Managed Service Provider Business Guide

Transcription

1 White Paper Parallels Remote Application Server

2 Table of contents 1. Overview of Managed Services for Hosted Applications Access and VDI Markets 1.1. Market potential: Revenue and growth projections 1.2. Pick your target customers wisely: All about your audiences 1.3. Customer needs: Who is buying what, and why 2. Develop a Service Offering and Prepare for Service Delivery 2.1. Define your services 2.2. Choose your technology platform 2.3. Training your staff on the technology to offer 24/7 support 2.4. Partnering to fill in the gaps 3. Capacity Planning 3.1. Server setup and sizing 3.2. Storage capacity 3.3. RDS & VDI licensing 4. Determine Your Pricing 4.1. What do others charge, and can I charge more, less, or the same? 4.2. Evaluate operating, support, and infrastructure costs 4.3. Establish pricing models, add-ons, upsells 4.4. Testing your pricing model 5. Marketing and Selling Strategy Where are the Customers Hiding? 5.1. Target business size - SMBs to mid-range enterprises 5.2. Target profile - Business-oriented decision makers 5.3. Marketing resources - Leverage partnerships 5.4. Selling - Addressing customer needs 6. Parallels Portfolio 6.1. Parallels Remote Application Server 6.2. Application publishing 6.3. RDS/VDI 6.4. Load balancing 6.5. Reporting 6.6. Desktop management 6.7. Parallels RDP Client 6.8. Trial periods 7. Parallels Resources 7.1. Certification - Online demos and training 7.2. Documentation - Quick start guides and product manuals 7.3. Guidelines - White papers, case studies, solution guides 7.4. Support - Sales info, support portal, forums

3 1. Overview of Managed Services for Hosted Applications Access and VDI Markets 1.1. Market potential: Revenue and growth projections Managed services for hosted applications and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) are one of the fastest growing segments in IT outsourcing. Within the next five years, MSPs will shape up and grow in response to the needs of customers large and small, possibly reaching 50% of the annual IT spend. Gartner estimates that spending on IT projects will approach $3.8 trillion in 2015, a 2.4% increase over MSPAlliance estimates that at least a quarter of the global IT spend in North America, around $154 billion, will be on managed services, including hosted applications and VDI. The main offerings are Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). DaaS and SaaS have seen particularly large increases recently, attributable to the need for more agile and efficient IT to support businesses strategic plans. The cost of hardware and the complexity involved in managing patches and updates on workstations push businesses toward remote desktop services (RDS) and VDI. Another push comes from the number of people working remotely on a plethora of devices. MSPs must support their customers in this evolution by providing customized solutions quickly and cheaply. MSPs cannot just be break-fixers. They also need to become architects at the design stage. As technology advances, businesses will rely more and more on MSPs as trusted technology partners and advisors. Cost-effective, cloud-based services are an exciting business opportunity, but the increased interest in the cloud has created a highly competitive environment. To beat the competition, MSPs have to differentiate their offering to meet customers business needs while maintaining profitability. Large organizations tend to be further ahead than small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the devolution of their systems to MSPs. Although large companies currently have the greatest market share, SMBs represent the largest opportunity for growth, with an estimated annual growth rate of 22%. Shifting focus onto a large number of SMBs will increase complexity in terms of resources, service-level agreements, and security. MSPs cannot just be break-fixers. They also need to become architects at the design stage. As technology advances, businesses will rely more and more on MSPs as trusted technology partners and advisors. Cost-effective, cloud-based services are an exciting business opportunity, but the increased interest in the cloud has created a highly competitive environment. To beat the competition, MSPs have to differentiate their offering to meet customers business needs while maintaining profitability. Large organizations tend to be further ahead than small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the devolution of their systems to MSPs. Although large companies currently have the greatest market share, SMBs represent the largest opportunity for growth, with an estimated annual growth rate of 22%. Shifting focus onto a large number of SMBs will increase complexity in terms of resources, service-level agreements, and security. SMBs offer great opportunities to MSPs. Like large organizations, SMBs are affected by the blurring border between personal and business lives, with more people working remotely. This flexibility increases productivity, but also creates IT management issues and data security risks. MSPs can support companies in this fluid environment and become trusted advisors, paving the way for long-term business relationships and word-of-mouth referrals Pick your target customers wisely: All about your audiences The number of organizations potentially interested in buying cloud services is large, but there are specific verticals with particular needs that call for the presence of an MSP: Healthcare, Finance, Government, Legal, and Education. By targeting different verticals, significant differentiation between MSPs occurs. You can learn by examining existing customers and clustering them around a vertical market. This might help you identify the most popular services, as well as which of your internal competencies you can rely on in that area. MSPs need to understand the market, the key applications, the most common vendors, and the compliance environment. 01

4 To address the business needs not just the technical headaches of companies, you must understand the flow of work and information within a customer s organization and industry. You can launch a vertical push by selling the horizontal solutions you already offer. Once a relationship with a customer has been formed, you can learn the language and terminology of the vertical and identify specialized products and services that you can develop and eventually provide. Hot verticals. 1. Healthcare Digitalization in healthcare is expanding, especially with increasing interest in electronic health records. In this environment, MSPs may provide application delivery, DaaS, and management. Business continuity is a must in this segment. Heavily regulated sectors such as healthcare also call for a thorough understanding of the compliance environment. For example, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is very important. Service providers who deal with protected health information in their work are considered business associates under HIPAA and must adhere to its regulations. 1.Verticals are vertical markets: markets in which vendors offer goods and services specific to an industry, trade, profession, or other group of customers with specialized needs. These are to be distinguished from horizontal markets, in which vendors offer a broad range of goods and services to a large group of customers with a wide range of needs, such as businesses as a whole, men, women, households, or, in the broadest horizontal market, everyone. 2. Legal Recently, the need for cutting costs by outsourcing practice management, , electronic archiving, e-discovery, and metadata preservation has pushed law firms towards MSPs. This has been accelerated by legislation in the US and UK covering the use of electronic sources. Big data from social media provide another push toward MSPs by stretching law firms internal capabilities. Often, legal customers lack the infrastructure or technical personnel to maintain systems. 3. Government Companies in this vertical rely heavily on marketing and social media. Their core businesses are online services, transactions, and trading. The infrastructure to keep this up and running securely 24/7 can be very complex. MSPs can easily help in simplification and in implementing innovative technology to support efficiency. RDS and VDI combined with smartphones offer the right set of tools. 5. Education IT professionals in educational institutions need to respond quickly to increasing demands from students and faculty, especially for remote access to resources, while coping with limited budgets and staff. In the current challenging, multiplatform environment, MSPs can help deliver education services more securely, reliably, and economically, allowing institutions to focus on service excellence instead of infrastructure management Customer needs: Who is buying what, and why Before developing a service, it is important to know who is buying what, and why. Start by analyzing the services you already offer. You can also conduct a customer satisfaction survey, including questions on what services customers might require in future. Instead of acquiring expertise in-house, businesses benefit from hiring a specialized MSP. According to CompTIA Managed Services Trends, 34% of companies outsource application and desktop delivery and management. According to GoLime Blog, application virtualization, remote access to data, and virtual desktops are the three important areas that MSPs should target in BYOD networks are a new challenge. Additionally, in every organization there are many repetitive procedures. Tasks such as OS patching, PC tuning services, and backups fall into this category. It is a good idea to automate and package them into your service offering. By providing a comprehensive package, you can quickly gain a lot of ground. 02

5 Note that customer needs mirror changing technologies. MSPs need to monitor market trends proactively and realign their service offerings accordingly. 2. Develop a Service Offering and Prepare for Service Delivery 2.1. Define your services A proper analysis of the MSP target market is required before MSPs can define and develop a service offering. As managed services are many in number and versatile in practice, the main focus should be on choosing the initial line of service. Here are some of the most popular Managed Hosting Services (MHS). Hosting services have always been a prime area for outsourcing, owing to financial and technical limitations. MSPs normally host customer applications and data on their datacenters, while providing technical support and related services. This is one of the areas with the highest expected growth rates over the next 12 months. By adopting MHS you will serve your customers by: Hosting - applications, desktops and data Supporting - customer training requirements and technical issues Delivering - IT resources to any platform required Securing - customer data and traffic Monitoring - system performance and usage Private Cloud Hosting Private cloud services are cloud computing solutions built for one customer. They are the ideal solution for businesses with heavy regulatory compliance requirements. With a private cloud, you can offer the advantages of virtualization, such as improved utilization and performance, but in a more secure, dedicated environment that still meets the customer s compliance requirements. The most common hypervisors in private cloud computing are Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix Xen, and VMware ESXi. These platforms allow one or more physical servers to be partitioned into multiple, self-contained virtual machines (VMs), each with its own operating system and its own set of applications to meet your customer s needs. If you offer private cloud computing on Microsoft Hyper-V alone, you will satisfy most customer requests. However, it pays to have a wider portfolio so that your infrastructure is flexible enough to meet any customer s needs. Shared/Public Cloud Hosting A shared or public cloud is a cloud computing solution built for a multi-tenant infrastructure. The range of customers accessing a shared pool of virtual resources allows cost scaling. The resilience and interoperability of the infrastructure easily supports the reallocation of VMs without compromising basic data security. An MSP can offer a personalized version of the cloud, delivering resources, applications, and servers when and where needed by customers. Businesses are attracted mostly by the cuts in their internal IT costs, but a high quality service also has its attractions. When an MSP offers a shared cloud, it has to guarantee constant and quick access to applications and desktops. Hypervisors usually run on multiple servers. It is strongly recommended that a load balancing solution is installed, so as to distribute the workload and offer customers a consistent, high quality experience. Application Hosting MSPs offer application hosting to fit customer needs. There are innumerable Windows applications on the market, but it is important to have the most popular ones in your portfolio, depending on the segment you are targeting. Customers are attracted to this kind of offer because they can outsource their servers and access apps in the cloud. End users gain access from one central location using a singular login. 03

6 One of the key competitive advantages that can be tapped by an MSP offering application hosting services is the ability to guarantee a seamless experience to the customer s end users. The adoption of a hosted service is a big step for any company, and negative feedback from end users can jeopardize the whole project and undermine the relationship with the customer. The end user experience should run so smoothly that the user should not even notice that an application is running remotely. Hosting of Session-Based Desktops and Virtual Machine-Based Desktops MSPs can offer virtual desktops based on two technologies: Session-Based Desktop or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). In both cases, the intention of the service is to enable end users to access a virtual workstation regardless of the device they are using. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI): an individual VM running a desktop operating system. Session-Based Desktop: an individual session running inside a server operating system. There can be multiple user sessions per server (i.e., each server is shared by multiple users). An instance of Remote Desktop Services needs to be in place to deliver Session-Based Desktops, whereas a hypervisor is required in order to offer VDI. VDI and Session-Based Desktops each have peculiarities that satisfy different business needs. The choice may be difficult and depends on a particular customer s balance between cost and security. It is best to allow the infrastructure to evolve with a company s needs, switching between technologies without incurring extra cost. A deep knowledge of the customer s environment and compliance requirements is important when guiding the choice Choose your technology platform With diverse technologies, multiple customers, and varied expectations, consolidation is key. MSPs have to choose a platform that can handle heterogeneous technologies and multiple customers effectively from a single dashboard. Based on our experience, we recommend that you consider the complexities outlined below before selecting a technology platform. Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) and Security BYOD has become a common element in most businesses. Customers have to provide access to corporate resources from anywhere, at any time. Hosted services must be delivered to different devices, guaranteeing the same level of service to all employees. Many organizations stress security, requiring a secure channel with a second level of authentication. Hosted Services Available 24/7 Nowadays, companies are expected to provide constant access to corporate applications and data. When IT resources are hosted, organizations become even more anxious about downtime, because they do not have control over the entire process. There are many ways of offering complete business continuity with disaster recovery and zero downtime, but an MSP can prevent the most common issues by managing connections and server workload well. The connection between the datacenter and the remote user requires redundancy to guarantee operational continuity. The servers should be wellequipped and the workload balanced in order to guarantee rapid response to any issue. Desktop and Application Management In today s cloud era, desktop and application management are important requirements. With changes in device operating systems and application versions, maintenance in order to keep everything shipshape with 99.9% uptime can be very demanding. Solutions that reduce the manual activity needed for device and application management are always welcomed by organizations. 04

7 2.3 Training your staff on the technology to offer 24/7 support Gone are the days when the support team worked from 9 to 5. In this cloud era, corporate resources have to be available 24/7 and so do support services. Any outage or device failure has to be fixed very quickly. This can only be possible with trained staff who are experts in the technologies you manage. Providing managed services in which your team already has expertise is one option. However, it is always recommended to train your staff on technology. With changing technologies, MSPs have to proactively realign their support strategies and train staff accordingly. When the support team is strong, MSPs can think about managed services expansion. While remote assistance is always a good option, there are certain businesses that require on-site maintenance as well. For instance, hardware issues have to be dealt with on-site. Bundling remote services and on-site tasks into a customized service offering would be beneficial for MSPs as well as customers. You have to understand local market conditions and the specific needs of each customer to provide a tailor-made service package. 3. Capacity Planning 3.1 Server setup and sizing Capacity planning is an art. You have to estimate the space, software, hardware resources, and infrastructure resources that are needed in the present as well as in the future. The challenge is to add new capacity just in time to meet an anticipated need, but not earlier, so that the resource is not wasted. The first step is to determine the service level requirements, considering user expectations. Secondly, determine whether the current system is meeting business needs. Finally, forecast business activity and future requirements to implement configuration changes, ensuring that SLAs can be achieved notwithstanding changing needs. The planning phase is crucial for a server rollout. It is not always enough to purchase a high configuration system; it is important to understand business requirements. First of all, determine the scope of the server in the network. Are the majority of its systems virtualized? Are more stand-alone systems required? Secondly, consider possible increases in the number of users, services, and applications, which affect the computing resources that need to be accommodated in the network. The end user experience has to be considered as well. Server Sizing Server size can be determined after identifying the exact workload and type of services required. When you host static websites on a web server, you don t need a high configuration machine. On the other hand, more computing power is required for an SQL server with multiple connections. Moreover, you cannot expect any server infrastructure to remain unchanged forever, so you have to be prepared for fluctuating environments. Although a virtualization environment is a totally different ball game, the server capacity planning process is the same. For a virtualization server, you need to determine how many VMs are expected to be running on the server and what processes they are entitled to. Does the current infrastructure allow you to accommodate more workload, change platform and OS, or run more applications? Whether you use Parallels Remote Application Server, Citrix XenApp or VMware Horizon, it is important to understand hardware requirements prior to the launch. Analysis of these aspects will yield the right server environment that uses the optimal amount of resources. You can also size your machines during the build/test phase. 3.3 RDS & VDI licensing RDS Choosing the number of licenses is another tricky task. Microsoft offers two types of licenses: per server, where one Windows Server instance can run on one server, and per processor, where one server instance can run on one processor and each server can have one or more processors. In addition to this license, you also need Windows Client Access Licensing (CAL) to access servers running Windows Server. 05

8 CALs are available in two models. A Device CAL is economical and allows users to access Windows server software from that device. This model is useful when multiple users work on a single device. A User CAL allows a user to access Windows server software from any device. This model makes sense when one user uses multiple devices. The Volume Licensing Agreement allows you to mix user CALs and device CALs in a single environment. Additionally, to access Remote Desktop Services (RDS), you need a Windows Server Remote Desktop Services CAL for each device or user. Compliance with licenses is extremely important. To ensure that you respect license terms at all times, make sure that you track the number of RDS Per User CALs being used in your datacenter. You should have enough RDS Per User CALs to provide a connection for each user needing to access the RD Session Host server. VDI In the case of VDI, MSPs have plenty of choice. You may have wondered about the differences between VDI software options, remote display protocols, or all the licenses out there. In this guide, we tackle some of the most common questions about VDI administration to help you get things straight. There are many ways to implement VDI, making licensing different for each organization. In addition, vendors offer so many different products and licenses for these technologies that it is hard to grasp the whole picture. There are two common licensing models: Named User (for environments with staff needing dedicated access to a VM throughout the day) and Concurrent User (for environments with a high proportion of shift workers, where machines are shared between workers throughout the day). The cost of the latter is higher because it allows better use of the license and more flexibility. It makes sense for an MSP to save operational costs by using the Concurrent User license model if its customers work on shift and the licenses can be used almost 24/7. The main virtualization hypervisors are Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware vsphere, and Citrix XenServer. Your choice of hypervisor depends greatly on your specific environment s requirements and long-term goals. Your VDI hypervisor must be able not only to support your current volume of users, but also to expand to support more and more users. 4. Determine Your Pricing 4.1 What do others charge, and can I charge more, less, or the same? Analyzing MSP market trends and identifying managed services that you can offer is a challenge. Pricing those services is even more challenging. Your pricing model will definitely affect your revenues and margins. When you charge too much, you lose contracts. When you charge too little, you lose money. To determine how much to charge, go back to basics. First of all, check out the existing pricing structure. Understand what your competitors are offering and at what price. What is the pricing model they work with? Consider the kind of value they provide relative to your business. This is how you can distinguish your services from the competition. Secondly, consider the supply and demand within your market. When you offer services that are in low supply and high demand, you can easily charge more. Similarly, if you provide low-risk-tolerance services, you can charge more. For instance, a datacenter that requires high redundancy and data security might pay more, while an education website that hosts study material might not be willing to pay that extra amount. Thirdly, it would be a good idea to join a local association to be informed about pricing trends and local economic conditions. This gives you an idea of how much your services are worth. It is also a good idea to conduct a survey about your products and services. You don t have to charge less just because your competitors offer a competitive price. When you provide quality services, you can set your own price. Is it worth your while to go for volume sales at a competitive price, or would you rather customize your services and charge a higher price? 06

9 4.2 Evaluate operating, support, and infrastructure costs Determine your organization s full burden, including operating, support, and infrastructure costs. Infrastructure costs include computing, storage, network hardware, and software. Include server capacity, storage capacity, licensing costs, and third-party partnering expenses in this category as well. Staff and their expenses fall into the operating costs. Simply put, calculate the total expenses incurred in delivering your services. This gives you an idea of the total monthly managed services billing. Then calculate the total managed services agreements by billable staff against total labor hours delivered. From this value, you can derive the margin and profitability. Keep an account of the exact services delivered and the cost of each service delivered as well. When you evaluate your total monthly expenditure, you can decide on the pricing model as well as the service charge that would keep you in profit. 4.3 Establish pricing models, add-ons, upsells MSP pricing models vary from one vendor to another. Here are some of the common pricing models: Per-device or Per-user Initially, most MSPs charged their clients on a per-device basis because it was easy to estimate the total costs per month as well as track resource usage. According to Kaseya MSP Global Pricing Survey, 30% of organizations use this model. However, with the market shift toward the mobile revolution, most employees now use multiple devices to access corporate resources. In view of this shift, most customers prefer a per-user pricing model. A per-user model simplifies SLAs, but the per-device pricing model is still used when datacenters are involved. SLA-based pricing is a new model that is quickly gaining ground. In this model, the price of managed services depends on the service level. For instance, two businesses that have the same server infrastructure might require different levels of data protection and redundancy. The business that requires lower risk tolerance would be willing to pay more. Flat Fee Pricing When multiple services are bundled into a package, MSPs can charge a flat fee. Services such as antivirus solutions, helpdesk, technical support, and patch management fall into this category. With flat fee pricing, it is critical not to disclose the price of individual services. Tiered Pricing Tiered pricing is another model where service packages are categorized into different levels such as gold, bronze, and silver. Tiered pricing was popular in the last decade, but few MSPs offer this pricing model today. The downside of tiered pricing is that customers are confused by multiple service offerings. Moreover, customers tend to choose the lowestpriced package. A La Carte When you need to provide temporary services, you can choose an a la carte pricing model, where you can offer those services as hourly blocks. 4.4 Testing your pricing model With changing technologies, MSPs have to realign their service offerings as well as their pricing models. Flat fee pricing was very popular ten years ago. More recently, MSPs have been charging customers on a per-user or per-device basis. With increasing competition and a variety of service offerings, SLA-based pricing is quickly becoming popular. With an SLA-based pricing model, MSPs can customize their service offering to meet the specific business demands of each user, so that the customers get better service while the MSPs are paid more. Your MSP offering should be based on the value you offer and not the cost. 07

10 MSP pricing models are not written in stone. It is important to test pricing models to find out which model is most beneficial for your customers and for you. For a pricing model to be successful, there should be the right balance between the cost and operational excellence of the MSP and the expectations of the customer in terms of quality, timeliness, and support. Remember that customer requirements and expectations keep changing. You might not be successful in engaging all customers with just one type of pricing model. It is important to arrive at a model that is proactively adjusted according to customer demands. At the same time, you continually have to consider expanding your offering into other lines of service. For instance, if you manage your customer s datacenter, you might consider offering related services such as backup and disaster recovery programs. Remember to keep testing your pricing model and service offering while aiming to expand your service portfolio. 5. Marketing and Selling Strategy Where are the Customers Hiding? Creating a marketing and selling strategy is important if you are serious about your MSP business. You have to identify your target verticals, business size, and business profile, and put your best foot forward. 5.1 Target business size - SMBs to mid-range enterprises One of the vital aspects of your MSP marketing strategy is to identify your target business size and ideal customers. Some MSPs fail here by trying to do everything for everyone. Consequently, the creation of sales and marketing strategies becomes daunting as they are unsure of their target audience. It is a good idea to target SMBs and mid-range enterprises. Because they often lack in-house resources to run IT services, most of these businesses seek MSPs. The basic needs of this segment are speedy performance of computing resources, as well as 24/7 access to business resources. Technical support is an obvious option as well. You can find thousands of such businesses, with 10 to 500 employees, everywhere. The opportunities are tremendous. When you target these companies, you can customize your service offerings with segmented layers to protect your profitability. 5.2 Target profile - Business-oriented decision makers In addition to identifying your target business size, you need to identify the target profile of your contacts. Unlike regular businesses, MSPs generally have to target C-suite executives. When you approach C-level managers, you should focus on business objectives and concerns. Your pitch should focus on cutting costs while improving the operational efficiency of the business. Before approaching your C-suite target, gather both psychographic and demographic information. Demographic information includes the type and size of the business, location, and type of technology used. Psychographic information includes the challenges faced by the company, the executives attitudes and beliefs, and what they value. When you combine this information, you have enough knowledge in hand to be able to pitch the right offer. For instance, a mid-size footwear company has multiple branches across the nation. It has to publish MS Office and other company-specific applications remotely. The company uses Citrix to do this. While Citrix is a good solution, it is expensive and involves complex installation and configuration procedures. An MSP can provide a comprehensive platform for effective publishing of remote applications at a significantly lower price with flexible licensing models. When you explain to the C-suite how this approach will cut costs and consolidate IT service infrastructure, the value of your pitch will be evident and your message will be heard. hen you need to provide temporary services, you can choose an a la carte pricing model, where you can offer those services as hourly blocks. An in-house IT department might regard an MSP as a threat to its own survival. After gaining the trust of C-level executives, make sure you meet the in-house IT team and explain how you propose to work in partnership with them. Basically, you will share their burden by using an automated approach to make their work easier. 08

11 5.3 Marketing resources - Leverage partnerships An important MSP marketing strategy is to leverage partnerships with leading technology firms. This expands your network and helps you to build up both your expertise and your services. Not only do you get a better understanding of your client s requirements, you also gain the ability to identify prospects. Most importantly, your partners introduce you to important contacts and decision makers, or provide insights into corporate strategies and purchasing patterns. With a mutual goal, you can make joint proposals and presentations to provide quality business solutions to your customers. Simply put, technological partnerships enhance your market positioning and improve sales. Business partnerships expand your products and services as well as asset bases. Business ecosystem partnerships sell related products and services in certain shared markets. Market alliance partnerships share leads and pay each other for referrals. In strategic alliance partnerships, vendors provide you with leads. 5.4 Selling - Addressing customer needs It is challenging to acquire a managed services contract. However, it is even more challenging to retain your contract by providing high quality services and exceeding customer expectations. MSPs have to get into their customers shoes and realign their strategies and offerings proactively to meet changing business demands. Look beyond and forward Gone are the good old days of standard products and lock-in vendors. Ever-changing technology keeps you on your toes. It is not enough to attend to the customer s current needs; you have to look beyond and forward to analyze past and present needs while envisaging future needs. You have to address business needs that the customer is not yet aware of. You also have to reassure the customer about your readiness to provide solutions to future needs. Keep an eye on your customer s business moves such as acquisitions, mergers, and expansion, and determine how any changes affect your service offerings. MSPs that invest in adjusting their methodologies can surely win the race. Take time to leverage innovation Most MSPs work with known technologies, following the old adage if it ain t broke, don t fix it. Moreover, they tend not to use all features offered in software packages. According to a GFI survey, 43% of MSPs use less than 50% of the features of their software solutions. Lack of bench talent, time, initiative, and expertise are some of the reasons for this. Being a laggard in embracing new technology can only be sustained for a short time, then you will fall behind and do your customer a disservice. Join peer groups and communities, follow industry events, and read leading technology sites to be constantly updated with what s happening. Don t follow a problem-fixing approach. Look at the business concerns and objectives of your customers and be part of their operations. When you exceed customer expectations, you will not only continue to provide managed services, you can quickly expand your portfolio of services as well. 6. Parallels Portfolio Parallels is a global leader in virtualization. Thousands of organizations worldwide trust in the reliability and scalability of Parallels products. Parallels offers a range of solutions to make every organization s shift to cloud computing unique, simple, and affordable. 09

12 6.1 Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) Parallels Remote Application Sever allows MSPs to manage virtual desktops and applications from all major hypervisors, including those from Microsoft, VMware and Citrix, as well as from Remote Desktop Services, from a single platform. Parallels Remote Application Sever allows you to publish full desktops, applications, and documents to any device from anywhere within a virtual environment, with native clients and web-enabled solutions such as the Parallels Remote Application Sever Portal. 6.2 Application publishing Application publishing is one of the fundamental uses and features of Parallels Remote Application Sever, allowing you to publish any application running on Windows to any device your customer is using mobile or desktop. 6.3 RDS/VDI The ability of Parallels Remote Application Sever to publish resources from Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) as well as Remote Desktop Services (RDS) makes it very flexible. RDS is Windows Server technology for virtual desktops, whereas VDI uses software to virtualize desktops within one or multiple VMs running on a server. Parallels Remote Application Sever enables MSPs to deliver desktops, data, and applications to multiple customers centrally from either technology without complexity. 6.4 Load balancing Service continuity is guaranteed out of the box with Parallels Remote Application Sever. RDS and VDI host connections made from Parallels Clients are automatically balanced and distributed to the server best able to handle requests, based on resources available. Points of failure are easily eliminated with another standard feature, High Availability Load Balancing (HALB), which sits in between clients and gateways, representing a single, fully redundant entry point into published resources. 6.5 Reporting Every time a user connects to the system, Parallels Remote Application Sever gathers important data about user preferences, active periods, idle periods, and resources utilized to support the connection. Reporting allows you to analyze how your users are interacting with the system and even bill customers based on virtual resource consumption. 6.6 Desktop management Parallels Remote Application Sever allows you to manage Windows PCs centrally and prolong the lifespan of Windows machines (from XP up to 8.1), thereby increasing your customer base and retention. Lock down the device and disable most of the operating system, leaving it immune to viruses while remaining easily accessible from the Parallels Remote Application Sever console. 6.6 Parallels RDP Client The Parallels RDP Client is the software that enables users to connect from a device to virtualized applications and desktops published by Parallels Remote Application Sever. The client is available for free on all major devices including Linux, Chrome, Mac, Windows, Android, Windows Phone, and ios. Clientless connections are also possible using the HTML5 gateway, enabling access to published resources through any HTML5 browser. 6.7 Trial periods The 30-day full-featured trial version supports 50 concurrent users. After 30 days, you can continue using Parallels Remote Application Sever for three concurrent users with the FREE license key that you will receive via after registration. Sign up for a trial here: 10

13 7. Parallels Resources This section will answer any questions you may have about Parallels Remote Application Server and also reinforce your knowledge and sharpen your skills based on best practices. 7.1 Certification - Online demos and training The free online Parallels certification program is designed to boost managed service providers profitability by giving them the resources and knowledge they need to deploy Parallels Remote Aplication Server and support customers. Learn about device management, workforce mobility, application virtualization trends, best practices, and the latest technology by attending one or more of Parallels or our partners webinars. It s easy to find out what, when, and where Parallels training events are taking place. To help you move further along the Parallels educational journey, visit the link below Documentation - Quick start guides and product manuals The library of technical documentation for Parallels Remote Application Server provides useful information to help you build and manage customers environments: Guidelines - White papers, case studies, solution guides Learn more about the virtualization sphere, including the issues faced and where and how Parallels Remote Application Server fits in and solves these issues in our blog: Parallels Remote Application Server has helped many businesses achieve significant benefits in a cost-effective and innovative way. Read case studies that illustrate the experience and insights of some of our clients, highlighting how Parallels has successfully helped them meet their customers needs: Parallels Remote Application Server has ample experience in all industries from manufacturing to healthcare, banking, education, transportation, government, and more. Increase your customers flexibility, mobility, and security with centrally managed Parallels Remote Application Server: Support - Sales info, support portal, forums The Parallels Remote Application Server support resources give you immediate access to helpful information to set up and manage Parallels Remote Application Server, resolve frequently asked questions, or contact our sales and support teams: 11