Responding To Partners, SolarWinds N-Able Acquires BeAnywhere

Responding to partner demand, remote monitoring and management vendor SolarWinds N-able has acquired remote access and support vendor BeAnywhere and is selling its software under a new brand name, MSP Anywhere.

Details of the acquisition were not released.

"There was a huge demand for this," said JP Jauvin, SolarWinds’ general manager. He said the push from the company's partners was a driving force behind the company's decision to make the acquisition.

[Related: SolarWinds Acquisition Of N-Able Leads To Growth For MSPs]

MSP Anywhere is a cloud-based platform that allows managed service providers to have remote support access to Windows PCs and Macs as well as Android and iOS-based mobile devices from almost any device. It also enables users to manage incoming requests and provides a collaborative environment for technicians to deliver customer support as needed.

"I tend to believe N-able will integrate MSP Anywhere pretty quickly," said Patrick Leonard, vice president and chief operations officer of MyIT, a SolarWinds MSP partner. He said the need for a new remote-control tool was the biggest from the company's partner community and he expects the integration will be finished by the end of the first quarter in 2016.

Ottawa, Ontario-based SolarWinds added MSP Anywhere to its product line Thursday, joining the company’s remote monitoring and management platform - N-central - and its management software - MSP Manager.

"I really view this [MSP Anywhere] as the glue to our vision," Jauvin said, adding that MSP Anywhere will soon be integrated into the company's other offerings, replacing the current software, NTR.

"NTR is not a bad product," Leonard explained. But he said it did not integrate well with N-able's other offerings.

MyIT, which makes a minimum of 1,200 connections a day through N-able's platform, could save 10 to 15 seconds of time on each connection, Leonard said.

"You are talking about a few hours of time saved a day, just on connectivity … It’s a significant amount of time," he said.

’We see it as a really great acquisition. … It is a world-class remote tool,’ he added.

MSPs working with SolarWinds N-able found alternative technologies bloated, as well as hard to deploy and maintain, Jauvin said. He added that customers have told him that they were frustrated with competitors’ products because they ended up paying for features they never used.

"We want to make something that is not that," he said. "We want to make something that can get our partners instant value, something that is simple to use, deploy and maintain."

Jauvin said that with the acquisition of BeAnywhere and its technology, SolarWinds N-able has added a product that’s the "most fundamental tool or building block [MSPs] are going to use."

"This acquisition leaves us in an extremely strong, prominent position’ that will make it strong in all three areas: RMM, management software and remote access and support, he said.

Following the acquisition, BeAnywhere partners will continue to collaborate with the company through SolarWinds N-able.

PUBLISHED OCT. 16, 2015