Massive Networks Execs on MSP, MSSP Play in Connectivity

While at ChannelCon, we spoke with executives from Massive Networks about their plans to introduce a new approach to networking through the channel.

Massive Networks offering: modern networking to support SaaS, cloud, and more

Massive Networks describes itself as a provider of high-performance managed networks, focusing on mid-market and enterprise-level needs.

“What we’re doing is new and raw, and we’re building the blueprint that hasn’t been built yet,” Channel Chief Ken Totura said.

The company’s Multi-Connect suite of services includes the following:

• Blended internet capabilities powered by up to five ISPs
• Cloud and SaaS connectivity through segmented private data streams
• Multi-office location connection to extend LAN and avoid public internet and VPN usage
• Massive Networks’ “One Pipe Multi-Connect” delivers data streams through a unified and redundant connection point

Totura touts the privatization of the Internet for clients as a key component of the offering. 

“When you privatize, there are enormous cybersecurity benefits,” Totura said. “It reduces the attack surface. If we’re shifting data transport off the layer three Internet and moving to layer two, you just bypassed a lot of your nation-state actors.”

CMO Keith White and Totura state that the ultimate goal is to reduce operational friction by eliminating the need for multiple carriers and reducing the number of providers involved in handoffs to keep multi-location organizations running effectively. 

“Connectivity is no longer a commodity,” said White. “We’re changing the way that carriers interact with MSPs and our customers. We’ve coined it as ‘carrier-evolved’ and that is shaping the way we approach our relationships and alignment with MSPs.”

Totura also highlights that Massive Networks can fill a gap in what MSPs typically provide to clients. Where most partners will manage a client’s device up until the edge, Massive Networks’ WAN offering provides the additional monitoring and management of the network that most partners today don’t cover.

“The monitoring and the management of the wide area network is not an additional SKU for us, you get it whether you want it or not, and that’s dead serious for us,” Totura said. “Where we begin to ease the conversation is that we’re managed services as well, we’re just managing the WAN.”

“The net result is, if you control your destiny on the WAN side, now you have an end-to-end managed service from the desktop to beyond the edge to the core,” he added.

Educating MSPs on market opportunities and supporting them through enablement

While this all sounds logical on paper, both executives know this is relatively new territory for most partners.

“The MSP channel has not historically embraced the WAN side of the business, and for a lot of reasons. They don’t have any control over it, so it’s a ‘well I’m not going to touch it,’ and carriers don’t have a really great reputation with customer satisfaction and partner satisfaction,” Totura said. “Our messaging is that whether you ignore it or not, it impacts your business, because if things go down, your help desk tickets still spike because your customer thinks you manage all of their technology.”

White and Totura both say they know Massive Networks needs to educate the channel market on not just the technical aspects of the offering, but also on how the offering can expand partners’ revenue opportunities with clients.

“Part of our go-to-market is that we’ve got to rethink the way we’re connecting to the world and the way you’re connecting all of your businesses,” White said. “You don’t have to be a network expert. We can do that for you and be that interface.”

Totura also points out that MSPs who partner with Massive Networks won’t need to hire additional staff or even upskill existing team members as they build out a new services opportunity, because Massive Networks takes on that management.

The company also commits to being “as invisible to the end user as possible,” but is available to channel partners for training or additional resources as needed. 

“If you’ve got a customer going through a digital transformation or having a nightmare network problem, put us on the phone. We’ll talk to the partner and the customer. Our engineers are networking savants, they’ve been there from the beginning, and they can see where it’s going in the future,” Totura said.

Why MSPs and other channel partners are a key part of the company’s growth plans

As the company continues to scale, Totura’s focus is on attracting and enabling MSPs and MSSPs looking for strategic partnerships.

“Traditionally in the telecom space, you work with the telecom agents. It’s a chip shot and that’s table stakes. Where we want to move into is with the MSPs,” Totura said.

To achieve this, the company is focused on identifying early adopters who are interested in the forward-thinking lens that Massive Networks is applying to the connectivity space. Within that grouping, partners who serve businesses with multiple locations and are dependent on various cloud and SaaS providers are likely the ideal profiles for the solution.

“The channel is how we’re going to scale, but we’re looking for quality, not quantity,” Totura said. “We’re looking for early adopters, and those strategic partners who are looking for strategic vendors.”

MSSPs are also finding the offering to be a way to broaden their narrower focus on security.

“We get a lot of traction with the MSSPs, those whose world is around layered security. We talk about adding a layer of security by including the WAN, which is a vulnerable place,” Totura said. “We can help with that, and that improves the end customer’s security posture and it differentiates the MSSP.”

Totura says he and his team will continue to evangelize the brand as they enter the channel, leveraging events like ChannelCon as a way to educate without selling, as partners are introduced to the possibility of shifting end users’ telco spend into MRR through recurring services.