Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

I’ve just finished getting through security at O’Hare—what an adventure! There were crowds at the check-in, a long security line (luckily I had TSA pre-check), and what seemed like 500 gates I had to pass to get to my gate at the far end of the terminal. We all understand why there are security checkpoints at the airport. They ensure that only those people who belong at the gate are at the gate, and also that there are no malicious actors on airplanes. But why are there so many gates?

Recurring revenue is the Holy Grail for managed service providers. Unfortunately, it’s an area of the business that most MSPs struggle with. They can’t sell enough new clients, don’t attract the right types of clients, or can’t command the right price. I’ve devoted the last 20 years of my life to understanding, mastering, and teaching others the keys to growing recurring revenue and increasing profitability. Here’s where I see most MSPs falling off the rails.

It would be ideal if every network device you managed across all your client sites was from the same manufacturer, but for most MSPs that’s not the case—over 75% of MSPs manage four or more network vendors for their clients, and some manage upwards of 20. Even though taking care of diverse networks is standard procedure for most service providers, managing gear from multiple vendors is still, well, complex. It means handling different operating systems, different languages, and more.

To fully understand what NetFlow is and why it’s used for network monitoring, we first need to know what a flow is. When computers need to talk to one another they establish communication channels, commonly referred to as connections. (Technically speaking, these communication channels can only be called connections when the TCP protocol is involved.) A flow refers to any connection or connection-like communication channel.

Nearly 70% of businesses have digital transformation as their top IT priority in 2019, according to the 2019 TechTarget IT Priorities survey. But what does that mean? Digital transformation is a loose term, used by different people in different ways, to encompass the initiatives businesses undertake to modernize their IT operations.

Let’s say one of your techs is configuring a client’s firewall and makes a mistake that results in the firewall (and the rest of the network) no longer being accessible. What are your options for fixing the issue?

Onboarding new clients can be a very time-consuming process for MSPs. To get the lay of the land, you typically need to make the trip to the client site, crawl through switch closets, perform a site survey, and complete many more manual tasks. But even after that investment of time and resources, sometimes you don’t get the full picture.

Imagine if your MSP business had an elite group of advisors—made up of some of the brightest minds in the business—standing by to give you advice. Decades of insight and expertise on tap, there to safely guide you around pitfalls and share success strategies that have worked for them. Imagine the kind of boost that might give you.

It’s a sad but common truth that not all network devices are built with security in mind. Some ship with default credentials like admin / admin, with SNMP set to public, or with operating systems that haven’t been updated in years. As with any other device, it’s important to practice good hygiene when managing network devices. Good hygiene means things like keeping firmware up to date, changing credentials away from the defaults, and refreshing end-of-life hardware and software.

When you’re a small managed service provider (MSP), the owner is the main salesperson, primary technician, head bookkeeper, and office manager. As your company grows, you begin to delegate tasks. Often, the first task to be delegated is bookkeeping because you loathe it. Once you find a bookkeeper to handle your day-to-day accounting tasks, it becomes very tempting to hand it all over.