Kaseya doubles-down on the SMB opportunity for MSPs at DattoCon Europe 2024
Cyber security and IT management software firm Kaseya kicked-off its DattoCon Europe 2024 partner event at the Dublin Convention Centre - a venue located on the site of the old dockyards, now almost unrecognisable except for a few remaining red brick buildings. The transformation of this part of Dublin - replete with shiny new offices housing the likes of Salesforce, KPMG, PwC and others - is a reminder of the digital transformation of Kaseya’s own customers and their clients: Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and the small- medium businesses (SMBs) that they provide IT solutions to. It was clearly a popular event, boasting 1,500+ industry attendees from across Europe who were provided with three days of keynotes, breakout sessions, roundtable discussions, training and networking sessions.
SMB Digital Transformation
On Day #1, CEO Fred Voccola took the stage to outline the opportunities that Kaseya partners can expect to realise by continuing to focus on the SMB sector, a section of the market often overlooked by other technology suppliers. IT spending relative to the percentage of GDP has been a key factor in the digital transformation of the enterprise sector over the last 20+ years, but Voccola was keen to point out that this is now happening in the SMB sector, driving the business opportunity for MSPs.
It's an opportunity recognised by many of Kaseya’s business partners. Kevin Lockhart, MD of Couno IT Solutions - a UK-based IT services provider - described how his firm were an early adopter of Datto solutions (prior to its acquisition by Kaseya in 2022). With clients in the financial services and legal sectors, Couno offers cloud data backup and disaster recovery for small business using Datto’s BCDR & 365 offerings including for cyber security. As Lockhart explained, most of Couno’s clients are regulated by the FIA, so compliance and regulatory reporting is an essential requirement. This can be a difficult task for many of the smaller SMB firms, so Couno provides security audit and certification services using a well-used UK government framework. Couno is a long-term member of Kaseya’s partner program and sees value in core aspects including matched- MDF, pre-sales support from subject matter experts as well as the networking events.
Partner Program Refinements & IT Complete
This kind of feedback is something that Kaseya’s EMEA VP of Business Development, Greg Jones - responsible for the firm’s global partner program - would be pleased to hear. With a growing partner base of over 50,000 companies, he outlined how the growth in demand for on-premise and cloud-based business continuity and disaster recovery solutions is driving significant new business globally. Kaseya’s partner program structure follows a common industry tiering system - Access, then Silver, Gold, Platinum and Blue Diamond - based on partner size and revenue. Kaseya differs somewhat in that each partner is given a dedicated partner manager, unlike many software suppliers who will often group the smallest partners under one resource.
Products under the Kaseya brand number around 35, covering remote monitoring & management (RMM) and endpoint management, security, audit and compliance, unified backup, business services, and networking. Despite the broad range of topics, products are structured to fit within the company’s IT Complete platform - a solution-based positioning that Kaseya believes provides a more holistic “one-stop-shop” for MSPs to better run their businesses and service their customers.
The Quick Tech Take
DattoCon Europe 2024 was an impressive partner event for a number of reasons, not least in terms of number of attendees and the clear level of engagement. Kaseya’s approach is a step up from many other technology suppliers, offering a level of marketing and business development support usually only seen with IT distributors. It’s a reflection of the needs of Kaseya’s partner ecosystem - those smaller MSPs addressing the SMB market who do not have the deep pockets or skill sets of larger systems integrators and VARs. That said, there is still some work to do on positioning the product portfolio: IT Complete is an astute way of articulating a diverse product range, but the message was often obscured by lengthy, feature-specific updates that distracted from the concept of a smoothly architected platform. Given the positive commentary we received from partners at the event, perhaps Kaseya needs to have more confidence in its strategy that the whole is better than the sum of its - very diverse - parts.
