Kaseya Preps New Managed Services Release

Competition between developers of managed services platforms continues to intensify as Kaseya International prepares to release a new version of its platform.

And the competition is going global as managed services gains momentum in markets outside North America. Kaseya expects to have equal numbers of partners in and outside the United States in two years.

With each new platform release, vendors say MSPs (management service providers) have fewer reasons to pick their competitors’ technology, and the release of Kaseya’s IT Framework 4.6 is no different. Kaseya executives said the release will come out during the second quarter.

Version 4.6 will feature real-time device monitoring, which will make it easier for MSPs to standardize on the platform, Kaseya officials said. Until now, Kaseya partners have had to turn to the technology of competitors such as N-able Technologies and Level Platforms for monitoring.

“We’ve been working on a real-time monitoring module for the better part of a year,” said Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie. “It’s going to very much simplify the way our MSPs operate.”

Devices that Kaseya partners now can monitor in real time include desktop PCs, servers, routers, switches and printers.

MSPs remotely manage and monitor their clients’ computing environments, taking over some or all IT functions through the Internet and charging customers utility-like monthly fees for the service.

As the model gains momentum in the North American channel, it also is taking off elsewhere in the world, said Blackie. There is no lag in adoption of the model between MSPs in the domestic market and overseas, he said.

“They’re all just as eager, whether they be in Malaysia or the United States,” Blackie said.

Are managed services a threat or an opportunity? Click here to read Level Platforms CEO Peter Sandiford’s take on the matter.

Kaseya’s biggest customer is outside the United States and manages 250,000 machines, he said. About one third of the vendor’s partner base is outside the United States, and Blackie says he expects that share to grow to a full half within two years.

Even though the company’s U.S. headquarters remains in San Francisco, Kaseya has even changed its name to Kaseya International and opened its world headquarters in the island of Jersey in the English Channel to position itself as an international company. This week Blackie is touring New Zealand and Australia to promote the company’s technology.

Besides real-time monitoring, Kaseya’s new release includes such other enhancements as patch management, alerts, IT business process automation, reporting capabilities, and systems configuration and management.

Jim Alves, Kaseya executive vice president of marketing, said the vendor put a lot of effort into alerts in the new release. Alarms are triggered at certain thresholds of utilization so that appropriate remedial action is taken.

For instance, Alves said, a processor that reaches 80 percent utilization for more than 20 seconds or a hard disk that reaches 90 percent capacity triggers an alarm.

“What that kind of information tells you is that there is something going on on that machine that’s going to cause a problem,” he said.

Kaseya’s system, he added, also can pinpoint such events as a printer running low on paper or toner. “Any piece of information that a device keeps track of, you can monitor,” he said.

The vendor beta-tested the new release with about 20 partners, Alves said.

One of those testers is Tampa, Fla.-based Infinity Business Systems. Michael Munoz, a senior systems engineer at the MSP, said he is happy with the enhancements of the platform.

“The monitoring part actually works pretty well,” he said. “Still, there’s a lot of room for improvement.”

Specifically, Munoz said, the GUI is too complicated. “It gives so much information that it’s tough sometimes to see where the problem is,” he said.

Still, Munoz said he expects Infinity will standardize on Kaseya for all its managed services needs. For monitoring, the company has been using Level Platforms technology, he said.

Kaseya’s 4.6 release also will include enhancements to the platform’s backup and disaster recovery module with an eye to increasing flexibility for off-site replication and backup image creation. The module also will boast a new feature for automated and unattended system restoration.