MSPs are in the right place at the right time to capitalise on increased appetite from SMBs to work with a partner.
So claims Datto, which used its European conference in Paris this week to showcase innovation and outline how the channel can capitalise on such developments.
Datto CEO Tim Weller marked his circa one-year anniversary at the helm of the company by welcoming a throng of MSPs to what he described as the biggest and best version of the gathering yet.
“I’m a little bit blown away by the sheer size of this. [There are more than] 850 MSPs here – that’s almost twice the amount of DattoCon Barcelona. The channel is exploding,” he said.
“This conference is five times larger than DattoCon London just two years ago.”
Weller talked of the $100bn of IT now being managed by MSPs, adding that $27bn of it was focused on Europe.
“You’re in the right industry at the right time. Smart money is following this massive growth,” Weller said.
“MSPs are a community. They will share with each other and at the same time be competing in the marketplace. That $100bn is enough for everyone.”
Industry analyst firm Canalys has said there’s been a 25% YoY increase in SMB spend on managed services. The firm has also said that 57% of EMEA SMBs aren't currently using any form of managed service.
This, coupled with the increase in conference attendee numbers, shows the size of the prize, according to Weller.
“There are very few industries that are growing at 25%. The source of that growth is complexity. That complexity is very hard to keep up with. When you put [everything] together, even the savviest customer is overwhelmed,” he said before going on to detail a multitude of new product announcements and enhancements.
Datto announced the following at DattoCon Europe:
*Cloud Continuity for PCs – an all-in-on BC solution, which makes backups constantly and defends PCs against attacks from ransomware, loss or theft - is now available in Europe and Canada. It means MSPs can recover a complete PC image or file without needing access to the local appliance.
*New native integration between Datto Networking and Datto RMM in a bid to enhance and streamline end-user support. This is possible by ensuring partners have seamless access to information on capacity, performance, related devices and are able to remotely control ports – all without incurring additional costs.
*Datto RMM gets SSO to reduce the number of login prompts when moving between different products. 2FA will also be initiated to protect from unauthorised access.
*The SIRIS 4 BCDR portfolio of devices is gained by a new product featuring Intel’s Skylake CPUs. This will boost power and error-correctly memory availability to ensure more reliable backups.
*Autotask PSA receives an update that adds a Microsoft Active Directory integration that will aid billing as well as boosting security. The Configuration Item UI has also received a makeover to make it much easier to manage multiple assets and devices discoverable by an MSP’s RMM.
*A new onboarding process for SaaS Protection, which is designed to make it much easier for MSPs to grow their business and add new clients.
The firm also announced expanded support for Microsoft Teams backup including Files, Conversations, and Calendar meetings, in addition to multiple other Continuity updates.
When it comes to security, specifically, Weller said that smaller businesses are particularly vulnerable to attack. However, he also acknowledged that those with malintent are increasingly likely to focus their efforts on MSPs as, by doing so, they will be able to potentially gain access to multiple SMB information.
"You and your customers are under attack and security is front of mind," Weller said.
"MSPs are now under direct attack. We think about security from the inside, out. We build security into all of our products and we're upping our game there."
Focusing on the roadmap announced at DattoCon, Weller said: “Openness drives choice. Choice drives competition. And competition drives innovation."
He concluded his keynote by saying: “I opened [this keynote] by saying there has never been a better time to be an MSP. And I believe that. Let’s go attack this opportunity together…”
