Acronis: MSPs See Cost-Savings By Consolidating Tools

A new report shows MSPs see big benefits from cutting down the number of tools they have in their portfolios.

A new report by Acronis has found that MSPs who have consolidated and integrated their tools have saved roughly $230,000 and five hours per cybersecurity incident response. CRNtv discussed the findings in an interview with Gaidar Magdanurov, Acronis’ Chief Success Officer, at the company’s recent #CyberFit Summit 2021 in Miami.

“So, what we see among our partners is that almost everybody’s using multiple tools, and what they see when they look at all the portfolio of the products they have is that it’s very hard to manage and maintain,” said Mugdanurov. “You have to update them on different schedules. You have to look after licenses, but also you have to train your people and that prevents them from [being scalable]. Without consolidation, integration is just impossible.”

The finding is good news for Acronis, a company that specializes in selling an integrated platform approach to cybersecurity. However, critics say that selling a consolidated platform can be difficult since many end-customers may already have some of the solutions within their existing portfolios. Magdanurov responded to that concern:

“That very much depends on how an MSP approaches customers. We see three models: One model is when an MSP offers a service per device or per user, and the customers aren’t making any choices. So, an MSP can replace any tools that are there,” he explained. “Then there’s a second model where an MSP sells basic services and then sells additional services on top of it. And then the third model that we know is when MSPs are selling the service on top. So, they sold the managed service, they support the customer, and then they trying to sell the vendor solution. So, my advice would be to use one of the first models, not to involve the customer in the decision-making process, and standardize when you can.”

Cramer Snuggs, founder of Cascade Technologies, Myrtle Beach, S.C., is among the partners who have figured out the right formula to drive big revenues for his business.

“We were in the middle of the pandemic. Everybody’s working from home. The entire work force had been disrupted as we knew it. So, to go to them and sell them a cybersecurity offering was the next move. It was extremely easy to do so. We put nearly all of our existing clients on a managed security services package as well as the addition of a couple of new clients, which resulted in literally our monthly recurring revenue doubling.”

Snuggs also discussed the value Acronis’ platform brings to his customers, especially when facing a recent attack.

“We were able to stop the attack at the door, and then as a proactive stance we took the client down,” Snuggs said. “That resulted in only four hours of downtime, whereas without that proper stack being in place there’s no telling how long they would have been down.”

Watch CRNtv’s video to learn more.