Richard Tubb's Blog, page 65

Have you entered The Frankly MSP Brain Trust?

If you had access to four of the world’s top Managed Service experts, what would you ask them?

What could your MSP do with a power-up like that?

Well, you had better get thinking, because that’s exactly the prize that’s on offer in The Frankly MSP Brain Trust!

The Frankly MSP Brain Trust

Auvik has gathered four of the brightest minds in the business, with each one of the experts ready to deliver two hours of private consulting to one lucky MSP.

I’m honoured to be asked to participate as one of the experts alongside my friends Arlin Sorensen (who you can listen to in TubbTalk #29 on Why Discipline and Planning are Vital to Success in Business and Life), Jacqui Murphy and James Bier.

All four of us will be offering a two-hour consulting call with the winner. That’s eight-hours of consulting for the winning MSP business!

Could it be you?

Exclusive Podcast Episode

There can only be one winner for the consulting prize, but everyone who enters will receive an exclusive podcast that features me, Arlin, Jacqui and James answer some of the most common questions they get from MSPs. This special podcast episode will only be available to entrants, and not available anywhere else.

How Can I Enter?

To enter is easy. Click here to visit the Frankly MSP Brain Trust page. Click the “Power Up My MSP” button. Then enjoy the podcast and wait to see if you’re the lucky winner!

What question would you ask of us? Leave a comment below and remember to enter now!

You Might Also Be Interested In

Book a “Rent Richard’s Brain” Private MSP Consulting Call
Listen to TubbTalk – The Podcast for IT Consultants
Read “The IT Business Owner’s Survival Guide” book

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Webinar – Using Network Assessments as a Sales Tool

Does your IT Solution Provider or Managed Service Provider (MSP) business offer clients Network Assessments?

Could you use them as part of your sales process, to win more clients and generate more revenue?

That’s the topic of our next webinar in the Selling MSP Services series, where we explore Using Network Assessments as a Sales Tool.

Selling MSP Services – Network Assessments

In our last webinar, we looked at Using Security as a Sales Tool. It was really well received with a ton of questions from our live audience.

Click here to watch the recording on demand of that webinar.

This time we’ll be looking at Using Network Assessments as a Sales Tool.

Specifically, we’ll be exploring:-

Why network assessments help you find more client opportunities and win more MSP business
How you can use network assessments to mature your business with additional security services
How you can price your network assessments effectively

The Speakers

This webinar will be hosted by our friends at Kaseya and I’ll be joined by Tara Newman of RapidFire Tools, and Marwin Marcussen, EMEA Sales Engineering Manager of Kaseya.

Both Tara and Marwin work with some of the world’s top MSPs who have used infrastructure assessments to help their business grow.

All three of us will be answering your questions live on air, so make sure you get thinking now!

How To Register for the Webinar

The webinar takes place on Thursday 23rd May at 1400 GMT.

Click here to register and reserve your space on the day.

If you can’t make the live webinar, register anyway and you’ll be sent a link to the on-demand recording when it becomes available.

What questions would you like us to answer about selling your client’s assessments? Leave a comment below or get in touch!

You Might Also Be Interested In

TubbTalk #48 – Acquisitions and Building an Open MSP Platform
Webinar – If I were to start an MSP again: The 3 Steps Successful MSPs implement in Operations
TubbTalk #49 – Why MSPs Need To Offer Cloud-To-Cloud Backup

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Webinar – Selling MSP Services: Using Security as a Sales Tool

A heads-up that I’ll be a part of a big webinar on April 25th all about Selling MSP Services.

Specifically, we’re going to be talking about Using Security as a Sales Tool for Managed Service Providers (MSPs).

Selling a Managed Services contract to a prospect can be a long process, but I’m increasingly working with MSPs who are using Cybersecurity as a foot-in-the-door for these conversations.

I’ve written before about the importance of Cyber Security for Small Businesses, and right now, it’s a very hot topic. There is a growing demand from small businesses who want to make sure they are safe and protected.

Cyber Security = MSP Growth

The MSPs I’m seeing thrive right now are those who are positioning themselves as security partners who can keep their clients protected from the bad guys — of which there are a LOT!

In this webinar, we’ll be exploring how you can use security as a sales tool and how compliance and regulatory requirements can help your clients understand that Managed Services is a necessity for modern businesses.

This webinar will be hosted by our friends at Kaseya and I’ll be joined by Tara Newman of RapidFire Tools, and Marwin Marcussen, EMEA Sales Engineering Manager of Kaseya.

Tara, Marwin and I all work with MSPs who are using security to grow their businesses today and we’ll be exploring some real-world examples of how MSPs are using cybersecurity tools such as Dark Web Monitoring, to help sell Managed Services offerings.

As always with the webinars I’m a part of, we’ll be making this interactive. So bring your Cybersecurity and MSP sales questions, and reserve your spot today!

How to Register for the Webinar

The webinar takes place on Thursday, April 25th at 2 pm GMT.

If you can’t join us live, then register anyway and you’ll be sent a link to an on-demand recording of the webinar.

You can click here to register for the webinar Selling MSP Services: Using Security as a Sales Tool.

What questions would you like to ask about Cyber Security and sales? Leave a comment below or get in touch!

You Might Also Be Interested In

TubbTalk #48 – Acquisitions and Building an Open MSP Platform
Webinar – If I were to start an MSP again: The 3 Steps Successful MSPs implement in Operations
TubbTalk #49 – Why MSPs Need To Offer Cloud-To-Cloud Backup

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Webinar – How to build strong MSP alliances

Does your Managed Service Provider business have MSP alliances with other IT businesses?

I recently polled a large number of IT Managed Service Providers (MSPs) on their biggest challenges for 2019 (if you missed out then make sure to sign up for my MSP newsletter here).

One of the top issues MSPs told me they faced were the headaches posed by trying to recruit good quality engineers to extend the businesses capacity and capabilities.

I certainly know that I faced this challenge with my own MSP business. As a result, I found a way of mitigating the need to recruit as much.

Other progressive MSPs that I’ve worked with have adopted a similar tactic and it has worked really well for them too.

That tactic is to build strong MSP alliances with other IT businesses.

How strategic alliances can extend your MSP capabilities

You can build MSP alliances with other IT businesses to help your MSP business in a number of areas:-

Specialist skills
An additional resource for larger projects
Holiday / Sickness cover (especially important for smaller MSPs)
Geographical coverage
24×7 coverage

Your MSP business can do and achieve more when you’re working with partners.

Webinar – Building A-Team Alliances to Extend Your MSP Capabilities

For my first MSP-focused webinar of 2019, we’re running a workshop on Building A-Team Alliances to Extend Your MSP Capabilities.

Our webinar hosts will be Auvik, and I’ll be joined by my close friend and owner of Birmingham-based MSP, Abussi, Craig Sharp.

Craig is someone with twenty years experience of running and growing an IT business that has thrived thanks to its alliance relationships.

In this interactive webinar, we’ll be covering:-

Why build strategic alliances?
The type of alliances you can build
How to structure partnership agreements
How to effectively find alliance partners

The webinar takes place on January 24th 2019 at 3 pm GMT (10 am EST).

You can register for free for Building A-Team Alliances to Extend Your MSP Capabilities now!

If you’re unable to attend the live webinar, make sure register anyway. We will send you a link to view the webinar on demand.

Your questions around alliances

We’ll be answering your questions live during the webinar, and you can also let me know any questions you already have by leaving a comment below or getting in touch.

You Might Also Be Interested In

A great example of Microsoft Partners collaborating to deliver value
3 Good Reasons to attend your local User Group Meeting
A list of User Groups for UK Managed Service Providers

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My 2018 Year in Review And How It’s Done

At the start of each new year, I take time to review the year that has gone by. In 2018, I took the whole of Christmas off work to spend with my family, so my planning for 2019 started well into January. And as my friend and productivity ninja Grace Marshall says, that’s ok.

8th Jan. First working day of the year for me. No I’m not hitting the ground running. No I’m not playing catch up. No I haven’t got 2019 all planned out – I’ll start that thinking this week. If you haven’t either. That’s ok. Because it’s up to you how and when you start.

— Grace Marshall (@GraceMarshall) January 8, 2019

In this blog post, I wanted to start by sharing my process for doing my annual review.

I then want to share my thoughts on my own experiences in 2018. I hope you find it interesting as you reflect on your own plans, learning, goals and aspirations, but if you don’t — just remember this article is essentially an exercise for me, not you. Your own annual review will be much more interesting for you!

The 2019 List of Awesome Events for MSPs

Each year I produce a list of events for MSPs. I’ve attended many of these events myself, and they are indeed, awesome!

These events are all conferences and meetings that will be of interest to IT Solution Providers and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) based in the UK and Europe.

All dates are subject to change and I’d strongly encourage you to contact the event organisers directly before making any travel plans based on information listed here.

Notes

For readers in the USA and Canada, my good friend Karl Palachuk has a great MSP event listing in Karl’s Weekly Email Newsletter.
The lovely folks at Third Tier also have a great guide to the best free and low-fee conferences for US-based MSPs.
I also publish a monthly list of a list of User Groups for UK Managed Service Providers that are of interest to MSP’s. Do go check it out!
To receive a regularly updated list of events by email,  sign up for my MSP newsletter .
You can take a look at the events I’m attending as well as events I’m speaking at. If you’d like to engage me to present at or report from your own event, please feel free to contact me to discuss my availability.

Updates and Amendments

I try to keep this list regularly updated, so if you have an event then please feel free to contact me and let me know about it.

Last Edit:  10th February 2019. Latest updates in bold.

Annual UK IT Channel Events

Jan 16th 2019 – Network Group Vision – Stratford-upon-Avon
Jan 24th 2019 – Presenting Building A-Team Alliances to Extend Your MSP Capabilities Webinar
Jan 23th-26th 2019 – BETT – London
Jan 29th 2019 – Rethinking Data Loss Prevention – London
Feb 7th 2019 – VMUG Meeting – London
Feb 7th 2019 – UK North East VMUG Meeting – TBA
Feb 13th 2019 – Mentori Programme , London
Feb 26th 2019 – Ted Talks… Jim Mawdsley, South Shields
Feb 28th 2019 – UK South West VMUG Meeting – TBA
Mar 1st-2nd 2019 – National Day of Unplugging
Mar 5th-6th 2019 – CompTIA UK Channel Community, Manchester
Mar 12th-13th 2019 – Cloud Expo Europe – London
Mar 21st 2019 – Network Group Exhibition, Gala & Awards – Northamptonshire
Mar 27th 2019 – UK North West VMUG Meeting – TBA
Mar 26th-27th 2019 – Navigate 2019 by Continuum, Milton Keynes
Apr 3rd-4th 2019 – IP Expo Manchester – Manchester Central
May 1st-2nd  2019 – The Service Desk and IT Support Show – London
May 9th 2019 – UK VMUG Meeting – London
Jun 4th-6th 2019 – Info Security Europe – London
TBA June 2019 – CompTIA UK Channel Community, Birmingham
Jun 12th 2019 – Network Group Summer Fun – TBC
Jun 26th 2019 – UK North West VMUG Meeting – TBA
Jul 3rd-4th 2019 – Network Group Momentum Event – TBA
July 11th 2019 – UK VMUG Meeting – London
TBA Sept 2019 – IT Europa European IT & Software Excellence Awards – London
Sep 11th-12th 2019 – Channel Live – Birmingham
Sep 11th – Network Group Focus – TBA
Sep 18th 2019 – Managed Services & Hosting Summit – London
Sep 26th 2019 – UK North West VMUG Meeting – TBA
Oct 7th-8th 2019 – CompTIA EMEA Member and Partner Conference – Park Plaza Westminster Hotel, London
Oct 9th-10th 2019 – IP Expo Europe – London
Oct 21st-23rd 2019 – DattoCon Europe – Paris, France
Nov 13th 2019 – Network Group Roadshow – Gateshead


Other Regular UK IT Channel Events

Monthly – IT Showcase Live! – Regional locations
Monthly – Computer Weekly CW500 – London

Annual European IT Channel Events
Italy

Apr 10th 2019 – VMUG User Group – TBA
June 21st 2019 –  MSP Day 2019, Congress Palace, Riccione, Italy

France

Mar 13th-14th 2019 – IT Partners – Disneyland Paris
Oct 21st-23rd 2019 – DattoCon Europe – Paris, France
Nov 27th-28th 2019 – Cloud Expo Europe – France – Porte de Versailles – Paris

Netherlands

Feb 6th 2019 – CompTIA Belelux Community Meeting – Amsterdam
Oct 30th-31st 2019 – Info Security – Jaarbeurs Utrecht

Germany

May 22nd – VMUG User Group – TBA

Spain

Jan 28th-Feb 1st – Cisco Live! EMEA – Barcelona
Nov 4th-7th – VMworld Europe – Barcelona

Sweden

Nov 2019 – IP Expo Nordic, Stockholm

Switzerland

Oct 29th-30th – CLOUD 2018 infrastructure & Security – Swiss – Pfaffikon, Switzerland

USA

US-based events usually attended by UK-based MSPs

TBA 2019 – Continuum Navigate – Boston, MA
May 6th-9th 2019 – Kaseya Connect – Las Vegas, NA
Jun 17th-19th 2019 – DattoCon18 – San Diego, CA
July 14th-18th 2019 – Microsoft Inspire – Las Vegas, NV
July 31st-2nd August 2019 – CompTIA ChannelCon – Washington, DC
August 5h-7th 2019 – CompTIA ChannelCon – Las Vegas, NV
Oct 30th-Nov 1st 2019 – ConnectWise IT Nation Connect – Orlando, FL
Nov 6th 2019 – ChannelPro SMB Forum – Long  Beach, CA

Can you help?

Will you be attending any of these events?

Do you have an event that you feel should be included in this list?

If so, please get in touch!

You Might Also Be Interested In

3 Good Reasons to attend your local User Group Meeting
A list of User Groups for UK Managed Service Providers
A list of Professional Service Automation tools for MSPs

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Productivity, Healthy Habits and Getting Things Done – TubbTalk #50

Richard speaks to David Allen, author, speaker and coach and creator of ‘Getting Things Done’, a tool to improve productivity and overcome procrastination, about how he came up with GTD and how to make the most of the system.

An Interview with David Allen
What is the Getting Things Done (GTD) Methodology?

David explains that GTD is best practices that are simple to do, but don’t happen automatically. Learning to do them consistently creates a sense of control, focus, and creates more cognitive space to focus on what’s important.

It’s simple actions such as writing stuff down, deciding next actions and reviewing your lists. The key is to create an external brain to externalise all the things we spend too much time thinking about. It also helps people get over procrastination.

One GTD Activity Everyone Should Try

David suggests asking yourself what’s on your mind and taking your attention. Make a list of those things, then ask yourself what next action you would take to get closure on them?

Writing down your answers will help you focus, gain control and work out what to do. The key is to know what has your attention and what, if anything you can do about it. Working out what we want to accomplish and how is a habit we need to train ourselves to do.

To do this requires two different parts of the brain, and we’re not born with the habit of using our brains to make these decisions. Once you’ve trained yourself to do it, you will become more productive.

How David Developed the GTD Methodology

A mentor of David’s introduced him to the concept of ‘get it out of your head, decide next action process’, which he found was vital to clearing the decks and making change possible.

After trying the process himself, David realised that it was a powerful tool he could share with others. He became aware of how unclear his head was and how to fix that. He began to use it with his clients as well as for himself.

He says that the best way to build a habit is to teach it, and was asked by a senior manager at Lockheed to deliver the system to their staff. Being able to demonstrate that you do what you talk about helps people to understand it.

Who the GTD System is for

The GTD system is used by people from all sectors and industries. While it’s used a lot in the IT world, many creatives like to use it too. David explains: “It’s a very flexible, open system, and you don’t have to do things in a certain way.

Some basic principles are inviolate, and if something’s in your head, it’s in the wrong place, so you have to get it out. But, how you get it out of your head is totally up to you, and there all kinds of ways to do it.” 

How GTD fits in with Mindfulness

People talk about emotional intelligence and this is mental intelligence. A lot of mindfulness is about how to train your attention so that you can train yourself to keep your focus on something.

Mindfulness is about stopping one aspect of the world so that you can pay attention to the subtler ones. Cognitive scientists have found that your brain needs rest, and you have to sleep on a project so that your unconscious can untie the knots and bypass your cognitive conditioning.

It’s not necessarily about being organised, but about not being distracted by anything, and having the ability to be able to focus appropriately on the task at hand. Have a clear desk and, where possible, an empty to-do tray and inbox.

The ‘Someday, Maybe’ List

It’s important to make a distinction to between projects, activities or things you would potentially like to do but it’s not the right time for them. However, you don’t want to lose the idea.

It’s a very creative process, and it’s about being able to have a list where you put down things you might want to do one day, with a client or for yourself. Give yourself permission to have the idea but leave it. Don’t assign it next actions, but review it every so often to see if you’re ready to work on it.

Mentioned in This Episode

David’s website: Getting Things Done
Useful tools from Microsoft
Note-taking tool: Evernote
Screen capture tool: Snagit
David’s Amazon page
Intelligent note-taking and file management: TheBrain
The GTD Summit

Interview Transcript

Connect with Me

Subscribe to TubbTalk RSS feed
Subscribe, rate and review TubbTalk in iTunes
Subscribe, rate and review TubbTalk on Stitcher Radio
Subscribe and rate TubbTalk on SoundCloud
Subscribe and rate TubbTalk on Spotify
Follow TubbTalk on iHeartRadio
Follow @tubblog on Twitter

You Might Also Be Interested In

David Allen – The Master of Getting Things Done
Braintoss; Capture Your To-Do’s in One Click
Dealing with Information Overload

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TubbTalk #49 – Why MSPs Need To Offer Cloud-To-Cloud Backup

Richard speaks to Chad Savoy and Daniel Camara of Spanning Backup about why MSPs should invest in a separate backup provider rather than relying on the SaaS, and how Spanning makes that easier.

An Interview with Chad Savoy and Daniel Camara
Who are Spanning?

Spanning started in Texas in 2010 and currently have 65 employees. They offer cloud to cloud/SaaS) Software as a Service) backup for Office 365, G-Suite and Salesforce. They’ve been through three acquisitions since 2014: firstly, by EMC, then Dell took over EMC. More recently, they’ve been acquired by Kaseya, which both Chad and Daniel see as a positive for the business.

Spanning’s traditional customer base was midmarket and enterprise companies, and had a large reach. With the Kaseya acquisition, they’ll now be able to offer their services to SMBs and MSPs (managed service providers). 

Why MSPs Should Offer an Additional Backup Product

SaaS providers offer their own backup to their customers, so Daniel admits that many MSPs wonder why they need to bother with an additional platform. However, he explains that companies like Microsoft and Salesforce have these to protect their own liability in case they can’t meet their SLAs (service level agreements).

In reality, there are hundreds of thousands of users, and human error is unavoidable. The SaaS providers can’t be responsible for the end user doing something they shouldn’t and causing data loss.

Spanning act as an insurance policy to make sure that nothing harmful is done to the data and that it’s protected from ransomware or malicious outside attacks. They provide a security blanket to ensure the business keeps running.

How Spanning Works for MSP Businesses

Spanning is fully integrated with Kaseya. Users can simply go into their VSA (virtual storage appliance) environment, download the Spanning module and view a breakdown of all of their customers, including licencing information.

They will be providing additional features and functionalities to focus on things like alerting and status monitoring, meaning that MSPs don’t have to go into every single tenant every single day to monitor and prevent errors.

The intention to make Spanning easy for MSPs to use directly within the VSA, and will be adding more licencing and provisioning features. They will be introducing a standalone tool for Office 365, to go alongside the tool they already have for Google, and the long-term goal is to have a platform for both of those and Salesforce so they can all be managed in one place.

Chad’s Approach to Leadership

Chad says his philosophy is simply ‘work hard, play hard.’ In his earlier career he experienced internal promotion from within, rising from a salesperson to running global sales for his employers.

He says it’s a great way to build character: “Whether you think you’re ready for it or not, you’re forced into that, and that type of self-discovery is really good for growth”. Spanning promote that too, offering both vertical movement and trials in other departments, so employees can see where their skillset is going to be best utilised.

He says that everybody at Spanning enjoys what they do, making the hard work fun. We enjoy cracking out and having a good time afterwards as well. He describes it as a family unit, and they’ve had a fun adventure so far. The Kaseya acquisition will broaden everyone’s horizons further.

Mentioned in This Episode

Spanning Backup
Office 365
G-Suite
Salesforce
Dell
Kaseya
Tech firm CDW
Tech firm SHI

Interview Transcript

Connect with me

Subscribe to TubbTalk RSS feed
Subscribe, rate and review TubbTalk in iTunes
Subscribe, rate and review TubbTalk on Stitcher Radio
Subscribe and rate TubbTalk on SoundCloud
Subscribe and rate TubbTalk on Spotify
Follow TubbTalk on iHeartRadio
Follow @tubblog on Twitter

You Might Also Be Interested In

The Evolving MSP
How an MSP can thrive in the security niche

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TubbTalk #48 – Acquisitions and Building an Open MSP Platform

Richard speaks to Fred Voccola, CEO of Kaseya, an IT management and software solutions platform.

An Interview with Fred Voccola
How Kaseya Started

Fred explains that Kaseya started out to help resellers who were struggling to build their businesses from selling products and software such as Dell and Microsoft. Founder Gerald Blackie knew that those business owners needed to find other ways of providing value to customers.

As the operating system and the hardware became more complex, it required a lot more support, and the complexity of the applications was overwhelming small businesses who were repeatedly asking for help for the same problem.

Gerald’s solution was to offer the support companies the automation within Kaseya to remotely monitor and man manage systems without the need to send a technician for every problem. He also recommended charging a monthly fee for the service.

How Fred Helped Kaseya Back to Success

Fred admits that when Kaseya were bought out by Insight Venture Partners the executive team made the wrong decision to focus on larger, enterprise companies. At that time, 10 years ago, they were supporting around 10,000 MSPs (managed service providers) and it seemed like a good idea to expand the business.

Fred says this bad decision caused them to take their MSP customer base for granted and they lost their way. MSPs are small business owners and every penny counts for them. Shifting the focus alienated the core customers, who felt dismissed.

‘MSPs are small business owners. For them, every decision is personal. That’s why Kaseya supports them.

He adds: “When I came on board, I recognised that was the place where Kaseya had been and that’s where they’re good. We went back to figuring out how to help MSPs make money and grow their business.”

The Kaseya Model for Acquisitions

In recent years Kaseya has acquired a number of security, backup and PSA (professional services automation) companies which were already successful in their marketplace. Fred explains how Kaseya introduces acquired businesses to their customers.

The first thing is not to announce the acquisition straight away, so they have time to integrate it fully with Kaseya’s systems. Fred says that they wait until the products are working together so people can use them straight away, rather than announcing the acquisition immediately then making people wait months to use the tool.

They also do not rebrand an acquired company to Kaseya and just take the product or technology. The CEO of the company remains in place with his or her team and they don’t put a management team in above the CEO. They give the company capital to remain independent, although they do provide back-office integration to make things like HR and finance easier.

Why MSPs should Offer BDR

BDR (back-up disaster recovery) is big part of Kaseya’s business – they offer a full suite of BDR solutions – and it’s second only to security and growth for the MSP space. Fred says that it’s a huge opportunity for MSPs:

“Most industries around the world are digitising and they’re all about data one way or the other. As that comes into the small to midsize business, which are the customers of our customers, it’s no different there.”

If a business is hit by ransomware, there are immediately security concerns, and if they don’t have a good backup or recovery solution, they’re in trouble. There are also compliance and business continuity issues, because they need to protect customer data and ensure things keep running.

Fred says that many companies invest in the front end to make sure data quality is good, but they should be investing in the backend to protect data instead. For MSPs to grow, they should move from ‘looking after computers’ to helping manage the business.

He says that BDR is like insurance – hopefully never used, but essential to have. It can be expensive and labour intensive, so Kaseya’s solution integrates the software and technology into the MSP’s RMM and technicians aren’t required to learn how to use new tools.

Mentioned in this Episode

Kaseya
Hybrid Cloud Monitoring: Traverse
Management Software: Vorex
IT Assessment: RapidFire Tools
Data protection: Spanning Backup
Backup: Unitrends
MSP Software Provider: ConnectWise
Business Management System: Autotask
Documentation Platform: IT Glue
Microsoft
Google
Adobe
Book: Leadership and Self-Deception by The Arbinger Institute
Book: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
Book: The Five Temptations of a CEO by Patrick Lencioni

Interview Transcript

Connect with me

Subscribe to TubbTalk RSS feed
Subscribe, rate and review TubbTalk in iTunes
Subscribe, rate and review TubbTalk on Stitcher Radio
Subscribe and rate TubbTalk on SoundCloud
Subscribe and rate TubbTalk on Spotify
Follow TubbTalk on iHeartRadio
Follow @tubblog on Twitter

You Might Also Be Interested In

Why MSPs Should be Selective With the Tools they Provide
Why MSPs need to embrace Marketing

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TunnelBear – VPN for Chromebooks

Every Friday I share one of my favourite finds of the week — a website, tool or an app that has impressed me.

My Friday Favourite this week is TunnelBear – VPN for Chromebooks.

What is it?

TunnelBear is a Virtual Private Networking (VPN) app that helps keep your data secure. It can easily be used on any device — PC, Mac, smartphone, tablet — and uniquely, works especially well on a Google Chromebook.

How can it help me?

A Virtual Private Network service encrypts your Internet traffic to ensure privacy. It is especially important you use a VPN when using public Wi-Fi at cafes, hotels and libraries. If you don’t use a VPN, the traffic you send over the Wi-Fi can be intercepted and used against you.

I’ve written before about Virtual Private Network (VPN) apps such as:-

ExpressVPN – High-Speed, Secure & Anonymous VPN Service
CyberGhost – The All-in-one online privacy app
Hamachi – Free VPN software

All of these VPN apps are available for multiple devices such as laptop, smartphone and tablet — but as a Google Chromebook user, I’ve not found a VPN that can be easily used on a Chromebook.

TunnelBear is the exception. Because it installs as a fully-contained Google Chrome web-browser extension, it makes it easy to use a VPN when using a Chromebook.

(For fellow geeks, yes, I’m aware there are workarounds to install other VPN services on Chromebooks, but for the casual user and the lazy — of which I count myself — TunnelBear’s Chrome extension, which doesn’t require a separate executable install, wins hands-down)

Once you’ve installed the TunnelBear Chrome extension, it’s simply a case of clicking the Tunnelbear button within your browser and your Chromebook’s Wi-Fi is protected.

You can also choose which country you want your VPN tunnel to be associated with, to enable you to circumvent geographical content locks.

How much does it cost?

TunnelBear is free to use up to 500MB of data each month.

An unlimited TunnelBear account costs $49.99 per year.

How can I get it?

Visit the TunnelBear homepage to set up a new account. You can then download the TunnelBear app for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android or Chrome extension.

You can also visit the TunnelBear Facebook page, or follow @TheTunnelBear on Twitter.

You Might Also Be Interested In

Why use a Strong Password?
Why Hotel WiFi should be free
SyncStop – The USB Condom to Protect your mobile phone from accidental syncing and malware

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