GridVision to Launch Disruptively Priced SaaS-based IT Management Platform for MSPs

New York-based GridVision is launching a new multi-tenant automation and IT management platform with disruptive pricing designed for small- and mid-sized businesses and for managed service providers (MSPs). MSPmentor spoke with CEO and co-founder Christian Ehrenthal and Product Manager Neil Karnik to get the details.

The software-as-a-service platform is currently in beta and available here: http://www.grid-vision.com. It’s due for general availability in November. It provides monitoring and management of Windows-based endpoints and servers as well as cloud-based implementations of these servers and popular applications such as Microsoft Office 365. Windows Surface tablets are supported.

There are no plans currently to support other operating systems such as Apple’s Mac OS and iOS, Google’s Android, or Linux, but Ehrenthal told me the company would look at feedback from MSPs and other customers when planning its roadmap.

Pricing is as follows:

• The community edition is free of charge and is for those with fewer than 100 users.
• The Pro Edition, which is multi-tenant and aimed at MSPs, is 50 cents per device per month and 25 cents per user per month.

The GridVision platform performs inventory, maintenance, performance monitoring and event monitoring. The platform enables an MSP to create separate organizations for customers, but manage all those separate customers from single login. GridVision lets MSPs manage multiple Active Directories, instances of Azure and instances of Microsoft Exchange Server.

Automated scripts?

There is also a global run book with more than 100 predefined automation policies, Karnik said. “Based on feedback that we’ve gotten from customers, we’ve added the most basic tasks.” For instance, repairing Outlook or backing up event logs.

“Ninety percent of what SMBs will need can be handled right out of the box,” Karnik said. Community forums can help MSPs learn how to implement other automated tasks. “We encourage all our users to participate here so we can turn this into a really powerful product.”

ConnectWise, Autotask, TigerPaw integration?

Karnik said a web API for GridVision is coming in Q1 2015 and will enable the platform to integrate with other applications. When I asked Karnik and Ehrenthal about ConnectWise, Autotask, TigerPaw and other PSA integration, they pointed to the upcoming web API release.

Anyone out there participating in the beta of this? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.