Kaseya Unveils Public Cloud Management Tool To Automate Tasks, Save MSPs Money

Kaseya has debuted a public cloud management offering that helps MSPs simplify, automate and secure workloads in Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google clouds.

The New York-based remote monitoring and management company said its Unigma Cloud Management Suite will help managed service providers monitor public cloud infrastructure, automate routine tasks and optimize cost management through detailed cloud utilization analytics. The core technology comes from Kaseya's recent acquisition of cloud software vendor Unigma.

"Anyone with or supporting a public cloud environment needs this product," Fred Voccola, Kaseya's CEO, told CRN. "We think it's going to change the entire managed services sector over the next three years."

[Related: Kaseya Takes Aim At Competitors With New PSA Migration Solution]

Voccola said the Unigma cloud management suite is best-suited to MSPs with larger customers who are already using the public cloud, or MSPs wanting to move upstream and get a foot in the door with enterprise clients. Some 50 to 60 of Kaseya's 12,000 MSP customers are already using the Unigma offering, Voccola said, and the company expects to add 15 MSPs a week on the product.

Most MSPs are expected to procure the Unigma cloud management suite in a powered services toolkit, Voccola said, which costs $5,000 and includes a bundle of Unigma licenses as well as sales training, marketing collateral, pricing and packaging assistance, run books with objection-handling scripts, and ongoing management and certifications.

Kaseya has set aside $1.5 million to invest in its powered services toolkit, Voccola said, with dozens of employees dedicated exclusively to supporting cloud management tools.

Although Kaseya loses money on the initial transaction with MSPs, Voccola said it pays off in the long-run since MSPs should be able to build a $200,000 to $400,000 business around Unigma within 12 months by selling it into all of their existing customers.

"We use Unigma internally, and saved more than $400,000," Voccola said. "We're going to distribute the hell out of this thing."

Unigma will continue to operate as an independent company within Kaseya, and founder Kirill Bensonoff will serve as CEO and product manager of the Unigma Cloud Management Suite. Unigma employs roughly 15 people, 12 of whom are involved in engineering or research and development, Voccola said.

"Unigma is a leader in providing public cloud management, cloud cost optimization, and cloud billing," Bensonoff said in a statement. "Now with Kaseya's global reach, industry recognition, vast partner roster and extensive customer base, the Unigma Cloud Management Suite is positioned for even greater success and unprecedented growth."

Unigma's cloud manager enables MSPs to monitor instances of AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and other popular public clouds. MSPs can easily correlate events with performance metrics, while the dashboard provides enhanced visibility of performance metrics across multiple clouds, customers and services.

The cloud manager also allows users to automate routine public cloud tasks and schedule maintenance in advance without having to log into different cloud control panels. Users can also create branded and internal reports in seconds, according to Kaseya.

The cloud billing manager, meanwhile, will allow MSPs to more accurately bill for their services by delivering detailed customer usage reports that provide greater visibility and invoice capabilities around individual utilization.

The cloud cost optimizer provides detailed cost insights alongside customized cloud cost savings analysis so that MSPs can easily visualize cloud spending and get cost-saving recommendations for unused and oversized instances, the company said.

Compufit said it would be interested in an offering like Unigma since it does a ton of work around Amazon Web Services, according to partner Dan Lansen.

The White Plains, N.Y.-based MSP transitioned from Kaseya to ConnectWise Automate (formerly LabTech) a few years ago, Lansen said, and hopes their current remote monitoring and management provider comes out with a similar offering.

"Kaseya is clearly recognizing the MSP shift to the public cloud and expanding their platform to capitalize on this transition," Lansen told CRN. "If they [ConnectWise Automate] are able to integrate tools like Unigma into their platform that will help us mange, automate and optimize our clients' public cloud-based infrastructure, this will be very appealing."