Kaseya Cloud Tools Surface … At Virtual Administrator
In recent days, I’ve been checking to see if/when Kaseya planned to launch SaaS-centric IT systems management tools for VARs and managed services providers. I just stumbled onto an official answer from Virtual Administrator, a long-time Kaseya partner. Sometime today, it sounds like Virtual Administrator will announce the availability of cloud-based IT systems management tools powered by Kaseya. Take a closer look and you’ll discover some important clues about branding and cloud tool pricing. Here’s the update.
Let’s start with branding. A few months ago, Kaseya‘s forthcoming online tools were positioned as SaaS tools. Now, Kaseya seems to be describing the tools as cloud offerings. The move reinforces the ongoing race to brand and search engine optimize around cloud computing.
Kaseya and Virtual Administrator are long-time partners. Virtual Administrator for more than two years has offered the traditional Kaseya platform as a hosted service for VARs and MSPs. Now, Virtual Administrator is part of the “Kaseya On Demand Partner Program” — which gives Virtual Administrator the right to offer Kaseya’s new cloud-based tools to solutions providers. I’m checking in with additional partner program members to see if they’re set to offer the tools.
As expected, Virtual Administrator is offering Kaseya’s IT Toolkit, IT Workbench and IT Center tools to partners. But there seems to be a new twist on pricing. I could be wrong, but I think the prices listed on Virtual Administrator’s website are more aggressive than Kaseya had planned in early 2010.
Still, it’s important to look beyond pricing. No doubt, product features and functions vary greatly as MSPs evaluate a range of SaaS (oops… Cloud) and on-premises tools.
Longer term, I’ll be curious to see how Virtual Administrator and other Master MSPs balance their Kaseya messaging with additional services. Virtual Administrator, for one, also offers Intronis (online backup), Spam Soap (spam filtering), SonicWall and web site development services. I’ll also be watching to see if Kaseya and other partners make additional cloud announcements this week. I suspect Virtual Administrator’s announcement was timed to coincide with Kaseya’s own cloud efforts…
Small Business Moves
Meanwhile, Kaseya’s cloud offerings arrive one week after Kaseya launched a Small and Medium Enterprise Edition — an on-premises software platform.
I’ve received a couple of calls from readers alleging Kaseya plans to sell SMEE direct to really small businesses and bypass MSPs along the way. But Kaseya says its channel strategy remains intact.
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Joe, thanks for the shout-out! We are excited to have the cloud-based services finally released!
I wanted to put my 2 cents in about SMEE. I too have had a few calls and emails from partners, and what I have reminded them is that Kaseya (or any other RMM package) is a tool, not a solution. Criticizing Kaseya for selling a tool to “end-users” would be like Pulte Homes getting mad because Sears sells hammers. If the guy can build his own house, they really weren’t a potential client, were they? The MSP business is a solution based business… We need to sell the home, not the hammer.
Kaseya has been open and clear about their channels (as you have posted before), and SMEE is nothing that hasn’t already been around for years. I would bet that most of this hoopla is a result of worried competitors fanning the FUD flames, not worried partners.
Chris: Never a need to thank me for a “shout-out.” We strive to cover the industry fairly and responsibly. If/when we miss the mark, I hope you and other readers will let us know. Please keep us posted as you see more business trends.
-jp
VA, congrats on the strengthened Kaseya relationship! Readers, be confident in VA’s continued ability to deliver best of breed solutions to emerging MSPs.
Thanks for the kind words, Kevin. You and the team at SpamSoap have been a valued partner in helping us deliver an easy to support “business in a box” for our community of IT business owners. Joe, in response to your question about what’s next, I can tell you we’ll be looking to add offerings in key areas soon, including help desk and NOC functionality, Hosted Exchange and others. We tend to choose our partners carefully – based not only on price and function, but quality of service and simplicity of interaction. Our partners, both existing and new, will be treated to more ways to generate recurring revenues that follow our “only buy it if you’ve already sold it” model. We’ll have more specifics soon once we have confirmed that our pending vendor additions have passed the test!
Virtual Administrator as part of the “Kaseya On Demand Partner Program” is great move for both Kaseya and VA. I’m sure this will help drive more innovation around tools for IT shops around the globe.
VA has always been a leader in the MSP space as has Kaseya. It’s great to see companies working together to help the community.
Looking forward to more conversations around leveraging the cloud to improve how we all do IT.
Rob/Spam Soap
Congratulations rich and the virtualadministrator team. I look forward to seeing you continue to bring new and innovative ways to help the MSP community.
Also excited to continue growing our relationship as well.
Sam
So what do we tell potential customers when we propose Kaseya to them and can’t touch the pricing from virtualadministrator?
I’m glad you guys are so happy for VA, but for us MSP’s using Kaseya I can’t believe we would be.
Tom, I think Chris alluded to the reality that VA is looking for MSPs who are building solutions, so is Kaseya. If you’re looking to simply resell Kaseya as a stand alone tool to your customers I can see where there would be some frustration. Additionally, VA is in that role of reselling Kaseya as part of a select group of partners.
If you’d like to talk more about this, I am happy to take your call.
Brendan
Kaseya
@cozthegrov
m: 714.928.6074
o: 415.694.5700 x1396