Managed Service Provider Week in Review

It’s all about the partners you choose and the alliances you forge in the managed services and cloud computing arena. This week’s headlines showed who is playing on whose team as a strategic buyout and several key partnerships were announced.

VMware made its play in the VDI and desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) space by acquiring DaaS provider Desktone. The company is set to take on Citrix with the acquisition, which strengthens its position as a virtualization giant. VMware plans to use the buyout to accelerate DaaS delivery through its network of more than 11,000 service provider partners.

In a unique OEM pairing, open source identity and access management (IAM) solutions company ForgeRock teamed with salesforce.com to create the new Salesforce Identity Connect software solution. The offering enables enterprises to integrate and centrally manage multiple on-premises identity directories via a single cloud-based offering.

MSP Continuum announced an expanded partnership with LogMeIn which enables the service provider to offer features like remote access printing using LogMeIn Pro licenses. The company is LogMeIn’s exclusive partner serving the MSP channel, and the companies have integrated the LogMeIn remote support tool with Continuum’s remote monitoring and management (RMM) systems.

In the MVNO space, a new managed services and cloud contract was forged between MTS and SBC Communications. SBC has chosen the MTS Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE) as the platform for its “Quad Play” portfolio of service offerings. The three-year contract covers back-office functionality and network integration along with a variety of support services.