MSP Executives Jumping to Cloud Companies

Written by samdizzy
July 9, 2013

Key executive leaders at Boundary, Datto, EmeCloud and independenceIT were MSP industry pioneers. Now, can they help the channel to master cloud services?

The trend is undeniable: Many executives who pioneered the MSP (managed services provider) software and technology market, as tracked by MSPmentor, are jumping to channel-friendly cloud services providers (CSPs). Key examples involve MSP experts joining Boundary, Datto, EmeCloud and independenceIT.

Here’s a closer look:

1. Boundary CEO Gary Read: He previously was CEO of Nimsoft, the IT management software company for MSPs and mid-market enterprises. Read successfully sold Nimsoft to CA Technologies for about 10 times revenues (or about $350 million) in 2010.

Read surfaced at Boundary, a start-up, about a year ago. The move caught Talkin’ Cloud’s attention because Boundary’s cloud-based IT operations management software has helped customers to navigate Windows Azure and Amazon Web Services outages. More recently, Read described Boundary’s relationship and integration with Google Apps Engine.

Is Boundary just a cloud-based monitoring platform? Not at all. Read has bigger ambitions for Boundary — which Talkin’ Cloud can’t quite share just yet.

2. Datto VP of Business Development Rob Rae: Best known as a partnership expert at Level Platforms, Rae yesterday confirmed plans to join Datto, effective Aug. 5. When AVG Technologies annoucned plans to buy Level Platforms last month, Datto came calling for Rae with an opportunity that was “too good to pass up.”

AVG expects Level Platforms to generate a healthy $15 million worth of subscription revenues for 2014. But Datto — focused on the cloud-based backup and disaster recovery (BDR) market for MSPs — is bigger and growing far more rapidly. Rae will play a key role as Datto seeks to maintain its rapid growth.

3. EmeCloud VP of Sales Maurice Saluan: EmeCloud offers desktop as a service (DaaS), hosted email, and SaaS solutions that channel partners can white label. Saluan’s move to the company was confirmed earlier today.

Saluan built a loyal following during his previous post at Zenith Infotech, which offers private cloud solutions for MSPs but is still navigating a debt default legal case from 2011. Saluan also helped to pioneered sales and training in the RMM and NOC (network operations center) markets befure Zenith Infotech sold those assets to Continuum in 2011.

EmeCloud faces plenty of competition in the cloud services market for MSPs. Potential alternatives include Channel Cloud, independenceIT (see below), OS33, SMB Nation’s Cloud Nation, and giants like Google Apps and Microsoft Office 365.

4. independenceIT VP of Business Development Jim Lippie: The company offers a range of cloud solutions that allow MSPs to position against Office 365 and desktop as a service options.

Lippie previously led Thrive Networks, an MSPmentor 501 company that Staples acquired. While at Staples, Lippie worked closely with MSP-centric software companies like N-able Technologies. When Staples adopted independenceIT’s technology, Lippie was so impressed that he made the career move.

Will the career moves end there? Absolutely not. Amid a range of recent MSP software industry buyouts (Kaseya purchasing Zyrion; SolarWinds buying N-able; AVG buying Level Platforms), it’s a safe bet we’ll see more career leaps in the days and weeks ahead. And in many cases, the MSP experts are jumping for cloud opportunities…