There was a flurry of announcements made last week during ConnectWise IT Nation Connect, with companies using the conference as the jump-point for news, updates and future initiatives. One of those announcements was made by our pals at Pax8.

During the conference, on Halloween, no less, the company announced a new partnership with Nerdio, an Azure solution for MSPs. Through the agreement, Pax8 will offer Nerdio for Azure (NFA) and its three service plan offerings — Core, Professional or Enterprise — helping to increase seamless cloud adoption and enabling MSPs to leverage Azure for any size project.

Pax8’s Ryan Walsh

“We help our partners navigate the complexities of Microsoft solutions to drive more market adoption,” said Ryan Walsh, chief channel officer at Pax8, in the initial announcement. “That is why we are excited to partner with Nerdio. NFA offers MSPs Microsoft Azure deployment, pricing, packaging, management and optimization solution. This makes it simple for partners to build and grow successful cloud practices in Azure.”

We sat down with Walsh at IT Nation Connect to get the full scoop.

The IDC is saying that worldwide public cloud services spending will more than double by 2023, and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) will be the second largest category of public cloud spending throughout the forecast. This partnership is advantageous as it will make the cloud transition as seamless as possible for Pax8 partners.

“When we think about the cloud buying journey, it starts with quoting something, ordering it, selling it, delivering it, onboarding it, supporting it and billing it — and then you do it all again. That’s our world,” said Walsh. “Nerdio has a platform that makes it really easy for MSPs to build an Azure cloud practice. And a part of their features was built specifically from the ground up for MSPs. Not all cloud products do that.”

Nerdio got it right, according to Walsh. They know that managed service providers are utilizing Azure for their customers. And so they built this platform to make it very easy for those MSPs to build an Azure practice. Specifically, and this is one huge trigger driver, is Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop. So Nerdio makes it really easy for an MSP to take advantage of delivering a virtual desktop solution to their customers.

“You have two things that just changed the game,” said Walsh. “One is Microsoft comes out with Windows Virtual Desktop. And by doing that, they simplified what is required to build a virtual desktop; they reduced the complexity. Not only that, they reduce the fail points that partners would ordinarily have to have put together. They’ve just made it easier, more seamless. It’s kind of a no-brainer.”

Microsoft made it cheaper and faster, and then in comes Nerdio, which works with Microsoft, and they’ve taken all the guesswork out of things. Sounds like a match made in cloud heaven, eh?

“Stepping outside of it being a good product for a second — if it influences, makes it easier or better on the buying journey for a customer or MSP, then…

…that makes it even more robust and unique. Nerdio does that,” said Walsh.

Nerdio’s Joseph Landes

The partnership with Pax8 and Nerdio will help organizations seamlessly migrate to and benefit from Microsoft’s public cloud. “By offering Nerdio for Azure through Pax8’s marketplace, more organizations will have the ability to harness the power of Azure in the most efficient way possible, adding value to all of our mutual partners and customers,” said Joseph Landes, chief revenue officer at Nerdio.

“I think it’s just going to accelerate these opportunities for MSPs, and I think it’ll get them off the fence, because the complexity, or not knowing exactly how to put all this together, was real,” concluded Walsh. “Now you have Pax8, and you have Nerdio trying to address that and make it easy. The reception that we’re seeing from partners is them saying, literally, ‘Thank you. Finally.’”