A few hundred managed services providers (MSPs) are set to attend the N-able Partner Summit later this week (Oct. 20-22, Scottsdale, Ariz.). So, what managed services trends can we expect at the conference, and what messages will N-able CEO Gavin Garbutt deliver to the crowd? Here are five clues and predictions from MSPmentor.

Joe Panettieri, Former Editorial Director

October 19, 2010

2 Min Read
N-able Partner Summit: Five Trends Worth Watching

nable partner summit 2010

A few hundred managed services providers (MSPs) are set to attend the N-able Partner Summit later this week (Oct. 20-22, Scottsdale, Ariz.). So, what managed services trends can we expect at the conference, and what messages will N-able CEO Gavin Garbutt deliver to the crowd? Here are five clues and predictions from MSPmentor.

1. The Theme: N-able hopes to show attendees how to achieve 100 percent IT coverage with their customers. That’s a tall order. We’ll be watching to see how N-able intends to help partners make that a reality.

2. Heavy Hitters: I’m not positive, but I believe Rackspace, Google and Microsoft will be on hand to discuss their various cloud computing partner initiatives. It should be a healthy discussion; I can’t recall of another conference where the trio agreed to sit on a panel together to help educate MSPs.

3. Expanded Executive Suite: During previous N-able Partner Summits, CEO Garbutt and VPs Mike Cullen and Derik Belair led most of the major strategic company discussions. But this time around, we’ll be watching and asking about COO JP Jauvin‘s impact at the company. After consulting with N-able for quite some time, Jauvin joined the company in June 2010.

4. Mid-Market Moves: As you may recall, N-able routes mid-market sales leads to partners. We’ve spoken with a few solutions providers that have sold N-able’s software into mid-size enterprises. No doubt, Garbutt will try to accelerate the mid-market channel strategy during the summit.

5. More Freemiums?: At the 2009 conference, Garbutt unveiled a freemium endpoint security strategy. The effort allowed N-able partners to leverage free endpoint security licenses as a means to attract new customers. By September 2010, N-able was back with a freemium backup strategy, through a partnership with CA Inc. Where is Garbutt taking the freemium strategy next? We’ll be watching and listening for clues.

If you’d like to potentially meet at the N-able Partner Summit, I’m attending on Thursday and Friday. Post a comment below or send email to Joe [at] NineLivesMediaInc [dot] com.

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About the Author(s)

Joe Panettieri

Former Editorial Director, Nine Lives Media, a division of Penton Media

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