Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

I don’t usually do blog posts on news stories, but this one has the potential to impact a lot of people, so I thought it was worth taking a closer look. The top-level story is that Microsoft announced it will not be releasing Hyper-V Server Free as part of Windows 2022. However, if you’re already using Hyper-V Server Free 2019, you can continue to do so until 2029. Hyper-V Server Free is basically a Windows Server Core on which Microsoft has pre-installed the Hyper-V role.

For managed services providers (MSPs), providing the highest quality returns on your customers’ investments is always a top priority. There are many reasons for a business to hire an MSP, but increasing IT productivity and strengthening their bottom line tends to be at the core. While many practices are essential to achieving that goal, few are more important than IT documentation, which can increase productivity, boost quality of service, and heighten consistency.

For a managed services provider (MSP) business, building a great relationship with customers is the ultimate way to secure continued business and build your brand. Every strong customer relationship centers on one key concept: trust. Without trustworthy correspondence between you and your customers, you can’t do much to prevent your end users from switching to another MSP team.

The MSP sector currently finds itself in a difficult situation: While the industry is growing, many are finding it increasingly hard to hire skilled techs quickly enough to fill their increasing knowledge gaps. We frequently hear from our partners that there just aren’t enough skilled techs in the market, and things are moving too quickly. This is particularly true in security, but it’s certainly not limited to that area.

Following my previous blog post (which you can read here), I’m continuing to look at marketing and lead-generation activities for small MSPs. Here are my remaining tips on how to effectively market when you are an MSP of one.

I’m probably dating myself, but I used to love the television show The A-Team when I was little. Every week, the team would be put into the middle of a problem and work together to overcome some challenge. Plus, they had Mr. T and a really cool van.

With the end of another year, and a bright, shiny new year just ahead, many businesses take stock to reflect on their accomplishments and what they still need to do. In this vein, I have been getting quite a few questions lately about marketing and lead generation—specifically, how to conduct marketing when the MSP is small, without a lot of time or money to devote to such an initiative.

Imagine the scenario: you get an urgent call from one of your customers. All her files seem to be corrupted. And then there’s that email demanding payment via Bitcoin for restoration. She needs your immediate help to get her business up and running. Later on, she’ll demand to know how you let her business be vulnerable to this attack. You had installed firewalls, required strong passwords, and conducted email phishing drills—and still your customer was attacked.