In the May issue of Business Solutions magazine, Jamie Brenzel, CEO of KineticD, discusses cloud pitfalls VARs and MSPs should watch out for in, "Do You Make These Cloud Security Mistakes?" Brenzel offers practical advice on topics such as choosing between public cloud and private cloud offerings, and he also gets into the importance of protecting your customers' data from the point it leaves their facility to the point it gets...  Continue Reading..

At Mobotix' NPC USA East Coast 2012 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, the IP camera manufacturer announced an upcoming Q3 2012 release of people counting and heat mapping functionality, which will be a free upgrade to the company's already free VMS software. While people counting functionality isn't new to the video industry, it does serve as a great example of how today's IP cameras can be used for way more than just video...  Continue Reading..

This week finds me in Ft. Lauderdale, FL for IP camera manufacturer Mobotix' national partner conference. Yesterday was loaded with networking opportunities, giving me a chance to speak with security integrators about the challenges and opportunities that they face on a daily basis. At the end of the day, one conversation about IP video really stood out.  Continue Reading..

In June 2010, we featured Richard Anderson, CEO of Next Level Café on the cover of Business Solutions magazine. This managed services provider (MSP) had experienced 21% sales growth in 2009 over the previous year, and it was projecting up to 20% growth by the end of 2010. In this feature story, titled "The Price Of Success," Anderson shared that changing from the traditional pricing model to a...  Continue Reading..

In the next few weeks, I'm going to be sharing a pretty unusual and amazing story about a small MSP that had its BDR (backup and disaster recovery) skills put to test in a big way last year when an EF5 tornado (the strongest category) ripped through its hometown. Before then, however, I wanted to give our blog readers a sneak peak and to share a key takeaway you may be able to apply to your businesses.  Continue Reading..

Last week I attended the ETA Annual Meeting & Expo in Las Vegas where I spoke with leaders at dozens of various payment processing companies. A topic that came up during one appointment, which was surprising to me, was how some point of sale (POS) VARs have decided to not sell payment processing because they feel it's a dirty business.  Continue Reading..

While attending Ingram Micro's SMBA Invitational event last week, I met with several small to midsize VARs and MSPs that shared some of their business challenges with me. One recurring theme that emerged time and time again was vendor management.  Continue Reading..

A few weeks ago, Global Payments revealed that information from as many as 1.5 million credit cards was stolen from its systems, marking yet another data security breach in the merchant processing world. In the time since the announcement, I've spoken with a handful of both resellers and software developers and found many to be wondering what the breach might mean for them, either directly (because they partner with/sell Global Payments)...  Continue Reading..

We ran a survey about a month ago to IT integrators like you to learn more about their adoption of IP video surveillance technologies. The results put a spotlight on three interesting trends. I followed up with about a dozen of these readers to better understand what's happening in this space.  Continue Reading..