Shows / Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services Analysis
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services Analysis
Vendors are rewriting the rules on MSPs faster than anyone can track — pricing, partner programs, liability, and now AI. Business of Tech is the daily MSP news briefing that tells you what changed and what it means for your business. Every weekday, channel veteran Dave Sobel picks the MSP and IT services news that actually moves your margins, contracts, and risk, and answers the one question that matters: Why do we care? No vendor cheerleading and no press-release rewrites — independent…
Episodes
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisThu Dec 3 2020: SMB COVID data, Computer Crime & The Supreme Court; A Hack with no physical contact
Three things to know today SMB data from the UK https://www.computerweekly.com/microscope/news/252492950/SME-customers-showing-signs-of-coronavirus-impact…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisWed Dec 2 2020: Salesforce + Slack, Google's MDM, and Microsoft backs off
Three things to know today Salesforce and Slack – why you care. https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-slack-acquisition-merger-deal-2020-11…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisTue Dec 1 2020: Microsoft's creepy patent, macOS now on demand from AWS, and why gaming demographics matter
Three things to know today Microsoft’s creepy patent https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/nov/26/microsoft-productivity-score-feature-criticised-workplac…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisMon Nov 30 2020: EU moves on right to repair, CEO password value, and Mailprotector's patent
Three things to know today The EU leads on right to repair and pushes forward https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/25/21719701/european-parliament-right-to-repair-r…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisPax 8's John Street: COVID-19, Marketplaces, and the future
I was bothered by some comments in CRN magazine by CEO John Street of PAX8, and said so on LinkedIn. He wanted to clarify those statements, and the…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisWed Nov 25 2020: Threat report, the next GDPR, and opportunity in Zoom fatigue
Three things to know today Threat report 2021 from Sophos https://www.sophos.com/en-us/medialibrary/pdfs/technical-papers/sophos-2021-threat-report.pdf The…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisTue Nov 24 2020: A new IoT law, the CISA, and investment rounds noticed
Three things to know today A new law heads to the president’s desk about IoT https://fcw.com/articles/2020/11/18/iot-cyber-bill-passes-senate.aspx What is the…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisMon Nov 23 2020: IT workers plans around remote work, Microsoft Teams goes big, and the hotel industry in trouble
Three things to know today What are IT workers saying about their plans? https://www.crn.com/slide-shows/cloud/tech-workers-are-moving-willing-to-take-pay-cut-t…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisFri Nov 20 2020: We care about chips again, the National Cyber Force, and protecting high value users
Three things to know today We care about chips again https://om.co/2020/11/17/why-m1-chip-by-apple-matters/…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisThur Nov 19 2020: Market & job data for cities and states, EU Privacy project DOA?, and Data privacy lessons from the IRS
Three things to know today State and city job data https://www.geekwire.com/2020/chart-new-report-ranks-top-states-tech/…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisWed Nov 18 2020: Opportunity in the training gap, Ransomware professional gangs, year end bonus insights, and zoombombs
Four things to know today Cloud opportunity in the gap https://www.ciodive.com/news/hybrid-cloud-transformation-Nutanix/589141/…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisTues Nov 17 2020: IT Industry Outlook 2020, Smart Cities, and Smart Monitors
Three things to know today CompTIA’s IT Industry Outlook 2021 https://mytechdecisions.com/it-infrastructure/comptia-releases-report-on-2021-it-trends-outlook/…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisMon Nov 16 2020: Chromebooks Up, Ransomware vs industry, and do you own your computer?
Three things to know today Quarterly PC Sales data exposes the next thing https://channellife.co.nz/story/canalys-chromebooks-on-top-of-2020-pc-market Which…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services Analysis2020 US Election: Laws and changes tech services companies care about
2020's US Election was charged and engaged. But politics is about governance, and there are significant state and local laws that technology services providers…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisFri Nov 13 2020: Training effectiveness, Threat Landscape, Gartner on EMEA, and Amazon's CareHub
Four things to know today How Effective are the technologies being implemented? https://www.ciodive.com/news/workers-struggle-work-software-survey/588854/ Q3…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisThu Nov 11 2020: Disrupted industries, virtual RSA, and the cybersecurity job market
Three things to know today Analysis on which industries are performing https://www.ciodive.com/news/digital-disruption-at-risk-industries/588757/ RSA is going…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisWed Nov 11 2020: Canalys says up when data says down, macOS and Root Cert warnings, and SMB Cloud fundamentals
Four things to know today Canalys says things are up when they are down https://www.computerweekly.com/microscope/feature/Reasons-to-be-positive-about-2021…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisTue Nov 10 2020: Zoom settles, Microsoft targets, and IT Jobs data
Three things to know today Zoom settles with the FTC https://www.crn.com/news/networking/ftc-calls-for-zoom-security-enhancements-in-new-settlement?itc=refresh…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisMon Nov 9 2020: IT Operations 2020, the DOJ takes $1B, and new rules on text, email and IM
Three things to know today IT Operations 2020 report from Kaseya https://www.channelfutures.com/from-the-industry/smbs-technology-reliance-presents-huge-opportu…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisMicrosoft & Google's Play: Solution Provider Insights on the new platforms
I was asked by a Patreon about my thinking on Google's recent re-branding of G Suite to "Google Workspace". The Patreon was focused on the positioning – was…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisFri Nov 6 2020: Ingram's financial insights, data trust, and Apple search
Three things to know today Ingram Micro ONE with financial insights https://www.channelpronetwork.com/news/ingram-micro-traces-ups-and-downs-crazy-year-virtual-…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisThu Nov 5 2020: No to Robots, Yes to Automation, and online events are working
Four things to know today Customers to be more demanding on less money https://www.channelpartnerinsight.com/news/4022843/customers-demanding-2021-claims-forres…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisWed Nov 4 2020: What do CEO's want? Customer experience; and two election results to focus on
Three things to know today What do CEOs want? https://www.ciodive.com/news/CEO-cio-csuite-technology/588258/ Customer Experience from the other side of the…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisTue Nov 3 2020: Things we know even before election results, and cloud infrastructure trends
Two things to know today Things we know even before election results https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/inside-facebook-24-hours-before-election-day?s…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisMon Nov 2 2020: Big Ransomware's finanials, plus right to repair and IoT
Four things to know today IoT data from Gartner https://iotbusinessnews.com/2020/10/30/10201-gartner-survey-reveals-47-of-organizations-will-increase-investment…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisWhat a K Shaped Recovery Means for Tech Services Companies
Let’s talk about the recovery. Here’s the question I was asked. “What does a K shaped recovery looks like? Our industry, and a few others, while not…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisFri Oct 30 2020: Politics, Distribution users outperform, and the No-Code Generation
Three things to know today Politics or not in tech businesses https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/technology/politics-tech-start-ups-culture-war.html Those who…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisThu Oct 29 2020: Data Privacy predictions, hospitals under siege, and Teams + Platform
Three things to know today Forrester’s 2021 global data privacy predictions https://www.channelpartnerinsight.com/news/4022421/predictions-privacy-2021-–-forres…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisWed Oct 28 2020: The Workforce, Amazon for Business, and Extortion ware in the wild
Three things to know today Data on changes in the work force https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-atwork-652d54d5-c191-4a82-8ac3-50432bc1232a.html?chunk=1&ut…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisTue Oct 27 2020: Right to Repair, "Learning Engineers", and Forrester 2021 cybersecurity
Three things to know today Right to repair https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/23/climate/right-to-repair.html Some views on education, including learning…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisMon Oct 26 2020: The National Guard against cybercrime, + MSP Market Data and HPE Layoffs
Four things to know today Louisiana calls in the national guard https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-cyber-louisiana-exclusiv-idUSKBN27823F…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisDon't Start an MSP
This came from a discussion with a consulting organization about "advice for immature MSPs". And I just could not resist. When all the messaging is "the…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisFri Oct 23 2020: Edge computing market insight, plus Teams and Salesforce
Three things to know today What does edge computing … look like? https://smartermsp.com/survey-unveils-edge-computing-opportunity-for-msps/ Law enforcement has…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisThu Oct 22 2020: Work from home stress on employees, and the opportunity
Three things to know today Work from home stress – new data https://www.geekwire.com/2020/hours-burned-survey-finds-remote-tech-workforce-feeling-strain-working…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisWed Oct 21 2020: Gartner's Tech Trends for 2021, plus SMB security may be worse than we thought
Three things to know today Gartner’s strategic tech trends for 2021 https://www.ciodive.com/news/gartner-tech-trends-2020/587311/…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisTue Oct 20 2020: Edge & IoT, the human impact of security, and the EU Cloud
Three things to know today Edge and IOT projects that work https://www.channelfutures.com/digital-transformation/aruba-edge-maturity-key-for-optimizing-data-pro…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisMon Oct 19 2020: Markets, subscription commerce, and education tech issues
Three things to know today Let’s measure the markets https://rcpmag.com/articles/2020/10/16/remote-work-it-spending-in-2021.aspx…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisChannel is an overloaded term: Why the confusion matters
I recently spotted what I considered an odd hashtag on LinkedIn -- #savethechannel The channel is an interestingly overloaded phrase. It’s used to refer to the…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisFri Oct 16: 5 trends for 2021, plus research on distribution
Three things to know today Forrester weighs in on trends in Europe https://www.channelpartnerinsight.com/news/4021775/predictions-european-business-2021-forrest…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisThu Oct 15 2020: Video chat platforms are a thing - what industries and what to build on
Three things to know today US CyberCommand moves on a botnet https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/cyber-command-trickbot-disrupt/2020/10/09/19587aae…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisWed Oct 14 2020: National 5G? Or, How prepared are MSPs for crisis?
Three things to know today Is National 5G a thing? https://www.axios.com/the-national-5g-plan-that-wont-die-1551645945-c3d6ab60-88db-4350-aaa3-ed0788d2be7b.html…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisTue Oct 13 2020: IDC's Digital Parity & bold SMB predictions
Three things to know today IDC: Digital Parity and SMB predictions https://channellife.co.nz/story/idc-unveils-key-tech-investment-trends-for-future-enterprise…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisMon Oct 12 2020: The "lie" and "fallacy" of as-a-service
Four things to know today Scrooge McDuck riches https://redmonk.com/sogrady/2020/10/06/developer-experience-gap/ More, and less, bandwidth…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisPaying Ransomware may break the law: A discussion of the implications
The US Treasury says that paying on ransomware may be illegal. Why? What does it mean? What are the next steps? A discussion with Joseph Brunsman, a…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisFri Oct 9 2020: Industry winners and losers
Four things to know today Which industries are winners, and which losers? https://www.computerweekly.com/microscope/news/252490207/Canalys-Pandemic-has-created-…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisThu Oct 8 2020: COVID-19 and the cloud; Compensation gaps to address
Four things to know today Oracle vs Google in the Supreme Court https://thehill.com/regulation/520045-supreme-court-hears-landmark-9b-copyright-fight-between-or…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisWed Oct 7 2020: AT&T discontinues DSL, with big implications
Three things to know today Congress says Big Tech is a monopoly https://www.thurrott.com/cloud/242359/u-s-big-tech-are-abusive-monopolies-that-should-be-regulat…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisTue Oct 6 2020: A greenfield opportunity, rebrandings to know, and the best examples for customers
Three things to know today The greenfield in business outcomes https://techaisle.com/blog/427-channel-partners-developing-best-practices-for-digital-transformat…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisMon Oct 5 2020: New law on cybersecurity for small businesses introduced
Three things to know today New law on cybersecurity for small businesses introduced…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisDatto: It's wrong to hijack $MSP's value
This week, Datto filed for their IPO. They intend to go public, raise a bunch of money, and have made a bunch of statements about the market, about their…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisFri Oct 2 2020: You could be breaking the law if you pay ransomware
Three things to know today A warning from the US Treasury https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/recent-actions/20201001…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisThu Oct 1 2020: Risks in Coronavirus theatre look like cybersecurity ones
Four things to know today Risk in Coronavirus theatre https://channeldailynews.com/news/idc-canada-survey-digital-thermometer-checkpoints-more-popular-than-cont…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisWed Sep 30 2020: 9 trends businesses are embracing
Three things to know today 9 trends businesses are embracing https://channellife.co.nz/story/frost-sullivan-nine-growth-opportunities-out-of-covid-19 Microsoft…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisTue Sep 29 2020: Vegas doesn't pay out this time – what does it mean?
Two things to know today Cloud is outperforming – by how much? https://www.capacitymedia.com/articles/3826405/cloud-players-record-20-revenue-rise-in-first-half…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisMon Sep 28 2020: The channel's marketing & Sales pandemic shift
Three things to know today Trends in channel company marketing and sales https://techaisle.com/blog/425-post-pandemic-lead-generation-is-proving-problematic-for…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisMicrosoft's RMM should mean a shift in your strategy: Why do you care?
This week, Microsoft announced their new RMM tool, Lighthouse. This comes on the heels of another announcement this week, with T-Mobile including Microsoft 365…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisFri Sep 25 2020: How not to deliver cybersecurity training
Three things to know today A study on the kinds of jobs that can go remote https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200921-what-remote-jobs-tell-us-about-inequali…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisThu Sep 24 2020: Forrester's new projections for this year and next
Two things to know today: Forrester with new projections for IT spend for this year and next…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisWed Sep 23 2020: Microsoft's big MSP announcement, plus RMM's for sale by hackers
Four things to know today Microsoft makes a MSP related announcement https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/small-and-medium-business-blog/announcing-microsoft-…
Business of Tech: Daily MSP News & IT Services AnalysisTue Sep 22 2020: MS Ignite, T-Mobile moves on MSPs, and a lesson from a small welsh town
Three things to know today Microsoft Ignite is here https://www.thurrott.com/cloud/microsoft-365/241415/microsoft-ignite-2020-is-here…