Rackspace

This update is a direct message from Roy Miehe, CEO of MspPortal Partners, addressing Managed Service Providers (MSPs). Here are the key points covered:

1. **Beware of AI Technology**: Roy warns MSPs about the rapid advancements in AI, particularly its ability to simplify tasks like writing PowerShell scripts. While this may seem like a positive development, the implication is that AI could affect the income of MSPs by automating tasks that once required specialized skills.

2. **Limited Product Recommendations**: The message advises MSPs to focus on a small selection of essential cybersecurity products, which MspPortal endorses:
– **Firewall**: Meraki is recommended as a reliable, moderately priced solution compared to Palo Alto Networks.
– **Antivirus/Malware Detection**: Bitdefender is praised for being a leader in malware detection.
– **Spam Detection**: Barracuda is recommended for spam detection and remote monitoring solutions.
– **RMM (Remote Monitoring and Management)**: Barracuda’s RMM solution is suggested as a reliable, long-standing option.
– **Anti-Phishing Training**: Phishing Box is suggested as a trusted provider for large corporations.

3. **Cost Efficiency**: MspPortal claims that all these services can be bundled for under $6.50 per month, with flat-rate pricing and no contracts, making it an affordable solution for both workstations and servers.

4. **Support and Expertise**: MspPortal offers 24/7/365 support at no extra charge, with a team that brings 30 years of experience in the industry. The emphasis is on service and technical skills, which they believe will help MSPs survive in the evolving tech landscape.

The message is a call to action, encouraging MSPs to adapt to the changing landscape, focus on essential services, and trust in MspPortal’s offerings to keep their businesses profitable.

Roy Miehe | MspPortal Partners Inc. | Ceo/President
Security Software Distributor: Bitdefender , Barracuda, Phishing Simulation & Cyber Security Training
“Where Service and Technical Skills Count”

Are industrywide claims of cybersecurity as a board-level discussion little more than lip service to stakeholders?

COMMENTARY; By Roy Miehe and Raja Mukerji

No organization is immune to today’s looming cybersecurity threats. Whether a large enterprise or a small business, building proactive defenses is critical to day-to-day functions. It’s just as essential to manage cyber-risks as it is to manage other business risks, since successful attackers have the power to financially cripple businesses, damage reputation, and affect continuity.

Amid today’s rising threats — from ransomware and data breaches to the impact of geopolitical and nation-state threats — true cyber preparedness requires the right internal collaboration and tools to bolster business resilience. The responsibility for managing cyber-risk is a collective effort, and everyone plays a role — especially the C-suite.

Are industrywide claims of cybersecurity as a board-level discussion little more than lip service to stakeholders?

My personally comment; MspPortal Partners Inc
Managing over 420 MSP Partners and over 4000 firms amongst them, It is imperative that MspPortal Partners offer best of breed Security Solutions
Firewall Solution on premise
Email Protection (Phishing Malware, detection even phishing training, Backup O365 and GSuite
AntiMalware protection that techs can control, Not like Crowdstrike nor Sentinal One,
that caused one of the biggest tech issue’s/breach over a sys file update, that was distributed by Microsoft and Cloudfare.

AND certainly not Symantec nor Mcaffee..to many startups trying to capture market share with out world like experience let alone providing service and Tech Support via Phone Support. C-Suite are paid way to much for being actors and politics with little or no knowledge of Real Company Security.

MspPortal Partners, does no advertising, has not moved our prices up since we reduced them at the beginning of COVID. We only carry 5 products on purpose..so we can provide level 3 support if needed..most cases are level 1. In most cases we are smarter then the product manufacturers techs

Long Short please do not allow salespeople convince you that there product is better even over pricing; RMM’s are now the leading issue of distributing malware with bad API Hooks beside being over priced and understaffed.

Continued from July 19th 3 Cause’s of the Crowdstrike down in reality

Keep in mind this is my personal opinion..please prove me wrong if you can.

3 Cause’s of the CrowdStrike down
1) Bad Developer file uploaded/downloaded
2) Microsoft Software runs the operating systems sort of like a monopoly, we all know it in reality it is.
3) Distribution of software via Cloudflare

Keep in mind this is my personal opinion..please prove me wrong if you can.

I read something today that shocked me. CloudStrike was going pay techs globally $10.00 coffee vouchers to remove sys file issue. I work with four hundred plus tech firms through out the US I have never heard of a computer Tech working for a $10.00 coffee voucher.
Normal Tech rates run from entry level $50.00 to $500.00 a hour.

(Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp. said Delta Air Lines Inc. turned down repeated offers for assistance following last month’s catastrophic system outage, echoing claims by CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. in an increasingly contentious conflict between the carrier and its technology partners.
Now I am not a strong proponent of Ed Bastien (to full of himself) nor do I fly Delta.

If read/sift through all the garbage it really was all 3 firms that caused the outage.
No matter what OS Delta was running, Windows, Apple, Linux, The Falcon Platform runs on all 3. So in my opinion Delta does deserve the money for the down time.

Even thou in my opinion Mark S Cheffo when :“Even though Microsoft’s software had not caused the CrowdStrike incident, Microsoft immediately jumped in and offered to assist Delta at no charge,” I did not hear they were going to fly Techs to fix all Delta’s machines, for that matter globally let alone Delta

When does a end user or SMB company ever able to talk to Microsoft Support and receive a response within a reasonable amount of time?

So right now I see 2 parties at fault (Microsoft & CroudStrike)
But there is a 3rd party involved, CloudFlare, have you ever asked yourself what they do:Protecting it from online threats and optimizing performance there web Site.

Cloudflare is a company that provides services like content delivery network (CDN), cloud cybersecurity, DDoS mitigation, Domain Name Service (DNS), and domain registration. They help improve website speed, security, and reliability by acting as a mediator between a website’s server and its visitors, protecting it from online threats and optimizing performance.

Cloudflare
American internet infrastructure and website security company
cloudflare.com

Cloudflare, Inc. is an American company that provides content delivery network services, cloud cybersecurity, DDoS mitigation, Domain Name Service, and ICANN-accredited domain registration services. Cloudflare’s headquarters are in San Francisco, California. According to The Hill, Cloudflare is used by more than 20% of the Internet for its web security services, as of 2022. Wikipedia

Now all this is my opinion but should help create and finish a Class Action Law Suit, all 3 need to named as defendants.

Last Pay Your developers and Tech Support folks more money, Take it out of the C-Levels paychecks/bonuses. It appears that most firms have forgotten with out staff the company would be nothing.

Rackspace Email Customers

Rackspace Email Customer,

As we continue our preparations to migrate Rackspace Email users to a new and improved mail platform, we are announcing a change in our spam and trash retention settings.

On November 1st 2022, Rackspace Email will change the retention rules for the spam and trash folders to 30 days. This means that any mail data in these folders older than the retention limits will be removed.

Prior to November 1st, the mailbox owner will need to review the mail in those folders and move any mail they want to keep into another folder. You can view the spam and trash limits for each mailbox by logging into https://cp.rackspace.com

– Mailbox: Navigate to Mailboxes > manage > settings

– Domain: Navigate to Rackspace Email > Settings > Folder Cleanup

This change will help users manage their storage usage automatically, effectively increasing the total available mail quota for most users.

Roy Miehe | MspPortal Partners Inc. | Ceo/President

Security Software Distributor: Bitdefender , Barracuda, RackSpace, Axcient

“Where Service and Technical Skills Count”

Important: Microsoft 365 – Term and Prices Announcement

As a Security Provider of Security Software by Rackspace be aware Microsoft will be reaching into your pocketbook (Wrong) MspPortal Partners refuses to sell O365.

Rackspace offers a Standalone or Hosted mail server and at MspPortal Partners monthly and no contract pricing.

We previously shared an announcement about changes to the Microsoft 365 CSP experience regarding the enforcement of annual-commit subscription terms, price increases on select products, and a premium charge for monthly-commit licenses. Microsoft is now enforcing annual commitments which historically they have not enforced, and they have created an offer for monthly-commitment options but with a premium charge.

This communication serves as a reminder that monthly-commit licenses will receive a price increase due to the pricing premium from Microsoft for monthly adjustment flexibility. As required by Rackspace’s agreement with our Customers, this communication serves as your 45-day notice that Rackspace will begin to pass Microsoft’s price increase through to our customers on July 1, 2022, per the terms of our agreement.

Microsoft is currently not allowing terms to change from monthly to annual commitments. However, we are working closely with Microsoft to provide an option to allow our customers to switch to annual licenses prior to July 1 to avoid the monthly premium should they wish to do so. Please continue to monitor the control panel where you manage licenses, as we will enable this feature via the control panel once we come to a resolution with Microsoft.

In the initial announcement, we announced Microsoft’s price increases on six products, reflected on invoices as of April 1 with pricing as follows (annual-commit pricing, per user/per month):

Roy Miehe | MspPortal Partners Inc. | Ceo/President

Security Software Distributor: Bitdefender , Barracuda, RackSpace, Axcient

“Where Service and Technical Skills Count”

Bitdefender and Microsoft O365 Information IMPORTANT

Bitdefender Policy Update- please apply

Network Protection ->General Settings Section- Check off Besides SSL Scan RDP. Brute Force attacks are happening..it surprises me considering the whole world I thought shutdown RDP on the public side.

Microsoft Changes to O365 user and Resellers agreements

Dear Reseller,

We’d like to take the opportunity to provide you with an overview of upcoming changes Microsoft is making to their CSP experience.

Historically, Microsoft has not enforced their annual subscription terms which has allowed customers flexibility in modifying licenses throughout the annual term. Effective March 10, 2022, Microsoft will be enforcing annual terms, and offering monthly terms for customers who wish to maintain flexibility with license changes. Monthly-term license subscriptions will be charged a 20% premium, however, to help support this new enforcement, Microsoft is offering a promotion for most of the monthly-term licenses. This promotion is effective through June 2022 and is for designated SKUs where the customer has under 2,400 of the same licenses within the same tenant. Customers who do not want to pay a 20% premium for this flexibility will need to move their license to an annual term before Microsoft’s promotion ends in June.

In addition to enforcement of term policies, Microsoft is only allowing a 72-hour time frame during which new subscriptions can change terms or quantities. After 72-hours from the initial purchase, subscriptions cannot be modified until the next renewal period (either monthly or annual).

Think about this the headache you will have trying to do co-terming with you clients. Remember this withing the same tenant, with no time to adjust. We are working to provide a solution and alternative to Micorsoft’s actions

Roy Miehe | MspPortal Partners Inc. | Ceo/President

Bitdefender /MSP Aggregator – Distributor

“Where Service and Technical Skills Count”

Rackspace Email Changes Important

On June 8th Rackspace Email will start making changes to the retention rules for the spam and trash folders. The maximum data retention limits of the spam and trash folders will change to 14 and 30 days respectively. This means that any mail data in these folders older than the retention limits will be removed and unrecoverable. Since an unlimited number of messages can now be stored in either of the spam or trash folders, the option to “Delete After ‘x’ Total Email” will be removed.

Prior to June 8th, you should review your spam and trash folder cleanup settings. If they are higher than the new limits (spam: 14 days, trash: 30 days) then the mailbox owner will need to review the mail in those folders and move anything worth keeping into another folder. You can view the spam and trash limits for each mailbox by logging into https://cp.rackspace.com and navigating to mailboxes > manage > settings.

Please inform your customers of these upcoming mail retention changes by May 4th. We look forward to the benefits these changes will bring to both the Rackspace Email platform and your organization’s mailboxes.

Sincerely,

The Rackspace Email Team