Sean Ferrel, presenting on the evolution of managed service providers to managed cloud brokers at XChange Solution Provider 2016 in Los Angeles.

Service Provider CEO: VARs Will Become Tech ‘Brokers’

By Joseph Tsidulko as written on itbestofbreed.com

VARs are becoming cloud brokers, pushing resources and services to their customers like Wall Street traders do with stocks, Sean Ferrel, CEO of San Diego-based Managed Solution, told attendees of XChange Solution Provider 2016 last week in Los Angeles.

As the public cloud becomes more commoditized, and the process of provisioning servers more automated, frequent workload migrations to optimize cost and performance will become the norm, Ferrrel said. He believes the channel should seize the opportunity to act as an intermediary between customers and the multi-cloud environments they provision.

"I think we're all going to be stockbrokers in the future, brokering software and hardware," Ferrel told XChange attendees at a breakout session of the conference, hosted by CRN parent The Channel Company.

"But it's really just another form of the same thing," he said.

Instead of selling a box, the channel will increasingly sell services through marketplaces, Ferrel said. And as managed cloud brokers, partners will remain essential to the distribution of technologies—by no stretch getting pushed out of the market, like some feared with the advent of cloud.

"The VAR channel (is) actually just being reinvented with cloud," Ferrel said.

He identified three components of a cloud brokerage model: intermediation, aggregation and arbitrage.

The channel can execute those three functions by facilitating deals between their enterprise customers and the cloud providers that offer the most suitable environments for specific workloads.

Many solution providers are already acting as intermediaries, aggregating clouds from multiple vendors, and calculating costs to direct customers to operators that will deliver savings.
When it comes to the performance of virtual machines, there's a good deal of parity among providers, Ferrel said. That's why "people were really most interested in best cost overall for the product."

And while much is made about vendor lock-in, that concern is lessening.

"Funny thing about vendor lock-in," Ferrel told attendees. There are "so many automated tools that can take an application in the cloud and push a button and move it to another one. Eventually it's going to be so easy to move between clouds."

And there will be plenty of profit to be made doing that, he said.

The evolving role of the channel comes as the consumption gap widens — with product feature and complexity going up faster than the customer's ability to consume those features, Ferrel said.

To close that gap, companies want to get software fast, migrate between environments fast, and constantly optimize their costs, he said.

"In clouds, they want cheaper, better, faster," Ferrel told attendees.

That's the market demand pushing the channel to a "more centralized resale model," with users being empowered with platforms they can use to initiate buys, under rules of corporate governance.

"You've always been a broker as a VAR," Ferrel told his peers. "Now you're just doing it in a little different way with some automation tools."

Source: http://www.itbestofbreed.com/article/service-provider-ceo-vars-will-become-tech-brokers

The Managed Solution team would like to congratulate Alexander Soler on completing an in-person training and competency exam for Storagecraft last month. Alex is now a StorageCraft Certified Engineer, with an expertise in backup and disaster recovery.

Since the launch of the Home Run Derby program in May 2015, engineers have successfully passed over 5 dozen exams.

Jason joined the Managed Solution team as a Java Developer on January 18, 2016. Growing up around farm equipment and having a passion for old cars, Jason began his career as a mechanic at ten years old when he decided to purchase and restore a 68’mustang. Jason took this passion to the service and later worked his way up to designing engines and mods for Marionette Marine (FMSNA), the biggest ship builder in the world. Jason changed to Software Engineering in 2014 due to a physical disability, and now joins us as he finishes up his Bachelors in Software Development at the end of 2016.

Jason was born in Deer Creak, Oklahoma. After joining the marines in 2008, he moved around to San Diego, North Carolina, and Hawaii. While in the service, he traveled to Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Ireland before moving back to San Diego in 2012, where he met his wife. Jason is now happily married with three children, two cats named Ozzy Osbourne and Otis Redding and a Husky named Delilah. Jason and his family love taking trips to SeaWorld and the beach.

Jason considers himself a hot rod junkie because he loves anything with wheels and an engine. He has a 2010 Dodge Challenger r/t classic Mopar edition with the drag pack, a 2003 Chevy 2500 HD crew cab lifted truck with a 400 small block, and a 1/10 scale RC that has a brush less engine that he drives 70+mph on the track. Jason loves building fast cars no matter their size so when he’s not in the office or doing school work, he’s probably working on his cars or motorcycle. His dream is to open his own hot rod shop someday, so he also spends time trying to get his startup off the ground.

At Managed Solution, we strive to be the best technology based company by investing in our top assets; our people - CAREERS

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Announcing SQL Server on Linux

By Scott Guthrie - Executive Vice President, Cloud and Enterprise Group, Microsoft

It’s been an incredible year for the data business at Microsoft and an incredible year for data across the industry. At the March Data Driven event in New York, we kicked off a wave of launch activities for SQL Server 2016 with general availability. This is the most significant release of SQL Server that we have ever done, and brings with it some fantastic new capabilities.

SQL Server 2016 delivers:

• Groundbreaking security encryption capabilities that enable data to always be encrypted at rest, in motion and in-memory to deliver maximum security protection

• In-memory database support for every workload with performance increases up to 30-100x

• Incredible Data Warehousing performance with the #1, #2 and #3 TPC-H 10 Terabyte benchmarks for non-clustered performance, and as of March 7, the #1 SAP SD Two-Tier performance benchmark on Windows1

• Business Intelligence for every employee on every device – including new mobile BI support for iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices

• Advanced analytics using our new R support that enables customers to do real-time predictive analytics on both operational and analytic data

• Unique cloud capabilities that enable customers to deploy hybrid architectures that partition data workloads across on-premises and cloud based systems to save costs and increase agility

These improvements, and many more, are all built into SQL Server and bring you not just a new database but a complete platform for data management, business analytics and intelligent apps – one that can be used in a consistent way across both on-premises and the cloud. In fact, over the last year we’ve been using the SQL Server 2016 code-base to run in production more than 1.4 million SQL Databases in the cloud using our Azure SQL Database as a Service offering, and this real-world experience has made SQL Server 2016 an incredibly robust and battle-hardened data platform.

Gartner recently named Microsoft as leading the industry in their Magic Quadrant for Operational Database Management Systems in both execution and vision. We’re also a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Data Warehouse and Data Management Solutions for Analytics, and Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms, as well as leading in vision in the Magic Quadrant for Advanced Analytics Platforms.

Extending SQL Server to Also Now Run on Linux

Today I’m excited to announce our plans to bring SQL Server to Linux as well. This will enable SQL Server to deliver a consistent data platform across Windows Server and Linux, as well as on-premises and cloud. We are bringing the core relational database capabilities to preview today, and are targeting availability in mid-2017.

SQL Server on Linux will provide customers with even more flexibility in their data solution. One with mission-critical performance, industry-leading TCO, best-in-class security, and hybrid cloud innovations – like Stretch Database which lets customers access their data on-premises and in the cloud whenever they want at low cost – all built in.

“This is an enormously important decision for Microsoft, allowing it to offer its well-known and trusted database to an expanded set of customers”, said Al Gillen, group vice president, enterprise infrastructure, at IDC. “By taking this key product to Linux Microsoft is proving its commitment to being a cross platform solution provider. This gives customers choice and reduces the concerns for lock-in. We would expect this will also accelerate the overall adoption of SQL Server.”

“SQL Server’s proven enterprise experience and capabilities offer a valuable asset to enterprise Linux customers around the world,” said Paul Cormier, President, Products and Technologies, Red Hat. “We believe our customers will welcome this news and are happy to see Microsoft further increasing its investment in Linux. As we build upon our deep hybrid cloud partnership, spanning not only Linux, but also middleware, and PaaS, we’re excited to now extend that collaboration to SQL Server on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, bringing enterprise customers increased database choice.”

“We are delighted to be working with Microsoft as it brings SQL Server to Linux,” said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical. “Customers are already taking advantage of Azure Data Lake services on Ubuntu, and now developers will be able to build modern applications that utilize SQL Server’s enterprise capabilities.”

Bringing SQL Server to Linux is another way we are making our products and new innovations more accessible to a broader set of users and meeting them where they are. Just last week, we announced our agreement to acquire Xamarin. Recently, we also announced Microsoft R Server , our technologies based on our acquisition of Revolution Analytics, with support for Hadoop and Teradata.

The private preview of SQL Server on Linux is available starting today and we look forward to working with the community, our customers and our partners to bring it to market.

Please join me Satya Nadella, Joseph Sirosh and Judson Althoff at our Data Driven event on Thursday to hear more about this news and how Microsoft is helping customers transform their business using data.

Source: http://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/03/07/announcing-sql-server-on-linux/

Managed Solution’s Team has the experience and expertise to architect SQL database and reporting systems tailored for your environment. Contact us for more information 800-307-0296

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Why Microsoft for your business intelligence and analytics platforms?

Industry analysts have taken note of our efforts and we are excited to share Gartner has positioned Microsoft as a Leader, for the ninth consecutive year, in the Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms.* For the first time, Microsoft is placed furthest in vision within the Leaders quadrant.

In a market that is rapidly evolving with new innovation being introduced constantly, leaders in the BI market must demonstrate that they are focused not only on current execution but have a robust roadmap that will solidify its position as a future market leader, protecting the investment of today’s buyers. For this reason, we are proud to be ranked as a Leader in Gartner’s evaluation of the BI and analytics market.

Learn more about Gartner’s assessment of Microsoft Power BI and how the company’s offerings stack up against the rest.

*Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Wins CUSTOMER Magazine Product of the Year Award

By Tricia Morris as written on community.dynamics.com

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 is wasting no time in showing its strength in delivering intelligent customer engagement. We are pleased to announce that TMC, a global, integrated media company and publisher of CUSTOMER magazine, has named Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 a CUSTOMER Product of the Year Award winner.

As we continue to innovate with the customer in mind, we appreciate the recognition of the investments and steady progress we are making in this area. This is what our new leader of Dynamics CRM, Jujhar Singh, had to say about the award.

“Over the past few years, we have been focused on transforming our CRM offerings to leverage the full power of Microsoft – harnessing the strength of the intelligent cloud to help companies deliver amazing customer experiences across the breadth of sales, service, marketing and social engagements.

“We are honored by this Product of the Year award, which confirms both our momentum and the benefit to customers of a solution that delivers both increased productivity and the intelligence to drive more personalized, proactive and predictive service experiences.”

The 2016 CUSTOMER Product of the Year Award recognizes vendors that are advancing the call center, CRM and teleservices industries one solution at a time. The award highlights products which enable their clients to meet and exceed the expectations of their customers.

On behalf of TMC and CUSTOMER magazine, Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC had this to say about the award. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 has proven deserving of this elite status and I look forward to the continued innovation from Microsoft in customer service in 2016 and beyond."

For information on deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM in your organization, please call us at 800-257-0691 or fill out the contact form below and an expert will contact you shortly.

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San Diego, CA, February 26, 2016 - Managed Solution, a highly honored and tenured managed services company and pioneer in managed, utility-based cloud computing, announced today that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has named to its 2016 Managed Service Provider (MSP) 500 list in the MSP Pioneer 250 category. This annual list recognizes North American solution providers with cutting-edge approaches to delivering managed services. Their top-notch offerings help companies navigate the complex and ever-changing landscape of IT, improve operational efficiencies, and maximize their return on IT investments.

In today’s fast-paced business environments, MSPs play an important role in helping companies leverage new technologies without straining their budgets or losing focus on their core business. CRN’s MSP 500 list shines a light on the most forward-thinking and innovative of these key organizations.

The list is divided into three categories: the MSP Pioneer 250, recognizing companies with business models weighted toward managed services and largely focused on the SMB market; the MSP Elite 150, recognizing large, data center-focused MSPs with a strong mix of on-premise and off-premise services; and the MSP Hosting Service Provider 100, recognizing MSPs focused primarily on off-premise, cloud-based services.

Managed Solution was selected for MSP Pioneer 250 list because their solutions are customized specifically for each customer and focus on driving internal productivity, collaboration and culture – which provides valuable business outcomes.

“MSPs meet a critical need in the IT market, providing customized, turnkey services that allow for predictable operational expenses, effective control of expenditures, precise allocation of limited resources and convenient access to on-demand and pay-as-you-go technology,” said Robert Faletra, CEO, The Channel Company. “We congratulate the service providers of the MSP 500, who continually reinvent themselves to successfully meet their customers’ changing needs, helping businesses get the most out of their IT investments and sharpen their competitive edge.”

“We are currently building a channel partnership with many MSP’s and other vendors nationally to provide more of a group purchasing organization type look and feel for our customers,” said Sean Ferrel, chief executive officer, Managed Solution. As a part of the dynamic business community, we are a technology company that empowers business, investing in them like none other. We will continue to be committed to the success of our clients and we are excited to work with companies using today’s cutting edge technology to shape the business of tomorrow.

The MSP 500 list will be featured in the February 2016 issue of CRN and online at www.CRN.com/msp500.

About Managed Solution

Managed Solution is the premier provider of outsourced IT support and managed services for small to large size businesses. Founded in 2002, the company quickly grew into a market leader and is recognized as one of the fastest growing IT Companies in Southern California. Managed Solution continues to deliver award-winning services paired with leading business technologies to assist clients in running their business efficiently.

About the Channel Company

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelco.com

Since the launch of the Home Run Derby program in May 2015, engineers have successfully passed over 5 dozen exams, helping Managed Solution start off 2016 with the below Microsoft competencies:

• Gold Cloud Platform

• Gold Cloud Productivity

• Gold Devices and Deployment

• Gold Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions

• Silver Hosting

• Silver Identity and Access

• Silver Cloud Customer Relationship Management

Certifications help engineers grow professionally as well as help Managed Solution grow as a company. Congratulations to everyone who helped obtain these new organizational level Microsoft competencies and best of luck to the fourteen engineers on deck to bat, with tests scheduled in the near future.