Michael Vizard

Everyone likes to talk about the divide between IT and the business but there are lots of divides within the IT organization that can trip up the unwary solution provider. One of the most contentious areas in IT right now is anything to do with “DevOps.” As a catch phrase that covers anything to do […]

One of the more frustrating aspects of being a solution provider is the number of channel programs you have to participate in, even when there are two or more vendors that are selling something that they are mutually dependent upon to deliver. With the rise of cloud computing that’s becoming a whole lot more common […]

The vast majority of the networking gear installed in the enterprise today is what most networking professionals would refer to as dumb pipe. Networking administrators can see what types of packets are moving across those networks and make some inferences about what types of packets are associated with specific classes of applications. But that’s a […]

Given the fact that the distinction between managed hosting and cloud computing is relatively thin, it should not be all that surprising to see solution provider starting to offer managed cloud computing services. What is surprising is that more of them are starting to wrap channel programs around those services as part of an effort […]

While nobody likes the idea of increased regulation, the fact remains that recent spike in the number of rules that organizations need to comply with has been by and large a very good thing for the channel. In addition to creating any number of governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) opportunities, every time and organization […]

There has never been any love lost between IT professionals and the people that pay the electric bills for the data center. Facilities people don’t tend to care of environments that are not particularly predictable and IT people are not particularly well known for their appreciation of the cost of electricity or the difficulties associated […]

When you think about the complexity of the IT purchasing process it’s a wonder that anything ever gets bought, never mind actually accomplished. Most vendors have dissimilar ways of describing the same technology, there are endless variations of the same product and no one is quite sure what’s no longer available versus when something else […]

Solution providers of all sizes are trying to trying to navigate their way through cloud computing options that to one degree or another are all disruptive. The question that many of them are wrestling with is whether they should build their own cloud computing capability or opt to resell cloud computing services delivered by someone […]

When it comes to providing IT services a lot of solution providers tend to focus their energies on back-office opportunities. But as the so-called “Internet of Things” continues to get more robust, it’s starting to looks like integration of back-office systems with any number of types of embedded systems may turn out to be a […]

By and measure the delivery of services is by far and away the single most profitable segment of a solution provider’s business. The question then becomes what vendors and technologies drive the most amount of high-margin services revenue on behalf of the solution provider. According to Rob Sturgeon, chief delivery officer for ServiceSource, a provider […]

Solution providers are always looking out for a business trend that is dependent on the successful implementation of multiple IT projects to reach fruition. One of the biggest such trends to come down the pike in recent memory is customer experience management, which describes the process of unifying the multiple channels that most companies use […]

Although organizations have been stealing intellectual property form each other as long as there have been organizations, the speed and scope at which that property can be stolen has business owners on edge. Companies are spending millions, sometimes billions of dollars, on researching and developing new products, only to see the systems that contain that […]