Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

There’s been a lot of talk about a slowdown in global channel M&A activity in 2023—indeed, our recent MSP Horizons Report, which we did in conjunction with Canalys, highlighted a 60% decline in M&A compared to previous years. Another trend the report observed is a disparity between buyers and sellers in the market. While 44% of MSPs are looking to acquire, only 13% are actively (and openly) seeking to sell.

One of the main goals for every MSP is to make getting new clients onboard as easy as possible. A major way to achieve this is to rank high on Google for the area your MSP operates. Purple Cloud IT is an MSP that serves clients in the UK, but we’ve also helped many MSPs over the years with their SEO and Google ranking because we’ve found that we’re pretty good at SEO.

For some the term API can signal an immediate tune out. I have to admit, despite being in the IT game for 25 years now, I was one of those people. However, that changed to a degree when I took up the Head Nerd role here at N‑able, driven in no small part by the fact that I had to deliver a Head Nerd Boot Camp on Leveraging APIs in N‑central. Unfortunately, these APIs were SOAP based, hadn’t had much development in recent years, and weren’t exactly easy to work with.

MSPs have a critical role to play in safeguarding SMBs and SMEs against cyber threats, and there are always tools coming onto the market to help you do this. In a recent interview for our Beyond the Horizons Podcast, Dave MacKinnon explored some of the key considerations MSPs should keep in mind when selecting a Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solution for their customers.

A few weeks ago, I received a message over Teams from Laura White, one of our Partner Success Managers who works with many of our Super Elite partners. Laura was preparing for an important meeting with a partner to discuss migrating from an On-Premise N‑central server to a Cloud Hosted N‑central with N‑able, and she wanted my input. The move from on-premise infrastructure to the cloud has been a hot topic.

Staying ahead of emerging threats is paramount for MSPs tasked with safeguarding their customers’ digital assets. However, amidst the broad range of technologies and buzzwords, distinguishing genuine solutions from marketing spin can sometimes be challenging. This blog draws on a recent podcast interview with N‑able Chief Security Officer, Dave MacKinnon, to give insights into Managed Detection and Response (MDR) and its implications for MSPs.

Maintaining strong relationships with your customers is essential. As an MSP, your customers rely on you for their IT solutions, cybersecurity, and overall technological support. But beyond providing these services, creating a sense of appreciation and gratitude can enhance customer satisfaction, add value to the relationship, and boost loyalty. While grand gestures may seem appealing, sometimes it’s the small, thoughtful actions that can make the biggest impact.

This month, I want to address a question I was sent from one of our MSP partners. As a smaller MSP looking to grow, they were wondering what they should focus on first: Marketing and lead gen to fill their sales pipeline? Or strategies to improve their organizational and operational efficiencies? They recognized that both areas are currently a source of weakness for their business.

Earlier this month, Google Cloud disclosed that it accidentally deleted the account of its customer UniSuper, a $125 billion Australian pension fund. According to a joint statement from Google Cloud and UniSuper, the deletion occurred due to an “inadvertent misconfiguration.” As a result, more than 600,000 pension fund users were unable to access their accounts for over a week. UniSuper had geographical redundancy built into its Google Cloud environment, according to the statement.