Kaseya 2 Updates: What’s Home Grown and What’s OEMed?
Earlier this week MSPmentor noted that Kaseya had launched multiple Kaseya 2 updates — including new modules for management and security. I was confused on a few points. On the module front — especially in the areas of security and storage — I wanted to determine what Kaseya had developed on its own and what Kaseya had licensed or leveraged from third-party software partners. Here’s the quick update…
The new modules include:
1. Security
- Kaseya Antivirus: KAV leverages a relationship with Kaspersky Lab (by coincidence, Kaspersky is hosting an Americas partner conference in Mexico this week, where some hosted security surprises may surface). Kaseya previous promoted AVG as its anti-virus partner. Gerald Beaulieu says MSPs can continue to leverage the AVG offering, but the Kaspersky-based technology provides additional partner choice.
- Kaseya Antimalware: KAM leverages technology from Malwarebytes. Beaulieu says MSPs started mentioning malwarebytes to Kaseya about a year ago, which triggered this eventual integration.
2. Business Continuity
- Kaseya Backup 4.0: This is based on storage technology from Acronis.
- Kaseya Online Backup: KOB is home-grown technology, Beaulieu says, and integrates with Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). This is a particularly interesting move by Kaseya — positioning the company to potentially compete with a range of online backup and cloud storage rivals. (Deeper details on TalkinCloud.)
- Also, keep an eye on AppAssure, which provides application-centric backup (for services like Exchange and SharePoint). I’m hering AppAssure buzz from several Kaseya-centric MSPs.
3, Discovery
- Network Discovery: This leverages MRTG (Multi-Router Traffic Grabber). It was originally developed by Tobias Oetiker and Dave Rand to monitor router traffic, but has developed into a tool that can create graphs and statistics for almost anything, notes WikiPedia.
- Network Monitoring: I think this is home grown.
4. The overall Kaseya K2 v6.1 update offers more on-premises and cloud enhancements, scaling up to 20,000 objects per on-premise server, Beaulieu said.
Who Is Integrating with K2?
Meanwhile, Kaseya continues to promote a third-party integration program for the K2 platform — but so far the list of ISVs that officially integrate with K2 is pretty short.
Noticeably absent are numerous online backup and security companies that plug into rival RMM (remote monitoring and management) platforms. Admittedly, K2 is less than a year old and plenty of companies may actually plug into K2 without promoting the fact on Kaseya’s site.
Still, the bigger story seems to be Kaseya’s ability to extend its own brand into new markets… including online backup. We’ll be watching that effort closely.
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