April, 2012
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Microsoft invests $300 million in Nook spinoff
We’re going to try to make sense out of this one for you: Microsoft made a huge play by investing $300 million in a B&N Nook spinoff for about 17% share of the company. Nook is an Android-powered ebook reader that is more expensive than the market leading Amazon Fire, has less than 30% share [...]
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Mythbusting CISPA
At Looks Cloudy we don’t discuss politics. Unless the political topics explicitly make an effort to raise significant concerns for service providers and cloud users in general. So today, without prejudice, we’re offering you some interesting reading about CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. Much like it’s predecessor (SOPA) which was defeated after [...]
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The Microsoft SMB Parallax
When you look at Microsoft dead on they look like the most successful technology company in the world across all regions and all consumer spectrums. Nearly everyone is touched by their solutions, software, entertainment, games and more. They are far from perfect and boy do they stumble – Vista, Windows ME, Windows Phone after 5.0. [...]
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Are MSPs asking wrong questions about the online storage systems?
Google announced Google Drive this week. It is a revolutionary new service that gives you 5GB of free storage in the cloud for your Google documents or any files you wish to upload. We say revolutionary with a hefty bit of sarcasm – the same service is available from tons of vendors both commercial, social [...]
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Adobe’s Creative Cloud
Adobe will be releasing CS6 tomorrow and with it they will be shifting gears in their platform delivery with this release. While CS6 will still be available in their usual package and pricing, the Creative Cloud will allow Adobe to deliver their software through the cloud, as the name would imply. One of the most [...]
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Apple Bridging Customers to the Cloud
To take advantage of and use all of the features of iCloud, a Mac user must have OS X Lion installed. So, if you are currently running Leopard, you will need to install Snow Leopard and then purchase Lion from the Mac App Store. In an article sent to MobileMe customers, Apple has recommended that [...]
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When the “Modern Office” fires back
Over the past two years much has been made about Arnie Bellini’s plea to the IT Nation conference to think beyond the PCs and servers. In essence, ConnectWise has made the case that in order for service providers to thrive they have to expand their management services to everything else that is connected in the [...]
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Microsoft finally gets Windows 8 SKU’s right
It’s been well over a decade since Microsoft started using confusion to get everyone to buy multiple versions of it’s popular Windows operating system. In our opinion, with Windows 8 there are three (actually, four) editions that clearly separate the OS purpose: consumer, professional/business and tablet. Windows 8 is the entry version for consumers which [...]
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CompTIA AMM, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Last week I had the pleasure of participating in the CompTIA Annual Member Meeting. Although we’ve been a member of CompTIA and sponsored their events for years, we’ve never participated materially in the organization, so with a little time on my hands I decided to see how I could help. So the following is my [...]
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Roadmap Leaks for Microsoft Office 15, IE 10, etc.
Microsoft has provided some of its partners with a roadmap for next versions of many of its key products, including Office 15, IE 10 and Windows Phone, and parts of that document have leaked to the Web. Below are a few screenshots that were leaked from the roadmap: There are many takeaways that you can [...]
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Operational Efficiencies & Rapid Growth?
I’m at the CompTIA Annual Member Meeting this week and I’ve heard that one of the more lively debates is in the MSP Partners group. So far so good – the audience is split nearly down the middle between vendors and service providers. So where is the common ground? The opening presentation was about a [...]
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Carriers Unite to Battle Cellphone Theft
As modern computing shifts from the desktop to a mobile device in small business we have been paying a great deal of attention to it. Mobility is one of the biggest benefits of the cloud and VARs are forced to both accept less control and assume more management of the overall technology in the workplace. [...]
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New face of relationships
One of the topics that is particularly difficult to grasp for IT business owners concerns the complex relationships where large companies seemingly talk out of both sides of their mouth. It’s harder and harder to tell who is a friend and who is the enemy but one thing is sure – lot’s of money is [...]
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Want more @LooksCloudy?
As we anxiously await the new design for our LooksCloudy.com web site, we wanted to point you in the direction of another project that you may find useful. Our Twitter feed at @LooksCloudy Please follow us here: http://www.twitter.com/lookscloudy Our goal at LooksCloudy is to look at how industry developments impact the business and decision making [...]
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Future is Bundled
The resounding theme at many panels over the last few years has been that in order for VARs and MSPs to survive, they must leave no stone unturned. No service unaudited. No potential sales opportunity left on the table. The more you manage the more you sell and the less of a risk you run [...]
