Last week's IT Nation show was the perfect event to mark my return to covering the channel. One thing that stood out to me right away about this show is that the attendees were there to learn and grow their businesses. This was not a lifestyle-VAR-friendly event. By Jay McCall, networking and managed services editor

In the final part of the series, participants discuss how cloud-based backup solutions stand up to industry regulations. MSPs Chris Johnson, CEO of Untangled Solutions, and MJ Shoer, president and virtual CTO at Jenaly Technology Group, share their insights along with Ted Roller, VP of channel development at Intronis.

In Part 5 of this series, participants share insights on the best vertical markets and size of customers for a cloud backup solution. MSPs Chris Johnson, CEO of Untangled Solutions, and MJ Shoer, president and virtual CTO at Jenaly Technology Group, share their insights along with Ted Roller, VP of channel development at Intronis.

In Part 4 of this series, cloud backup's impact on your SLAs (service level agreements) is discussed. MSPs Chris Johnson, CEO of Untangled Solutions, and MJ Shoer, president and virtual CTO at Jenaly Technology Group, share their insights along with Ted Roller, VP of channel development at Intronis.

Whenever I have the chance to do product release briefings, I make sure to ask why and how a product enhancement or new feature came to be. More often than not, the answer is simple enough: our partners were asking for it. Such is the case with Level Platforms' release of its network audit product, which helps MSPs evaluate and aggregate important network data for use in the selling cycle. By Gennifer Biggs, security, storage, and managed services editor

During CompTIA Breakaway 2011, I often get the chance to bookmark new technologies and their adoption curve. Two years ago I first sat down with Xerox to talk about managed print, and at this year's event, I had the chance to do so again, meeting with VP of Field and Sales Operations, Michael McCann. He was joined by VAR Michael Trevisan, owner of Atlantic Office and Laser Products. By Gennifer Biggs, security, storage, and managed services editor

By Gennifer Biggs, security, storage, and managed services editor
One big announcement on the first full day at the Autotask Community Live 2011 event was the launch of the MSP Trustmark accreditation from CompTIA. Spreading the word was Bob Godgart, who is chairing CompTIA this year, along with Jacob Braun, CEO of Waka Digital Media and a member of the CompTIA MSP community's executive council, and Ted Roller, channel chief for Intronis and chair of the MSP community under CompTIA's umbrella.

Recently I downloaded new software for my mobile phone and immediately saw my battery consumption go from numerous hours to three hours per charge. Since I was traveling out of the country I quickly went to the local store to speak with a "Genius." By Bob Goldberg RSPA General Counsel