Uncle Marv’s IT Business Podcast: Practical Business Advice for MSPs and IT Professionals

DePalma's been at it a year since jumping from Datto and Kaseya to OpenText's massive operation—25,000 employees, billions in revenue, but they give his team real autonomy to hit numbers without micromanaging. They've streamlined everything into one Secure Cloud portal, fixed Microsoft 365 pains with better UX and 98.7% in-house support, and launched partnerships that enable MSPs, not compete—like Hats AI for managing client LLMs securely. No more competing product silos from the Zix/AppRiver days; now it's one account manager, transparent pricing, month-to-month terms, and focus on filling your stack gaps, especially for N-Able partners.

Chapters:

Guest: Michael DePalma, OpenText 

Shout-outs

Companies / Vendors / Products Mentioned

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=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

Robert Johnston’s journey goes from Marine Corps cyber operations to running incident response at CrowdStrike, to founding Adlumin and ultimately landing inside N-able as Chief Innovation Officer. We unpack why SIEM and MDR used to be “Fortune 500 only” tech, and how Adlumin intentionally built a cost-efficient, easy-to-use, channel-first platform that MSPs could actually deploy for community banks, credit unions, healthcare, and other compliance-heavy clients.

We also talk through the reality for most MSPs: you’re not going to hire 15–20 people to staff a 24×7 SOC, but your clients still expect enterprise-grade protection. Robert explains how MDR lets vendors aggregate security talent and software so MSPs can operate more like MSSPs, and how N-able now ties everything together with three pillars of business resilience: pre-breach hardening, real-time detection and response, and post-breach recovery with Cove.

Chapters

Guest: Robert Johnston, N-able (Adlumin) 

Companies / Vendors / Products Mentioned

=== SPONSORS: 

=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

I sat down with Lewis and Steph from the N‑able Head Nerds crew to unpack what’s really changing in the MSP game: your clients don’t want another tool, they want outcomes and business resilience. We get into the shift from “cybersecurity” as a tired buzzword to a more powerful story around keeping doors open, maintaining revenue, and helping business owners survive their worst day without getting lost in the weeds of MDR, UEM, or whatever the latest acronym is.

We also talk through CMMC, governance, and compliance as real revenue opportunities instead of scary alphabet soup. Lewis shares how he’s building executive‑level tabletop exercises and resiliency pulse checks, while Steph walks through practical ways MSPs can package services, improve their websites, and run profitable executive business reviews without immediately throwing money at another tool. We close by talking about why events like Empower matter so much for MSPs who actually want to grow and not stay stuck in a vacuum.

Chapters

Guests

Shout-outs

Companies / Vendors / Products Mentioned

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

Frank and I sit down at Empower 2026 to unpack where N‑Able is investing, how AI and UEM are reshaping endpoint management, and what that actually means for MSP service catalogs, pricing, and security offerings. We get into the control-plane vision for UEM, the action layer for security, and how N‑Able is using Enzo and its head nerds to turn field lessons into repeatable playbooks and automation MSSPs can actually execute.

We also talk about the human side of the channel: why Frank is still fired up after 23 years, how N‑Able works with 25,000 partners worldwide, and why peer-to-peer sessions at Empower often drive the next set of features and acquisitions. Frank shares how Empower is going on the road, what he’s hearing in one‑on‑one conversations about AI monetization, and why MSPs should be talking AI strategy in every QBR, even if clients haven’t figured out their plan yet.

Chapters

Guest: Frank Colletti, N‑Able

Shout-outs

Companies / Vendors / Products Mentioned

=== SPONSORS: 

=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

Mike Wise runs Clockwork Networks as a one-man MSP, and he’s doing it intentionally. This wasn’t about staying small because he had to—it’s about building a business around efficiency, standardization, and control. We talked through how he niched into tax professionals and compliance-heavy clients, and how that decision simplified everything from tooling to service delivery.

We also got into security, specifically identity-first approaches and passkeys. Mike shared how leaning into Microsoft Entra ID and eliminating passwords has helped prevent real-world attacks. This is one of those conversations that challenges the idea that growth always means hiring more people. Sometimes growth means doing less, better.

Chapters: 

Guests: Mike Wise, Clockwork Networks

Florida Man Stories

N-Able Empower 26 News

Shout-outs

Companies / Vendors / Products Mentioned

=== SPONSORS: 

=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

We dig into how their MSP quietly turned into a “ticket factory” where work piled up, documentation was thin, and a 20‑year employee held way too much tribal knowledge. From there, Dawn and Dave break down the specific steps they took to fix it: rebuilding processes, enforcing documentation standards, killing weak level one roles, focusing on root cause analysis, and putting real accountability around metrics like reopen rates and first‑time resolution. By the end, you’ll hear a practical roadmap for turning chaos into a more predictable, proactive IT services operation.

Why Listen

Chapters

Guests

Companies / Vendors / Products Mentioned

=== SPONSORS: 

=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

In this conversation with Tim Coach from Cynomi, I pull back the curtain on what it really takes for MSPs to offer vCISO, cybersecurity, and compliance services that actually make money instead of creating headaches. We talk about how to move beyond buzzwords, use the right tools, and turn security conversations into long-term, high-value relationships with your clients.

Why listen

Chapters

Guest: Tim Coach, Cynomi

Companies / vendors / products mentioned

=== SPONSORS: 

=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

This episode is all about the gap between what we say we're delivering and what's really happening on our clients' networks. I brought in Frank Raimondi of IGI Cybersecurity to make the case for a proactive, left-of-boom approach to cybersecurity — treating network health the way a doctor treats a patient: ongoing monitoring, honest conversations, and a real duty of care. Whether you're dealing with noisy alerts, nervous about what a scan might turn up, or trying to figure out where AI fits into your security stack, Frank and I gave you the straight talk you need to hear.

Chapters

Guest: Frank Raimondi

Companies / Vendors / Products Mentioned

=== SPONSORS: 

=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

If you’re buried in tickets, tools, and “urgent” alerts, this conversation with Rick Harber will feel like a lifeline. We unpack how he’s using automation, AI, and Liongard to triage tickets in six seconds, protect margins, and manage by exception instead of chaos.

Chapters

Guest: Rick Harber, Decision Digital

Florida Man

Shout-outs

Companies / Vendors / Products Mentioned

=== SPONSORS: 

=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

If you’ve ever stared at NIST, CIS, or SOC 2 requirements and thought, “Where do I even start?”, this episode is for you. Jared Casner from Blacksmith InfoSec joins me to break compliance out of the checkbox trap and show MSPs how to turn security frameworks into real, billable services your clients will actually value. We cover practical steps, real stories, and a simple way to talk about compliance without scaring or confusing your customers.

Chapters

Guests

Companies / Vendors / Products Mentioned

=== SPONSORS: 

=== SHOW MUSIC: 

=== Connect with Uncle Marv

🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/
🎙 Host: Marvin Bee
🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ
☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast

If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.