In a perfect world, all of your MSP customers would have bottomless pockets. You'd merrily go about ensuring they're using the latest and greatest tech, and they'd never query an invoice. Unfortunately, that's not the norm and it's likely you're managing backups for at least one customer with hardware that's past its best before date. In some cases it can be more cost-effective to continue using older operating systems - but this doesn’t mean it's without any cost at all.

German email archiving vendor MailStore has just announced version 13.2 of their popular archiving solution for M365, Exchange and other mail platforms. The two highlights of this release are a major increase in performance and a significant step in scalability.

Version 13.2 of MailStore Server and MailStore Service Provider Edition (SPE) see an increase in the advised upper limit for user numbers on a given installation, enabling you as the IT service provider to widen the audience you can talk to about archiving to include larger customers now as well as SMB's.

In a move that is sure to disappoint some, Microsoft announced at its Ignite 2020 event that Exchange 2022 will only be available for purchase through a subscription. Exchange alternative without a subscription model While Microsoft has been following the market trend of most software manufacturers and switching to a subscriptions model, until now Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint and Project Server had all avoided the fate of Office 365.

It really does feel like a very long time indeed since we've been able to entertain the idea of getting together at an IT event (or even wanted to!). We're in the privileged position where this now looks like it will be possible, and I can't think of any better event to mark our own return to meeting with real-life 3D people again, than the annual CompTIA conference held this year in Liverpool St, London.

Zen Software's Managing Director, James Steel recently joined CompTIA's Tracy Pound to share his insights and tips on how MSPs can improve their success with marketing.

Tracy is founder and Managing Director of Maximity, a UK-based technology solution provider and chairwoman of the CompTIA board of directors.

As the Covid-19 pandemic hit, there was a big shift in marketing across lots of industries, but especially within the technology and MSP market.

James and Tracy discuss how the need for remote working and the reliance on managed services and solution providers tipped overnight and the opportunities that came about for MSPs and the buyer's journey.

Despite the many advances in digital communication, email still reigns supreme as the bedrock of most business interactions. Although numerous communication platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack have grown in importance, email remains the most popular and efficient way to communicate for your SMB customers.

There's good reason for this of course - email chains and archives allow us to easily organise and keep track of the back-and-forth flow of conversation. Headers and subjects allow for quickly searchable keywords, and important document attachments can be easily retrieved through a cursory examination of the inbox.

As a managed service provider (MSP) or managed security service provider (MSSP), keeping the companies you're working with safe from cyber threats is your absolute bread and butter. It's at the core of what you do. It’s your responsibility to keep up to speed with the latest threats, to wade through the sea of stats, opinions, materials and demos for new tech that the vendors (and distributors like us!) send your way, and to make the important decisions on behalf of your clients. You've no doubt been doing this for years, but recently there's been a concerning plot twist.