10 Of The Hottest Products And Services For MSPs In 2024

Whether it’s the latest in AI and security, new storage devices, or new services to help customers improve their business prospects or processes, CRN has it all covered.

A lot of technology, whether it’s hardware or software or services, sits behind successful MSPs. And the search for the latest ways to improve their managed services never ends.

Whether it’s the latest in AI and security, new storage devices, or new services to help customers improve their business prospects or processes, that search led many MSPs to the recently concluded XChange NexGen event in Houston last week.

That conference gave MSPs the opportunity to explore new technologies and services, network with peers, and gain business insights to help them provide better managed services to their clients.

A key feature of the event is the products and services that vendors show or demonstrate to MSPs and which are aimed at helping MSPs learn how to improve the value of their businesses.

Vendors at XChange NexGen, which was held by CRN parent The Channel Company, showed a variety of products and services ranging from simple hardware devices to services aimed at helping them find ways to increase the value of their business as part of a strategy to perhaps get acquired.

Security was a key focus of the hot products and services shown at the event. That was no surprise, given the fact that MSPs have become an important attack vector for actors looking to destroy or control the data of companies who depend on MSPs for services.

Another big highlight was AI, which was no surprise given how many MSPs are dipping their toes in the AI waters in order to work with businesses who are still confused about what the technology means to them.

CRN collected information on ten of those vendors looking to make deals with MSPs. For details, click through the slideshow.

Convilo

Convilo was founded in 2023 by CEO Nathan Phinney as a way to help MSPs grow their business and eventually prepare for a sale of their company. Phinney brings to Newport Beach, Calif.-based Convilo his own experience of building and selling an MSP, in his case Bright Bear Technology Solutions where he served as president and co-founder until mid-2020 when the company was acquired by Datapath.

“Now I'm working as a consultant with other MSPs who want to do some of the same things I did, improving their sales pipeline, getting them SOC 2 compliant, and then positioning their business for acquisition,” Phinney told CRN.

Phinney used NexGen to talk with MSPs about the importance of recurring revenue vs. product and project sales.

“I think a lot of MSPs are still hooked on that, and need to transition to a services-focused model,” he said. “A lot of is having your processes in order, which is something that SOC 2 can help with, because you're bringing in someone outside the organization to audit them and validate that they're doing all the things they're supposed to be doing. That's valuable to a strategic buyer. And it's a pleasure getting to be on the other side of it and to get to talk with people about how to get where they want to go with what they've been doing.”

ScalePad

ScalePad products are designed to streamline processes related to inventory management, asset tracking and reporting. Their suite of tools provide detailed insights into hardware and software inventories, ensures data protection and recovery and helps MSPs generate detailed reports on asset status, compliance and more.

Their offerings automate many routine tasks, allowing IT teams to focus on more strategic initiatives while helping reduce the risk of data loss and compliance issues.

IBM

IBM representatives came to XChange NexGen 2024 to tell attendees about the tech giant’s Partner Plus program.

The Armonk, N.Y.-based vendor known for its products in artificial intelligence, cloud, storage, mainframe and other technological areas has been investing in a partner program that brings partners with a variety of business models resources such as demand generation and education and training to meet customer needs, according to IBM.

During NexGen, IBM announced an expanded partnership with Microsoft that brings products from its Apptio subsidiary to the latter’s Azure Marketplace.

In IBM’s latest quarterly earnings, the vendor reported “good traction” in its enterprise AI business, growing $1 billion quarter to quarter with a mix of consulting and software placing them “in an early leadership position.”

airSlate 1-click Custom Documents

airSlate develops business document technology that lets businesses electronically edit documents, create PDFs, build e-signature forms, and do advanced document generation, said Jared Weiner (right in photo), partner account manager for the Brookline, Mass.-based company.

“So basically, at the end of the day, we can handle any businesses document needs,” Weiner told CRN. “DocuSign and Adobe are our two biggest competitors.”

airSlate was at NexGen talking about how it can take businesses document needs to what Weiner called the next level.

“I mean, honestly, at the end of the day, we offer high quality products at a really fair price,” he said. “We come in between 35 [percent] to 50 percent less than Adobe and DocuSign, and we can do almost anything in the world of digital business documents.”

At NexGen, airSlate was showing its new one-click custom document builder, Weiner said.

“With one click of the button, we can create a custom document out of any application,” he said. “[Our competitors don’t] do that. So if you're working in Salesforce, NetSuite, Microsoft, and so on, you can click one button to create a custom document that's fully customized for essentially one of your customers. As long as you fill in the information in the fields within your CRM or ERP, once you click that button, the documents are automatically created in a docx file.”

Appearing in the photo with Weiner is Kure Daher, another partner account manager for airSlate.

Fortinet

Fortinet offers a range of products and services designed to protect organizations from cyber threats. Fortinet is particularly known for its FortiGate firewalls, which are recognized for their high performance and advanced security features. With products like FortiAnalyzer, FortiManager and more, the company’s security architecture allows for seamless integration of its various products, providing comprehensive protection across the entire attack surface.

Its hardware is optimized for high throughput and low latency, making it suitable for demanding environments. Additionally, its threat intelligence provides real-time threat updates, ensuring that their products are equipped to handle emerging threats. With innovative security solutions, Fortinet helps organizations safeguard their networks, data and applications against evolving cyber threats.

TruNorth Dynamics

TruNorth Dynamics bills itself as a one-stop shop of experts of Microsoft’s Dynamics customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) tool. The vendor positions its capabilities as helpful to Microsoft partners looking to build or boost a Dynamics practice.

The Castle Rock, Colo.-based vendor also has expertise in Microsoft PowerBI, allowing for the transformation of raw data into actionable insights.

TruNorth has a variety of offers on Microsoft’s marketplace, including customer engagement discovery calls and a Dynamics 365 system onboarding experience.

Cyrisma

Cyrisma, a developer of an all-in-one cybersecurity risk management software specifically for MSPs, used NexGen to introduce a new compliance capability, said Samuel Maloney, senior sales engineer for the Rochester, N.Y.-based company.

Cyrisma’s software was built for MSPs by former MSPs to eliminate tool fatigue, Maloney said. “We have a lot under one umbrella. It's an all-in-one product. Whatever we come out with, we're gonna give it to you. We don't offer a pro version or anything. The stack includes sensitive data scanning, vulnerability scanning, and security baseline against CIS benchmarks. We've just released a full compliance module with assessments where you can go through a full HIPAA assessment, for example, and map to those controls and allow your client to upload evidence or assign those questions to them to answer. We also have dark web monitoring.”

That compliance module helps eliminate the separate tools typically used in cybersecurity, Maloney said.

“A lot of people would go to other tools to just get that one piece of it, but throwing that into a platform that does vulnerability scanning and everything, when the customer comes to you and says, ‘I need a CIS assessment,’ you can actually create it with a 30-day assessment window with us,” he said. You're not licensing anything in there for 30 days. So if the customers want to move forward the managed service from you, you can convert that to manage it. If not, you can just remove it.”

HaloPSA

HaloPSA provides professional services automation (PSA) solutions with a focus on enhancing operational efficiency and improving service delivery. The PSA platform integrates multiple functionalities including project management, time tracking, billing and customer relationship management (CRM). It also helps businesses manage their service delivery effectively, providing a centralized system for all operations.

The platform can integrate with various third-party applications and services, allowing MSPs to connect their existing tools and streamline workflows across different systems.

HaloPSA incorporates automation features to reduce manual tasks, improving efficiency and minimizing errors in service delivery and allows for customization of workflows, templates, and reporting formats.

Buffalo Americas Expands Ransomware Protection

Buffalo Americas used NexGen to show the new ransomware protection technology the company has added to its TeraStation 5000 and TeraStation 3000 product families. Bill Rhodes, channel sales leader for the Austin, Texas-based company.

That ransomware technology, which was introduced earlier this year with the company’s TeraStation 7000 family, is available as a free firmware update, Rhodes said.

“It doesn't just detect that there's an abnormal file structure change,” he said. “It actually fires off an immediate snapshot once the file change is detected, and then it notifies you so you don't have to go do the snapshot yourself. Pretty cool.”

Nerdio

Nerdio offers products to manage and optimize the cost of Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Intune and Windows 365.

The Chicago-based vendor offers a Nerdio Manager for Enterprise product aimed at enterprise IT professionals and a Nerdio Manager for MSP product to meet the multi-tenant needs of solution providers.

The vendor recently unveiled a strategic partnership with the Center for Internet Security, the East Greenbush, N.Y.-based nonprofit responsible for the CIS Critical Security Controls and CIS Benchmarks best practices for securing IT systems and data.