Pedro Pereira

Adrian who? That pretty much summarizes how channel partners have reacted to Hewlett-Packard’s appointment of Adrian Jones as its new channel chief. And who can blame them? Few partners have ever heard of the man, who comes to HP from storage vendor McData, and HP seemed to go out of its way to keep the […]

Distributor Ingram Micro has taken another step in its managed services strategy by making a hosted remote monitoring and management platform available to solution providers. The hosted managed services option allows VARs, integrators and services providers to remotely monitor and manage the computing environments of their clients without having to invest in the overhead of […]

It’s one thing for a major vendor to engage ISVs to create applications designed to run on the vendor’s systems, but it’s another to ensure that those applications will work right. That’s where AppLabs Technologies comes in. AppLabs tests the applications for compatibility and to make sure the ISVs are following the proper protocols in […]

Users have become better attuned to managed services, it’s true, but that doesn’t mean providers can sit back and relax. Managed services providers, or MSPs, still must work tirelessly to pitch the model to customers. Users want the peace of mind of knowing their MSP has the right tools to deliver on a model that, […]

Businesses tend to overspend on technology, then turn around and don’t even use it enough. That is the premise around which The Utility Co., a startup in Ottawa, Canada, plans to build its franchise business. Formed last summer, the company has embarked on a recruiting spree that founder and CEO Mark Scott expects will yield […]

Crises are defining moments that tell us about our shortcomings and test our ability to cope. JetBlue Airways’ defining moment came last week, when the unprepared airline stranded hundreds of passengers inside idle aircraft at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport for periods of up to 11 hours. How the airline—which in a manner […]

Managed services platform vendor N-able Technologies is positioning itself for market domination within two years, CEO Gavin Garbutt told an assembly of existing and potential channel partners. Garbutt told about 280 people during the N-able Partner Summit in Santa Ana, Calif., that the Ottawa, Canada-based vendor needs them to achieve this. With that in mind, […]

At the turn of the millennium, the future of the company whose very name is synonymous with photocopying appeared uncertain. Xerox, based in Stamford, Conn., was grappling with staggering debt, consecutive quarterly losses and an SEC scandal. That was at a time when some prognosticators had pronounced that paper was dead. You remember those predictions, […]

Managed services are the new IT gold rush. Despite skepticism about the services delivery model in some quarters, an increasing number of vendors and channel companies are swarming to the model because they see it as a viable business. One company hoping to grab its share of the market is Critical Links, a 200-employee vendor […]

I was wrapped in green at the end of January. In addition to editing an in-depth story about eco-friendly business opportunities for the channel, every time I opened my Google News page, the top story was about a high-profile report on global warming. And it just so happened that I had watched Al Gore’s “An […]

Security vendor Astaro is launching a partner program for managed services providers with the intent of taking on established brands Sonic Wall and Check Point Software Technologies. Astaro, based in Burlington, Mass., sells unified threat management software, which combines functions such as spyware protection, intrusion detection, virus protection for the Web and content filtering in […]

It’s not easy being Windows Vista. Not only do Microsoft partners report that business demand is next to nil, but managed services providers also are saying they want their customers to wait. Too many unanswered questions remain about hardware requirements, security implications and compatibility with existing business applications, MSPs say. And since the role of […]