Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

This is the third in a four-part series focusing on the findings from our 2023 annual Field Report for IT Management. We surveyed 4500 IT professionals from internal IT teams and MSPs across North America to gauge where their organizations are heading from a network management perspective. In part three, we’ll discuss how organizations are thinking about extending the reach of their visibility and control over their networks with Wi-Fi and SaaS management.

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a basic network protocol designed to collect and report data from network devices connected to IP networks — even if the devices are different hardware and run different software. Most modems, routers, switches, servers, workstations, and printers will support SNMP communication. SNMP messages are transported via UDP on port 161.

Concerns of automation taking away the available jobs for the workforce have prevailed for over 50 years. While automation can be a substitute for labor, David Autor declares, “Automation also complements labor, raises output in ways that lead to higher demand for labor, and interacts with adjustments in labor supply.” Automation can be invaluable for industries that provide professional services.

This is the second installment of a three part blog series. John Appleby sits down with Nick Miletich, CTO at Managecore, to discuss how building a next generation managed service firm had to include automation at the helm.

Data loss is catastrophic for any business. TrueList’s data loss statistics point out that “almost 70% of small businesses close within a year of a large data loss.” One of the most effective ways to prevent loss is to backup data. There are multiple data backup solutions available, and one of the newest options is known as chain-free backup.

You’d be hard pressed to find a managed services provider (MSP) who doesn’t work with remote access protocols on a regular basis. That said, not all remote access methods are equal, and choosing the right protocol is essential in providing the best service to your clients.

The trend toward hybrid work environments has forced businesses to think about how to protect their organizations from increased use of “bring your own device” (BYOD) endpoints and other new devices. This is no small challenge, as MSPs know. The rise of the remote worker presents once of the biggest changes to the overall cybersecurity landscape that we’ve ever encountered.

In my last blog I took a look at some of what I see as the most obvious signs that your MSP business might have outgrown its RMM. These included: In this blog, I’m going to turn my attention to looking at some of the less obvious signs to reconsider your RMM.

IoT devices are exponentially growing in number each year, with an anticipated 14.4 billion IoT devices by the end of 2023 up to 27 billion IoT devices by the year 2025. The accelerated growth can be attributed to a variety of positive effects like increased efficiency, productivity, and convenience. However, in order to gain these benefits, these IoT devices need to be managed effectively.

The last day of support for Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012/R2 is set for October 10, 2023. Microsoft announced, “After this date, these products will no longer receive security updates, non-security updates, bug fixes, technical support, or online technical content updates.” Recently, Windows 7/8/8.1 also reached their end of support. Without continual support from Microsoft, the software becomes less secure and more risky, so they end the life of the product.