RapidFire Tools, Kaseya embark on 100 points of integration
MSPs will see tighter integration between an expanding RapidFire Tools product line and Kaseya software in the coming months; more news from the week.
By
John Moore and Spencer Smith
Published: 31 May 2019
Users of RapidFire Tools Inc.'s IT assessment and compliance tools will see greater integration with parent company Kaseya's product line for managed service providers.
Kaseya acquired RapidFire Tools in September 2018, one of several Kaseya purchases over the past year. Michael Mittel, president and general manager of RapidFire Tools, also has responsibility for the integration platform underpinning IT Complete, Kaseya's IT management suite that includes remote monitoring and management and professional services automation (PSA). Mittel said he has been talking with Kaseya business unit managers, engineers and customers to find opportunities for linkages between RapidFire Tools and Kaseya software.
"We have identified more than 100 integrations, and we are now scheduling those for implementation," Mittel said. "We have made a decision to actually focus on that to a higher degree."
Some integrations have already been rolled out, and additional integrations will emerge over the course of 2019, he said. The Kaseya integrations will help managed service providers (MSPs) "become more productive and offer more services," he added.
We have identified more than 100 integrations, and we are now scheduling those for implementation.
Michael MittelPresident and general manager, RapidFire Tools
While RapidFire pursues tighter integration with Kaseya software, the company will continue to support API integration with third-party software firms, such as PSA providers ConnectWise Inc. and Tigerpaw Software, Mittel noted.
Amid the Kaseya integration, RapidFire Tools is expanding its own product line. The company this week took the wraps off a new offering that aims to assure cyber insurance policyholders that insurers won't reject their claims. Audit Guru for Cyber Insurance is a compliance process automation tool that helps policyholders document and demonstrate the principle of due care. Organizations that fail to employ adequate security measures may have their claims denied when they attempt to recover from a data breach.
Michael Mittel
Cyber insurers, in general, "require the client to use due care in regards to its security" and specify conditions the client must meet for a claim to be paid, Mittel noted. Audit Guru for Cyber Insurance scans a customer's network and creates a risk analysis and management plan that an MSP can use to remediate issues and "keep the network hardened from a security perspective," he said.
MSPs may also use the audit tool to address their own cyber insurance compliance challenges. Some MSPs have purchased cyber policies at a time when the service provider sector has been increasingly under attack.
"We got feedback from MSPs that this is something that would be of value to them, as well as their clients," Mittel said.
Mission, Agosto obtain funding
Mission Inc. and Agosto Inc., two cloud-oriented consultancies, received funding this week.
Mission, based in Los Angeles, said it has closed an additional $15 million of equity funding from Great Hill Partners. The company said it will use the funding to "further accelerate" the growth of its managed public cloud services business, which is based on the AWS platform.
Great Hill Partners initially committed up to $75 million to launch Mission, which came together through acquisitions. Thus far, $40 million of that capital has been invested. The new funding will target organic growth through 2020, according to Mission.
Agosto, a Minneapolis company that focuses on Google Cloud, said it has obtained $6.5 million in capital from Bridge Bank and SG Credit Partners. The company said the funding will help it build out its Google go-to-market strategy, add sales and marketing personnel, and promote Skykit, a digital signage content management system built on Google Cloud Platform.
ReFirm Labs recruits partners for firmware security offering
IT security startup ReFirm Labs has rolled out its inaugural global partner program.
The program offers benefits and support for selling the company's Centrifuge Platform, a subscription-based firmware validation and monitoring tool. Partners can join the program at three tiers -- Bronze, Silver or Gold -- to gain access to financial incentives, specialized training, and sales and technical support. ReFirm said it is looking to recruit VARs, distributors, systems integrators and managed security service providers into the program.
"Today, many [channel firms] have managed service offerings around detecting vulnerabilities on an organization's network or in their applications stack. We are seeing firmware validation and integrity checking as a service offering that managed service providers could provide to their customer," said Robbie Robbins, vice president of sales and business development for ReFirm Labs, based in Fulton, Md.
ReFirm has seen early success in the telecommunications industry, where the Centrifuge Platform is used to vet and validate the OEM hardware firmware that telcos receive from their suppliers, Robbins said. The company sees broad vertical applications of its technology. ReFirm has seen interest from the medical device industry, industrial manufacturing, aerospace and defense, cyber insurance and the smart automotive space. "Firmware is the common dominator of everything electronic," he said.
ReFirm has global ambitions for expanding its channel footprint. At the program's launch, ReFirm's roster of partners include Taiwanese service provider Systex Corp., Japanese solution provider Soliton Systems and Australian distributor Emt Distribution. Robbins said ReFirm will seek channel growth in North America and Europe in the coming months.
While ReFirm will maintain its direct sales arm for now, the company aims to derive 100% of its revenue from the channel within three years, Robbins noted.
Blue Prism, Kofax pursue intelligent automation
Blue Prism and Kofax aim to make robotic process automation (RPA) more intelligent and are working with partners to meet that objective.
Blue Prism, an RPA vendor based in the United Kingdom, this week entered a technology alliance with CognitiveScale Inc., an AI software provider. The partnership targets intelligent process automation, a field that brings together software robots and AI. Blue Prism will make CognitiveScale's Amplify AI product suite available on its Digital Exchange platform, beginning with the AI company's Process Insights Agent. That product extracts, interprets and unlocks knowledge and predictions in complex documents and business processes, according to Blue Prism.
Kofax, meanwhile, launched an Intelligent Automation platform, which includes RPA, cognitive capture, process orchestration, analytics, and mobility and engagement. In addition, in the third quarter, Kofax will open an Intelligent Automation marketplace. Kofax, based in Irvine, Calif., said the marketplace will let its customers and 650 business partners develop prebuilt RPA robots and connectors based on the Intelligent Automation platform.
Other news
HP Inc. expanded its program for incentivizing and rewarding North American partner sales reps. The HP Blue Carpet incentive program now features the GEM Club, which the vendor described as being loosely based on retail loyalty and rewards programs. The GEM Club will be available until May 31, 2020.
Avanade, a Microsoft-Accenture joint venture, has partnered with Akumina, an employee experience platform vendor, to create Flight, an offering geared toward large organizations planning to launch branded digital workplaces.
HarmonyPSA said its latest software upgrade, V. 4.19, lets MSPs sell Harmony to customers as their internal service desk, permitting escalation to the MSP if an issue requires outside assistance.
Distributor Ingram Micro launched a new IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) program for qualifying VARs. The ITAD Processing Partner Program offers training for performing ITAD functions in-house, Ingram Micro said.
Ingram Micro also revealed it has expanded its operations in France. The company signed a definitive agreement to purchase French cybersecurity distributor Abbakan. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter, Ingram Micro said.
Through a new integration, MSP software vendor ConnectWise will provide endpoint security tools from ThreatLocker on its platform. ThreatLocker focuses on application whitelisting.
ServerCentral Turing Group, a managed IT infrastructure service provider based in Chicago, has appointed Thomas Johnson as its chief information security officer (CISO). Johnson is an adjunct professor in the cybersecurity and digital forensics department at Illinois Institute of Technology. He previously was a security consultant at Peters & Associates, where he served as CISO for organizations in the healthcare, banking, government and manufacturing verticals.
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Michael Mittel
