Kaseya Buys 365 Command To Boost Cloud, Management Tools

With two recent acquisitions under its belt, Kaseya announced Thursday its newest buy: 365 Command, a Microsoft Office 365 management solution for managed service providers and IT organizations. The move bolsters the Switzerland-based company's growing abilities in the cloud and mobility management market.

By replacing Microsoft's Windows PowerShell and leveraging the 365 Command solution, MSPs will be able to easily manage and administer the Office 365 cloud application suite, said Yogesh Gupta, CEO of Kaseya.

"Microsoft has done really well with Office 365 and gained tremendous momentum in the marketplace. ... Businesses are looking to move to the cloud with a lot of different things and Exchange email is one of those things," said Gupta. "However, at the same time, Microsoft does not provide easy-to-use user interface to administer and manage the Office 365 environment."

[Related: Kaseya Rolls Out SaaS-Based Performance Monitoring Platform for MSPs ]

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

According to Gupta, the 365 Command software runs directly in the cloud and can be set up in minutes, allowing customers to use the product right away.

365 Command will ultimately benefit IT staffs administering Office 365, simplifying and making it easier for them to manage the popular productivity tool, said Gupta.

"With Office 365 now becoming a larger part of what needs to be managed, 365 Command does the management," said Gupta. "[IT staff] can easily ... manage devices, mobile devices, both private and public cloud infrastructure and now Office 365."

365 Command has gained a wider audience in the channel recently thanks to a major distribution agreement with Tech Data. 365 Command is currently managing more than 850,000 mailboxes from almost 2,000 clients worldwide.

Steve Lawson, principal consultant of Alberta, Canada-based Bulletproof InfoTech, a Kaseya partner for the past seven years, said he believes the 365 Command integration will help his company manage Office 365 clients.

"It will be one less portal that out techs will have to log into to manage our customers," said Lawson. "It brings a quicker response to simple things like password resets, etc., which will decrease the time our customers have to wait for resolution."

Chad Mosman, founder of 365 Command, and those involved in the development of the 365 Command offering have also joined the Kaseya team. As Kaseya expands in the channel, the solution is one step toward providing MSPs with the capabilities they need to expand cloud management opportunities, Gupta said.

"365 Command already has 100 reseller partners, and those partners are joining Kaseya as our partners as well," said Gupta. "We see this as a real win for the partner channel. Kaseya is very much alive as our partners are a component of our growth, and without them, it would be challenging for Kaseya to grow."

PUBLISHED OCT. 25, 2013