The VAR Guy

Did you plan for success last year? Did you write down your plan? If you answered yes to both, that is awesome. Get out your plan, review it to see where you were successful and where you were not as successful, and figure out what you could have done better.  Get started with 2012 planning if you haven’t already and have a Happy Holiday.

It’s amazing how much procrastination goes into something as simple as a printer driver or satellite dish driver update, but it happens every day. While uploading the new software to modern devices doesn’t take the same time it used to (30-minutes or more), the process is often delayed or never completed. People are reluctant to take time out of their busy schedules to update home technology that isn’t broken, or may take longer than anticipated. The same rule applies to critical business systems, though the delays can be longer and more disruptive.

Cloud is quickly becoming the de facto offering for many solution providers, with fairly simple implementation and a monthly recurring revenue stream that can help balance their cash flow. These applications are also of great benefit to their small business clients, between capital savings to continuous and relatively seamless updates.

The fall season is almost upon us, and as the air gains a morning chill and trees start to shed their leaves, Intronis is gearing up for its annual Fall release — a major cloud storage upgrade designed for MSPs and VARs. Ted Roller, VP of channel development at Intronis, describes the strategy in a FastChat Video.

While a carpenter may have a workshop filled with thousands of tools, many designed for very specific uses, he could likely accomplish a majority of his work using just a few basic implements. Consider the number of projects that can be completed with just a hammer, screwdriver and saw? The final project may be a little rough without utilizing specialized equipment (such as a router), but a number of beneficial things can be constructed with just these few items.

Some of the IT channel’s top names are huddling up this week in Chicago for CompTIA AMM — an annual membership meeting for the Computing Technology Industry Association. No doubt, CompTIA — among the best-known associations serving VARs and MSPs — has undergone some dramatic changes under CEO Todd Thibodeaux (pictured). You might even say that we’re all looking at CompTIA 3.0. Here’s why.

Managed service providers will often use online backup for a company’s mission critical data and local backup for their data that is important, but not utterly critical to basic business functions. And sometimes IT service providers will use a combination of both. However, helping your client decide what constitutes critical data and how to best backup that data can be a complicated task.

Last year the federal government announced its goal to have most Americans on electronic medical records (EMR) by 2014. Coupled with the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which provides funding to promote adoption and use of electronic systems, the use and storage of medical data and systems has already begun to surge. So, how can VARs and MSPs get started with healthcare IT? Here are two practical steps.

Intronis is set to announce the hiring of a new channel chief. But that’s not all. The online backup specialist has also hired a new VP of sales, the grape vine tells The VAR Guy. Here’s where Intronis is heading next, and the potential implications for VARs seeking storage as a service solutions.