Managed Service Provider Week in Review

A major cloud and managed services acquisition plus an array of partnerships and expansion announcements dotted the MSP landscape this week. As companies build up their networks and partnerships they are discovering the benefits of blending solutions and services for efficiency and cost savings.

Box (News - Alert), the rapidly growing provider of cloud-based file management services, has purchased Streem in a bid to beef up competition against Dropbox and Google (News - Alert) Drive. Streem specializes in enabling users to stream files directly to their desktops. Once integrated with Box, the solution may help round out Box’s approach to delivering services to desktops as well as aid in attracting larger corporate customers.

Cloud|AG is making use of its recent partnership with AvePoint to provide managed services for Microsoft cloud customers. The companies are working together to offer backup, recovery and administration services to support Office 365 and the Azure cloud environment. Cloud|AG is utilizing AvePoint’s Online Services SaaS (News - Alert) management platform for Office 365 to provide the cloud support services.

Peak 10, a provider of cloud and infrastructure services, is constructing a new 60,000-square-foot data center in Tampa from the ground up. The new facility expands the service provider’s footprint and will provide cloud and data center services including IaaS and DRaaS. The data center will be comprised of three buildings, with the first scheduled to open early next year.

CenturyLink (News - Alert) is making eight on-demand, cloud-based managed services available on its Cloud platform at the end of this month. Offerings will be delivered through a self-service model in which customers may pay by the hour for middleware, applications and web services. CenturyLink plans to integrate its entire managed hosting services portfolio with its cloud platform, providing an array of cloud-based managed solutions.

CA Technologies (News - Alert) has enhanced its CA Cloud Service Management offering, making SaaS-based ITSM easy to manage for MSPs and other service providers. The offering is now mobile ready and offers simplified deployment and customization for quick installations. CA made the upgrades as a result of common complaints among SaaS ITSM users like MSPs.