It's day one of Kaseya Connect 2015 and there is a lot to report. This was my first Kaseya user conference but I’m already running into colleagues, including people I’ve only met in the virtual world. What a small community we have.
During the morning's keynote address, CEO Yogesh Gupta provided both a quick look back at some of the company’s product achievements, and offered a glimpse into the future. Here’s a quick summary from his speech.
Proliferation of Mobile Devices and Data Yes, but more to point, MSPs are still in demand to manage theses devices and data. I’m sure this point has been made before but it deserves to be repeated. MSPs living in a cloud world need to understand their evolving role in it. This means, mobility, BYOD, and data security are all new frontiers for managed services. Identity Management as a Service Following closely on mobility, the many ways data can be accessed has easily doubled in the last few years. Identity management is crucial. Why not make it a managed service? I haven’t seen many MSPs doing this, which either makes it a bad idea or just the next big thing. I think it’ll be the next big thing. On the product achievement side of things, Mr. Gutpa listed an impressive roster of new technologies added to the Kaseya VSA platform. They include: “The world’s fastest remote control.” While I cannot guarantee it is the fastest, it is very fast. I saw a demo of it in action. Integrated network and systems management tools in the same platform The Kaseya Application Firewall Going through all the changes Kaseya has seen in the last few years is quite an accomplishment. That the company can boast the highest customer satisfaction level in 3 years, is a testament to Mr. Gupta’s leadership (including the team he’s assembled). MSPs have a lot of choices when it comes to platform management tools. Management capabilities for Office 365 - Kaseya now boasts over 2 million users being mangaged by their Office 365 tool Single Sign On/Multi Factor Authentication Password management Looking Forward As for the future, Mr. Gupta said that Kaseya would be bringing the following features to upcoming releases. Greater parity between Kaseya on premise and cloud platforms Improved testing and MSP feedback prior to products beomcing generally available “Unfettered” access to data, on both the on premise and cloud versions of VSA. Better integration with partners (In an obvious jab at certain vendors who have not been close to Kaseya, it is clear to me that the company does not play favorites with 3rd party vendors and does want to integrate as many tools into the platform as possible). Big Data - this one caught me slightly by surprise. While Kaseya has not previously been known for its “big data” posture, merely mentioning this terms is a shot across the bow for anyone who doubts that the company wants to solidify its position in the mid-market space. Code named “Helios”, this big data It is clear to me that Yogesh Gutpa is bringing plenty of his experiences from CA Technologies (and other past positions) to Kaseya in his attempt to build a juggernaut MSP platform. So far, I would say the MSPs are happy with Mr Gupta’s decisions.
