Kaseya CEO: On-premise Software Here to Stay

During a “Tonight Show” style discussion at the Kaseya Connect User Conference that continues now, Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie and President Mark Sutherland are offering their views on cloud computing, Software as a Service (SaaS), IT Resource Planning, open source, iPhone and Google Android support, and the so-called shelfware software problem in the managed services market. Here’s a recap of the session.

Blackie and Sutherland directly addressed many of the conference preview questions I raised on May 14. So, let’s review the questions and I’ll share Kaseya’s answers from this morning’s discussion:

1. Billion Dollar Opportunity?: I openly wondered how Kaseya plans to maintain growth. Blackie said the general consensus is that the North American IT market will move sideways for the next 12 to 18 months, with a recovery to follow. In Kaseya’s case, the company expects to grow through an emerging opportunity called IT Resource Planning (ITRP). He expects ITRP to connect the dots between IT assets and money, so that businesses can more effectively understand their stewardship of IT assets.

2. Global Footprint?: Is Kaseya still growing globally? Blackie mentioned a new partnership with Tata Consultancy Services in India, and I’m interviewing international Kaseya managers later in the week for their thoughts.

3. Market Consolidation?: Will the MSP market consolidate from mergers and acqusitions? Blackie sure thinks so. And he expects Kaseya to remain an independent, growing entity that survives the consolidation. Blackie noted that Kaseya has 300 employees, is debt free and self-funded.

Plus, Blackie predicted rollup consolidation among MSPs that start buying each other to achieve larger geographic and technical reach.

Side note: You can track that consolidation as it happens using our MSPmentor M&A Tracker.

4. Is There A Shelfware Problem?: In recent weeks some MSPmentor readers have told me about a shelfware problem, where MSPs are forced to purchase more licenses than they require.

Blackie didn’t say whether the industry is suffering from shelfware, but he assured attendees that Kaseya’s own licensing model protects MSPs from shelfware. He said Kaseya customers can always downgrade to the number of seats they want to use, plus customers are  free to opt out at anytime.

5. Kaseya Software as a Service?: Will Kaseya shift from on-premise software to SaaS and cloud? Actually, it’s not a “yes-no” answer. Blackie said Kaseya remains committed to an on-premise model for MSPs and “we’re not going to move away from that. A lot of the MSP community members would rather manage on-premise software.”

Still, Kaseya is developing SaaS and online backup strategies. It sounds like Kaseya will offer those online services as an extension to the on-premise managed services software.

Also during the discussion, Blackie and Sutherland described how Kaseya plans to support iPhones and potentially even Google’s Android mobile operating system, which is based on open source.

“Where there’s an open source opportunity we’ll take advantage of it and give back to the community,” said Blackie.

More coverage from the Kaseya Connect User Conference later today.

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