PC Management Transformed in the Cloud

At one time, managing desktop PCs was the life blood for a standard solution provider. Upgrades, service calls, help desks and break-fix services were surefire revenue streams. Then came the chance to include virtual support, or remote management and control. Now the cloud is situated to transform PC management yet again – just like many other IT services – shifting the way solution providers derive their profits, interact with customers, and build long-term relationships.

Once upon a time, solution providers would establish a support contract to witch a technician would be assigned to provide onsite support, schedule recurring service calls, and support that company’s desktop assets – an approach that proved very effective for small and medium sized businesses. For large businesses, solution providers would regularly sell and install PC asset and support management applications, train the in-house IT staff how to use the apps, and derive their profit from the sale of the application and training services.

Nowadays, conventional PC management has moved to the cloud. Because of this, solution providers are leaning towards hosted platforms or competing directly against large vendors because the cloud has rendered those very support and revenue models obsolete. But the cloud’s power does not stop there. Additional long-established provider services, such as network services, applications, and VoIP/PBX services are now platforms or layers of a platform in the cloud.

The power, advantages and benefits that the cloud offers is only making it more popular as the days go by, and the proof is in the growing numbers of IT resources moving in and solution providers searching for ways to leverage the cloud or fade into the background. But, as the saying goes – to every cloud there is a silver lining – and in this case it’s that countless vendors are making their management and hosted service platforms available for reselling and rebranding for continuous revenue. Moreover, conventional software vendors are beginning to adopt the cloud, and provide their applications as hosted services.

The development of PC management also demonstrates this change. For example, ManageEngine, an IT management software corporation recently launched a new product called Desktop Central MSP, which falls under MSP Center Lite. In MSP Center Lite, solution providers can find asset management, remote control, server and network monitoring integrated into the platform that they can then offer their customers as a package or a la carte. This significantly reduces the need for onsite techs and needs little more than a single agent to remotely be installed on every IT asset, reducing provider overhead and lowering costs related to deployment.