after describing how devices cheaper than the Apple iPad tend toward the chintzy, Ballmer said, "If you look at the bulk of the PC market, it would run between, say, probably $300 to about $700 or $800. That's the sweet spot." More
Posted by Scott Bekker on September 18, 20121 comments
A Windows server launch is always a date for partners to circle on their calendars. The launch this month of Windows Server 2012 was no exception. Billing the new server as a "cloud OS,"Microsoft did a lot of work in this release to integrate Windows Server 2012 with the forthcoming System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 and with Windows Azure to address the changing needs of the IT world.
To emphasize the importance of the product to partners, Microsoft's top channel executive, Jon Roskill, blogged earlier this month about high-level opportunities surrounding Windows Server 2012. He called out: More
Posted by Scott Bekker on September 17, 20120 comments
In all the years that I've set up new PCs either in my own house or for relatives, I've never run across a piece of start-up freeware from an OEM that was worth keeping.
It has always been my mission to hunt down any bit of how-to, security dashboarding, system updating or other start-up junk and delete it. In the rare cases that I didn't (or couldn't), I always regretted it. The usually poorly written and poorly thought out junkware would either accost me with non-actionable pop-up windows or slowed system performance. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 29, 20121 comments
A new "Cloud Easy" partner subsidy similar to the recurring Big Easy incentive is now available for Microsoft partners in the United States.
Cindy Bates, vice president for U.S. Small and Midsized Business and Distribution at Microsoft, announced Cloud Easy in July at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 29, 20120 comments
Samsung's first Windows Phone 8 device will have a gigantic 4.8-inch screen and a MicroSD storage expansion slot.
"This is just the first in a big lineup of new hardware that's coming with Windows Phone 8," Microsoft's Ben Rudolph wrote on the Windows Phone Blog about the Samsung ATIV S. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on August 29, 20124 comments