Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior. We have been pretty busy around here at SMB Nation in gearing up for our SMB 150 Awards Gala Dinner, and our Spring Conference, which will be held May 3-5, 2013, at the Microsoft Redmond Campus. For more information, and to register, go to: http://spring.smbnation.com/.
Regarding live events, Harrybbb will be attending the ChannelPro SMB Forum in Long Beach, CA, this Wednesday, as well as the SMBTN Pasadena, CA monthly meeting Tuesday night at The Canoe restaurant. If you are going to be in the area and/or attending, give Harry a shout-out in case you’d like to meet up!
Please take some time to peruse a few snippets of information that we didn’t get a chance to bring you last week….let us also know if there was something we might have missed, which is not mentioned in this entry…because as you know…we love news!
1.) Axcient Redesigns Data Protection Portal for Ease of Use, Time Savings: Axcient last week announced a completely redesigned data protection portal that dramatically simplifies and enhances the user experience for IT professionals and managed service providers supporting companies from tens to thousands of employees.
Axcient's entirely new interface brings the ease of use of a consumer application to a complicated IT function, allowing users to manage critical data protection issues easily through three distinct new features: a health status system that indicates successful protection of an entire enterprise at a glance, customizable time-based alerting thresholds that define how long is too long without protection, and exception-based notifications so users know right away when something's wrong. With Axcient's new experience, IT can save hundreds of hours a year.
2.) GFI Survey: Outlook on IT Admin Stress Set to Improve: GFI Software last week revealed the results of its second annual IT Administrator Stress Survey, which revealed that the number of IT professionals considering leaving their job due to workplace stress has declined from 67% last year to 57% in 2013, a 10 point drop in one year.
While the percentages are still staggeringly high, the results suggest a measure of improvement in working conditions and attitudes over the past 12 months. The outlook is not so rosy in the UK (see today’s related announcement: GFI Survey Shows Rise in IT Administrators Wanting Career Change Due to Stress), where 73% of IT professionals are considering leaving their job due to workplace stress, an increase of four percentage points from last year’s figures.
The independent blind survey of 207 IT administrators in U.S. organizations with more than 10 employees was conducted from March 5-12 by Opinion Matters on behalf of GFI Software. The survey gauged respondents’ stress levels at work and revealed their opinions on their main stressors, as well as how their stress level compares to friends and family, and how it affects their personal and professional lives.
3.) Connectria Partners with Tegile Systems for Optimized Virtual Storage: Tegile Systems announced a partnership with Connectria Hosting, a global provider of cloud, managed and custom hosting solutions, to improve the storage capacity, efficiency and performance of its Citrix and VDI offerings.
Connectria turned to Tegile Systems during a proof-of-concept VDI implementation for a large healthcare company when the number of virtual machines introduced began to tax their existing storage infrastructure and needed to be expanded. By swapping out the existing storage for new-generation Tegile Zebi hybrid storage arrays, Connectria was able to manage the fluid requirements of the healthcare provider’s VDI environment easier, faster and more reliably at a vastly reduced cost.
4.) Tech Data Adds VMware vSphere With Operations Management: Tech Data Corporation last week announced the addition of VMware vSphere with Operations Management through its partnership with VMware. This new offering combines the world's leading virtualization platform with the capabilities of the award winning standard edition of VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite, giving resellers the ability to provide improved quality of service at a lower cost for their customers.
5.) Dot Hill, SYNNEX Corporation Announce Distribution Agreement: Dot Hill Systems Corp. last week signed a distribution agreement with IT distributor SYNNEX Corporation. Under the terms of the agreement, SYNNEX will offer Dot Hill's portfolio of AssuredSAN storage solutions. The relationship with SYNNEX allows Dot Hill to expand its reach to new resellers and markets throughout the United States and Canada.
