NaviSite Eyes Remote Management Services

Several trends under way are causing MSPs to focus less on moving customers' IT infrastructures into their data center and more on remotely managing customers' existing IT environments.

"Customers are looking for more and more control over their computing infrastructures, [but much of their computing resources are spread out, and it's not easy or cost-effective to move them into our data center," said Sidney Kuo, product business unit manager at NaviSite.

The remote management services, called Always On Managed Hosting, encompass networks, servers, databases, operating systems, storage and Oracle applications.

Partners have the opportunity to receive a portion of the monthly fee for the services if they refer a customer to NaviSite.

NaviSite is targeting customers of all sizes, including an unnamed customer with 1,000 sites, and educational institutions, Kuo said.

"A number of higher-education institutions have IT staffs during the day, but students are still online researching or communicating with their classmates at night," he said. "They still need the same high availability at night as they do in the day."

Last month NaviSite switched hands when ClearBlue Technologies (CBT) acquired the majority of both HP Financial Services' and CMGI's stakes in the managed hosting provider.

CBT acquired HP Financial Services' $55 million convertible debt position and 3.2 million shares of NaviSite common stock, as well as CMGI's 76 percent equity share. CBT also bought warrants for 5.2 million shares of common stock and a $10 million convertible note from CMGI.

As part of the deal, HP Financial Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard, will have a minority equity position in CBT as well as a CBT board position.