Technology firm CEOs are usually very good at drumming up excitement about forthcoming announcements. After all, if they can’t get hyped up about what’s coming down the road, why should the rest of us?
Normally there are a few teasers here and there and, very often, the inevitable leak(s) so what once promised to be a big-bang reveal ends up being a much quieter affair.
There are also the secrets that buck the loose lips trend and get to stay that way (at least internally anyway) until the holder(s) of said secret are ready, willing, and able to go public.
Kaseya is one company that currently falls into the latter category. Something big and – by the sounds of it pretty awesome and potentially game-changing for MSPs – is coming this way very soon. Soon in this instance means at some point during the firm’s Kaseya Connect Global event, due to be held in Las Vegas at the end of April.
That’s what Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola teased to an audience of assembled MSPs at one of its events in London at the end of February.
Cards close to Kaseya's chest
With ChannelPro in attendance, the event saw Kaseya share lots with the audience, from background info on where we’ve come from as an industry to what’s coming in the immediate future as well as down the road. But it was the almost mic-drop ending statement that piqued everyone’s interest.
“What we’re about is trying to make sure that an MSP - powered by Kaseya - is the best in the world. Not just the best technically, because you have automation, but the best commercially as well. You grow the fastest, you make the most money,” Voccola says.
“I will say that we have a really, really big announcement that we’re [making] at our event in Las Vegas in April. MSPs powered by Kaseya will not be able to be competed with. Our goal is to make [those] in this room so much better than the other rooms that may be out there that everyone wants to come into this one. We’re super excited about it and it’s because of folks like you that we’ve been able to.”
Over the last decade in the build-up to this big reveal next month, Kaseya has invested some $17bn into this space, according to Voccola.
ChannelPro was able to meet with Voccola after his keynote session, with quite a lot of questions in mind to get through and the intention to probe into this hotly-anticipated news coming downstream imminently.
Whatever it is, it’s pretty big. Given the firm’s strong acquisition history and willingness to talk quite openly in that respect, it doesn’t feel like the big announcement will fall into that camp.
But Voccola isn't one to be drawn on giving away any further details, try as ChannelPro did to get the scoop.
“I am the worst secret keeper in the world! This is hard... I genuinely love the fact that our customers, and my customers, are business owners and we’re going to make them all so happy,” he gleefully says.
“One of the most important parts of life I’ve been thinking about lately is enjoying the ride. It's not just the result. You’ve got to enjoy the journey. And this has been a great journey. And this next milestone, I am so excited for it.”
Voccola says 2024 would be the year everyone says “Oh my goodness, look at what Kaseya did. Oh my goodness, I get it.”
He continues: “I really believe that the mark that we're going to make with this announcement, and what this announcement means to this industry, will be one of the most, if not the most single pivotal events for the better… It will be the year that Kaseya makes every MSP incredibly happy. And those that aren’t powered by Kaseya incredibly sad."
A competitive route for cyber insurance
While speculation regarding the upcoming announcement is likely to draw much debate and hog the limelight, it was not the only topic focused on during the recent Kaseya event. Far from it. Indeed, security and the increasingly pivotal role of MSPs in securing their customers dominated.
One key highlight was the additional peace of mind and protection Kaseya is offering MSPs with its Cyber Security Insurance Track. This will offer £1.5m of protection in the UK (at massively below market rates) and launches here in the next quarter following a successful first phase in the US market last year.
“It's been wildly successful, and it's huge,” Voccola says. “It's yet another differentiator for MSPs powered by Kaseya. It's another differentiator that they have that separates them from other industries.
Cyber security was cited as a top revenue driver for the majority (73%) of MSPs, according to Kaseya’s MSP Benchmark report, which was published in March.
Despite this, it can still represent a challenging sell, particularly if the customer an MSP is talking to hasn’t had firsthand experience of being a target, according to Voccola.
“It's very easy to sell security to someone who has experienced the security issue.
"It's the easiest thing in the world. And they couldn't spend enough. For those who have not yet - and the key word is yet - experienced a security issue, it's not real yet,” he says.
“That makes the MSP’s job super easy for someone who has been hit. And for someone who hasn't, it's difficult.”
This is where, Voccola adds, Kaseya’s model really helps MSPs provide what’s required without losing out financially.
He adds: “Security is about layers, and layers, moats and fences, and guard towers etc. We provide a complete security platform to our MSPs at such a competitively low price, that if their customer is not willing to pay for that – EDR, for example, or for that managed SoC or for that security awareness training, as three examples – the MSP can afford the Kaseya kit that does that. Even though the customer is not going to be paying for it, they can still afford to do it.”
It’s just as well the model works like that, because security threats and businesses’ exposure to such issues – especially small businesses – isn’t going away any time soon, particularly as the number of endpoints and, therefore, targets increases.
Voccola used a dentist's practice as an example here, saying years ago there was maybe one computer used in this setting.
“Today, you have appointment scheduling done by a computer that integrates with your phone. The phone system is a computer, it's a VoIP system, the X-ray device that does your X-rays, it's a digital device, which means it's a computer,” he says.
“You can't clean someone's teeth, you can't do a root canal anymore, if the computers are down in the dental office. So [it’s likely in] 2024 that the dentist spends more with their MSP or their IT and security provider than they do any other business service, including marketing. That transformation is hitting every single vertical industry in the world. They're now dependent on tech. So that transformation is massive.”
Using AI for internal innovation
It’s very difficult nowadays to have a conversation with someone working in IT without talk turning to AI, as it did in our interview with Voccola, because Kaseya has something called the Cooper AI engine (Cooper being Voccola’s dog), which it continues to build on over time.
“I think AI is a very powerful tool. And people can't forget that. AI for the sake of AI doesn't make sense. AI is a tool that can be used for companies, Kaseya included, to accelerate and drive innovative outcomes. We are very realistic about it. We try to be very transparent and upfront about it, in that it's a great tool to help make outcomes happen faster with fewer errors,” he says.
“Someone asked me in an interview the other day ‘Do you think AI is going to eliminate the need for IT engineers?’I thought it was a joke, but it wasn’t. It doesn't make sense. AI will make IT engineers much better. AI is making the Kaseya platforms so much better.”
Voccola continues: “I think AI will allow MSPs to become more profitable. Because people like Kaseya are building so much more automation, so much faster. , I think [AI] is going to be very beneficial for this market as a tool, not as an entity amongst itself.
“I think the idea of an AI-based IT person that eliminates the need for an MSP is hilarious.”
