Kaseya Connect Global brings Partner First Pledge, new service
Kaseya's pledge to partners promises more pricing controls and a new subscription service that lets MSPs manage and secure their clients' environments at a lower cost.
- Christophe Bertrand
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Enterprise Strategy Group
We provide market insights, research and advisory, and technical validations for tech buyers.
The 2024 Kaseya Connect Global conference in Las Vegas, from April 30 to May 2, brought in 6,000 managed service providers and direct customers who heard about upcoming cost savings and a new service.
At Kaseya's conference back in 2019, there were less than 1,000 attendees, which shows how popular this event has become. What I saw this year was the culmination of many years of maniacal focus on customers and investments in intellectual property and R&D.
Fred Voccola, Kaseya's CEO, kicked off the event with a much anticipated big reveal -- a new subscription service for MSPs called Kaseya 365.
Voccola set the stage with market trends, calling out the major impact of small and midsize companies on the economy and how digital transformation is now driving technology spending in this segment, just like it did in the enterprise market a few years ago. In other words, for SMBs, data is the business.
Research from TechTarget's Enterprise Strategy Group confirms this and shows that 12% of smaller organizations have implemented and optimized several digital transformation initiatives, while another 41% are in the process of implementing or executing various digital transformation initiatives.
Among other big trends expressed by Kaseya's customer base of MSPs and direct customers, Voccola mentioned the complexity and operational costs of managing too many vendors. Interestingly, MSPs spend close to 10% of their time managing an average of 17 vendors instead of focusing on revenue-generating endeavors, due to a lack of automation and too much IT complexity, while protecting against constant ransomware and cyberattacks.
One of the biggest issues highlighted in his keynote is that due to complexity and cost, many end users wind up being underprotected -- not for lack of trying by the MSPs serving them. This creates a perfect storm for SMBs, exposing them to risks of noncompliance, business interruptions and significant costs to get back on their feet.
Our recent research shows that ransomware is a fundamental existential problem, with 65% of respondents identifying it as one of the top three threats, or even the biggest threat, to their organization's viability. It also shows that smaller organizations are more likely to experience a broad negative impact from ransomware across their organizations and are likely to pay more extortion after an original attack than their enterprise peers.
Voccola also focused on the proliferation of endpoints and data volumes, which compound complexity and operational resilience risks.
Partner First Pledge
Kaseya also launched its Partner First Pledge at the event. This pledge includes the following five key initiatives:
1) All products offered in one-year and three-year agreements.
2) The FlexSpend program expanded to the entire portfolio.
3) Catastrophic client loss protection, so if the MSP loses a customer, their obligation back to Kaseya licensing-wise will be adjusted back down.(The company stated, "When you lose, we lose" and, needless to say, this one was well-received.)
4) Price lock guarantee caps product pricing increases to a maximum of 5%.
5) Month-to-month contracts for Datto business continuity/disaster recovery being reintroduced.
Kaseya 365
A new subscription service, Kaseya 365, will enable MSPs to manage and secure their clients' environments at a lower cost, significantly increasing profitability. Direct customers will also see a reduced price for their integrated protection.
The subscription for Kaseya 365 includes remote monitoring and management, antivirus, endpoint detection and response, managed detection and response (MDR), patch management, ransomware rollback and endpoint backup. It also includes 20 core integrations to automate key workflows for higher operational efficiency. Kaseya 365 is available for $3.99 per endpoint, and Kaseya 365 Express (no MDR) is $1.75. These are "launch" prices.
According to Voccola, the new subscription service benefits everyone. MSPs will see their profits increase by 30 to 50% and will not have to decide what technology to include for their customers based solely on cost, which is good news for end users. End users who do not go through an MSP will also see their monthly bills drastically cut.
Remember, IT is a business whether internal or as a service. This is how you get everybody on their feet, cheering like teenagers at a Bon Jovi concert in the '80s.
Kaseya's position and offerings
So what makes it possible for Kaseya to do this? Here's my take on the top five strengths of the company and its offerings:
- Kaseya is an integration expert with up to 1,500 workflow integrations. It dedicates a significant part of its R&D budget and executive-level attention to integrations. Many of these are driven by client/MSP requests and are thoroughly vetted. This is not something that happens overnight and is likely its strongest differentiator. It also helps to have invested $14 billion in the past 10 years in the product lines.
- Kaseya invested early in AI and machine learning with Cooper Intelligence Engine. When you see everything that's happening in the IT infrastructure, it just makes sense to look for usage trends and ways to automate and build new efficiencies. It includes 20 Cooper bots with the expectation that customers will develop more templates.
- Customer experience -- it's about efficiency, and the easier the platform is to use, especially for an MSP, the more efficient the service and the experience.
- Kaseya has a strong and aligned community of customers and users. Ensuring their success is essential, especially for the MSP business. The recent launch of Kaseya 365 is a good example of their commitment to this goal. The company has implemented various programs to support its MSP base.
- Market relevance -- Kaseya's portfolio covers a lot of ground and meets most of the needs of its market segment, and I expect more components will be added organically or through acquisitions.
I noted the intense focus on compliance, something SMBs might not be experts at -- another trend our research supports. However, protection of SaaS workloads such as backup and access is an area in which I would recommend further support.
The release of Kaseya 365 is an essential development that has been in progress for several years. This marks the culmination of a product and marketing strategy that aims to revolutionize the economics of operating a managed service provider business.
These initiatives aim to provide Kaseya's partners with increased flexibility and prioritize their profitability. As a result, end users can take advantage of an integrated IT offering with a highly competitive cost profile. This will also get the competitors' attention. I expect to see a lot of marketing effort from many parts of the market. The next few months will show us how this strategy is working out.
Christophe Bertrand is practice director for TechTarget's Enterprise Strategy Group, where he covers data protection, backup and BC/DR.
Enterprise Strategy Group is a division of TechTarget. Its analysts have business relationships with technology vendors.
