ConnectWise Exec On New Unified Network Monitoring, Management: RMM Will Be A ‘Thing Of The Past’

‘Things are changing and if you can’t see, you can’t control and manage. We felt that networking is a very critical element of what you see and what you control,’ says Ameer Karim, general manager and executive vice president of ConnectWise unified monitoring and management.

Remote monitoring and management will be a “thing of the past,” said one ConnectWise executive, as the software company unveiled its new unified network monitoring and management solution within its RMM offering.

“What we’re looking at is bringing a unified solution,” Ameer Karim, general manager and executive vice president of ConnectWise unified monitoring and management, told CRN. “Having a standard RMM tool isn’t going to be enough anymore. We believe, from ConnectWise’s perspective, that that is going to evolve to be more of a UMM solution, unified monitoring and management.”

Through its partnership with Ontario, Canada-based cloud network management software company Auvik, ConnectWise now brings an all-new solution within its RMM product to deliver network monitoring capabilities.

The UMM solution gives MSPs visibility, proactive monitoring and real-time alerts to maintain performance across customers’ networks.

[Related: ConnectWise CEO: We’re In A ‘Time Horizon’ To Be Acquired]

“We are excited to expand our partnership and work closely to seamlessly embed our solutions in ConnectWise RMM,” Doug Murray, CEO of Auvik, said in a statement. “Together, we enable TSPs to provide their clients with the best proactive managed IT services. This is all achieved via a single pane of glass that addresses the complex problem of managing everything from security devices, network devices and endpoints.”

Karim said MSPs “take care of quick actions” but believes “times have changed dramatically” in that they’re doing a lot more.

“Security is becoming way more important than ever,” he said. “Not only that, but lots of these clients have advanced environments where they have network gear, they have a variety of network switches, firewalls, routers and more IoT devices. Things are changing and if you can’t see, you can’t control and manage. We felt that networking is a very critical element of what you see and what you control.”

ConnectWise already had a partnership with Auvik, but the deep integration directly with ConnectWise RMM partners will provide MSPs with a seamless experience.

“They’re not having to go through different portals, different management consoles, they’re right in RMM, managing the networking,” Karim said.

The benefits of ConnectWise network monitoring and management include complete network visibility, a holistic view of topology mapping of the network, real-time network alerts and advanced network management.

“ConnectWise is doing a great job with addressing overtooling, which has become prevalent in our industry,” Marc Menzies, president and CTO of New York-based ConnectWise partner Overview Technology Solutions, told CRN. “This move follows the approach that ConnectWise is taking in unifying their toolset under familiar branding but with an ever increasing umbrella of coverage.”

Paco Lebron, CEO of Chicago-based ConnectWise partner ProdigyTeks, said it is a “huge help” to have solutions all in one spot, “especially with a vendor partnership like Auvik.”

“I do agree we are heading into an era where the RMM will go away into a fully managed system of all things cloud and more,” he told CRN.

Karim said as the partner landscape is changing, partners’ needs are changing as well.

“We need to provide that as part of a default solution out of the box so our partners have visibility of all the networking equipment,” he said. “We’re driving efficiency for the partner. It’s increasing productivity for the technician because now they don’t have to open up multiple screens and go back and forth. At the end of the day, they have a much lower cost in bringing that network capability because now it’s part of our bundled solutions.”