Kaseya Fans Flames Of MSP Market

Once complementary—but soon to be rival—MSP platforms that perform SNMP monitoring, such as those from LPI Level Platforms, N-able Technologies and SilverBack Technologies, will no longer be needed when Kaseya IT Framework version 4.6 arrives in May, said Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie.

Furthermore, device monitoring products typically used in conjunction with MSP platforms from vendors such as BMC Software and Ipswitch also can be decommissioned with version 4.6, he said.

Tom Beckman, customer network operation center manager at Infinity Business Systems, an MSP in Tampa, Fla., who has used N-able in the past and considered building a custom MSP platform using Hewlett-Packard’s OpenView, will discard LPI as the device-monitoring end of Kaseya once 4.6 arrives, he said.

“We knew [4.6] was coming, and we knew Level Platforms was a short-term Band-Aid,” he said. Beckman said he is also in talks with customers about how SolarWinds device-monitoring products will be replaced by 4.6.

Barry Monies, president and CEO of Computronix, an MSP in Stamford, Conn., who has used MSP products from Zenith Infotech and N-able, has customers who will no longer need to pay for BMC Performance Manager—formerly BMC’s Patrol product—once 4.6 arrives, he said.

BMC, which opened a separate MSP business unit 18 months ago, is not threatened by Kaseya, said Chris Johnson, director of BMC Managed Services, Houston. BMC has its own ambitions in the enterprise MSP market—beyond point products to complete, outsourced MSP solutions, some of which leverage partnerships with other MSPs, he said.

Peter Sandiford, CEO of LPI Level Platforms, Ottawa, said while Kaseya has played catch-up with the rest of the MSP vendors that already offer monitoring, LPI has expanded its products’ capabilities while adding many former Kaseya customers.

San Francisco-based Kaseya offers interest-free financing, low downpayments and starts at around $12,000 for about a 500-seat license, Blackie said.

Computronix paid in the range of $75,000 for a 1,000-seat license and recouped the investment in about six months, Monies said.