Managed Service Provider Week in Review

MSPs are diversifying and bulking up their portfolios in an effort to stay on top of the game in a competitive market. To aid in this effort, service providers are continuously adding new applications and functionality to their offerings and also teaming up with others to strengthen and expand their reach.

The big expansion news this week in the managed services space was Birch Communications finalizing its acquisition of Cbeyond (News - Alert). The $323 million deal expands Birch’s reach to more than 200,000 customers and creates a nationwide IP network comprised of 31,000 fiber route miles. The acquisition is the latest in 20 key deals and buyouts spanning from 2006.

Carousel Industries, an MSP and UC solutions provider, also expanded its portfolio this week through enhancements to its SmartPoint offering. The UC solution supports customers’ existing mobile technology investments and offers services geared toward each vertical market Carousel serves. In tandem with the expansion, the company announced enhanced partnerships with Juniper Networks and Aruba Networks.

MegaPath also expanded its portfolio with the rollout of a new Managed WiFi (News - Alert) solution aimed at providing secure wireless LAN connectivity to distributed organizations. The MSP handles the network management and security as well as the design, configuration, installation and implementation. MegaPath (News - Alert) also provides monitoring, management, and 24/7/365 help desk support.

Two MSPs were singled out by Gartner as Magic Quadrant leaders this week. Powerhouse service provider CenturyLink (News - Alert) was named for Cloud-Enabled Managed Hosting, Europe, for its vision and consistent execution in the cloud and managed hosting space as well as its technical competence.

And managed hosting and cloud services provider Datapipe (News - Alert) was named a Magic Quadrant Leader for Cloud-Enabled Managed Hosting in North America. The MSP was designated for optimizing, managing and securing mission-critical IT services for its customers while also providing multi-platform hybrid solutions in its global data centers.