Charles Weaver's blog

Despite what the economy may be doing or not doing, the private equity community is pulling out all the stops when it comes to trying to identify quality MSPs. I have personally witnessed a big increase in inbound calls and emails from investment bankers looking to invest in the right MSPs.

CRN wrote a fantastic article about the MSPAlliance Code of Ethics &Conduct and its impact on our members. I really encourage all of you to read this piece.

You can read it here

I've helped a lot of companies develop channel programs over the years, from some of the largest vendors out there to some very boutique players. What always impresses me most is the complexity and constant diligence it takes to effectively create and run a successful channel program.

i would like to congratulate the companies who were named in CRN's 40 Most Innovative MSPs. Many of the companies named are members of the MSPAlliance and it is nice to see them get recognition for many years of hard work in the pursuit of managed services excellence.

You can view the entire list at www.crn.com

While the deal makes perfect sense in hindsight, this deal was out of left field in a number of ways. Setting aside the valuation issue, which has very little impact on MSPs or our industry (unless you are a software/hardware vendor), what does an Intel/McAfee deal mean for the average MSP?

Almost a year ago I wrote a blog advocating a position against FCC intrusion on the so called "net neutrality" debate. Earlier this week, both Verizon and Google did as well, essentially taking the same position as I did.

When MSPs ask about the benefits of going through the Managed Services Accreditation Program (MSAP) audit, I usually have a list of things that would be positive for their company. Real knowledge of how their MSP practice compares to other firms, confidence that they are doing the fundamental things correctly, and the prestige of being in a group of elite MSPs that span the globe.

Since the beginning of the MSPAlliance over 10 years ago, I’ve seen a lot of enterprise focused MSPs. Since 5 years ago I’ve seen the growth of the SMB managed services market. But what about the mid-market? Why is so little attention paid to this segment? The answers may surprise you.

I ran into a MSP member on the street today (literally) and we got to talking about the industry. After asking how things were going he steered the conversation towards the cloud and how certain vendors were pushing cloud services to be resold be MSPs as a product offering.