It was a busy week around the channel, from ThreatLocker’s Zero Trust World conference to the re-emergence of former Continuum CEO Michael George at Syncro, to the formation of The ASCII Group’s AI Committee, to other product and alliance news that MSPs should know about. MSP Success has got you covered!
Community
The ASCII Group Forms AI Committee To Drive Industry Advancement
The ASCII Group, a membership-based community of independent North American managed service providers, has formed an artificial intelligence committee to drive industry advancement. Dubbed the “ASCII AI Pit Crew,” the committee, made up of ASCII members, will serve as a central hub for knowledge sharing.
The group has four objectives:
- Identify – Define key areas for future service delivery within the market.
- Research – Conduct thorough research to assess and validate potential solutions that meet identified market needs.
- Partner – Forge strategic partnerships with new services to enhance offerings for the community.
- Engage – Empower the community by providing market-ready campaigns for the promotion of these AI services.
“Just as our members successfully navigated previous industry shifts, we are committed to equipping them with the tools necessary to embrace the potential of AI,” said Jerry Koutavas, president of The ASCII Group, in a press statement. “One of the challenges MSPs face is identifying emerging trends before they become mainstream, and through the ASCII AI Pit Crew, our members will have analysis and insight enabling them to stay ahead of the curve and seize new opportunities in the AI space.”
Alliances and Integrations
N-able Adds Four New Vendor Integrations To Its Platforms
N-able, an RMM, data protection, and security platform provider, added four vendors to its Technology Alliance Program (TAP), an open ecosystem built for MSPs.
SaaS Alerts, a platform for MSPs to detect and automate the remediation of SaaS security threats, is now integrated with the N-central RMM.
And the following three solutions now integrate with both N-central and N-sight (a cloud-based RMM): Actifile, which automates risk assessments; Enclave, a VPN alternative; and Auvik, a cloud-based SaaS monitoring and management solution.
Atera and Cynet Announce Cybersecurity Alliance
Atera and Cynet formed a strategic partnership that will make Cynet available in the Atera App Center. Atera’s AI-powered IT management platform includes remote monitoring and management, helpdesk, ticketing, and reporting. Cynet is an all-in-one, automated cybersecurity solution backed by 24/7 MDR support.
“Atera-Cynet is one of those technology partnerships that just makes sense. The Atera team’s dedication to optimizing all-in-one solutions for maximum return on IT investment aligns perfectly with Cynet’s strengths,” said Amir Olswang, Cynet’s head of product, in a press statement.
“The future of IT is all-in-one and automated,” said Gil Pekelman, Atera CEO. “Cynet automates security processes like threat investigation and response to automatically resolve incidents 50 times faster. Together, Cynet and Atera is the cost-effective, all-in-one combination IT teams need to secure success.”
NinjaOne and SentinelOne Launch Joint Integration
NinjaOne, an IT platform for endpoint management, security, and visibility, and cybersecurity provider SentinelOne launched a bidirectional product integration that merges IT operations and security to protect the endpoint.
The integration combines NinjaOne’s endpoint management and RMM platforms with SentinelOne’s endpoint protection platform (EPP), Singularity Control, as well as its endpoint detection and response (EDR) and threat hunting solution, Singularity Complete.
With the integrated solution, MSPs can immediately view alerts in NinjaOne for cyberthreats detected by SentinelOne and, with a single click, go directly to that affected device in the SentinelOne console to investigate and remediate. In addition, NinjaOne can notify technicians about threats via SMS, Slack, Microsoft Teams, PagerDuty, or email as well as in the platform. Finally, NinjaOne can deploy the SentinelOne agent to endpoints using policies. Customers who already have SentinelOne instances can quickly utilize the integration to centralize security management within NinjaOne.
Compliance Scorecard and ConnectSecure Introduce Automated Asset Governance
Compliance Scorecard, a governance-as-a-service solution for MSPs, and ConnectSecure, a vulnerability management platform, have joined forces to automate asset governance. Now MSPs can pull inventory data from ConnectSecure vulnerability scans into Compliance Scorecard’s Asset Scorecard, giving them the ability to identify all managed assets and govern them.
ConnectSecure provides real-time inventory from scanned infrastructures, including Azure environments. With the addition of Compliance Scorecard’s Asset Scorecard, MSPs can govern assets by setting a scheduled asset review, see if they are meeting requirements, and work with their clients to get devices reviewed and approved on a regular cadence.
In addition to the Asset Scorecard capabilities, MSPs will also have access to Compliance Scorecard’s Peer Group.
Products
Breach Secure Now Rolls Out Microsoft 365 Productivity Training And Teams App
Breach Secure Now has added integrated Microsoft 365 Productivity Training to its cybersecurity training platform along with a new Breach Secure Now Teams App, bringing the BSN platform directly into the Microsoft Teams client.
The Microsoft 365 Productivity Training includes courses that cover fundamental skills, a dedicated cybersecurity class, and “Nanos,” which are like Instagram Reels / TikTok short format videos, according to BSN. For partners with Google clients, the Google Cybersecurity Training offers a comprehensive approach to cybersecurity education. Users can access the BSN training on their desktop or on the go with their mobile devices.
The expansion of the BSN platform “allows us to help MSPs strengthen their core services and help clients maximize their M365 investment,” said BSN CEO Art Gross, in a press statement. “Built into Microsoft Teams and utilizing native Teams notifications, this will be a real game changer. This innovation is designed to enhance engagement from client employees, addressing a key request from our partners for improved participation in cybersecurity and productivity training.”
The BSN Teams App and the Productivity Training are being released together and are included in the cost of the current and new client subscriptions (Breach Prevention and Productivity – BPP).
TD SYNNEX Increases AI Offerings Through Expanded NVIDIA Collaboration
Global distributor TD SYNNEX is adding to its AI offerings through an expanded collaboration with NVIDIA in North America.
The expansion builds on a collaboration that spans more than a decade, with TD SYNNEX offering a host of NVIDIA platforms, including NVIDIA Omniverse, NVIDIA virtual GPU software, and NVIDIA AI Enterprise for the development and deployment of production-grade AI applications. TD SYNNEX now offers NVIDIA’s enterprise platforms across North America to include NVIDIA RTX GPUs. This represents the full line of NVIDIA products that help enable users and partners to tap into AI-augmented applications, AI model training and development, professional graphics, engineering, and digital twin applications.
The expanded collaboration aligns with TD SYNNEX’s commitment to advancing AI and machine learning capabilities through the TD SYNNEX Destination AI Program, an aggregation of the TD SYNNEX AI services and resources available to help partners gain a competitive edge, including Practice Builder for Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Partner Programs
Cybersecurity Vendor SpecterOps Launches Partner Program
SpecterOps, a provider of adversary-focused cybersecurity solutions, launched a channel partner program. All SpecterOps security products and services will be available to channel partners including BloodHound Enterprise (BHE), an Attack Path Management (APM) platform for controlling the serious risk of Attack Paths in Active Directory and Azure AD/Entra ID. SpecterOps’ security assessments, red team program development services, and their Adversary Tactics training courses will also be available via the channel.
The channel program will include a partner portal, protected deal registration discounts, MDF, not-for-resale licenses, the ability to align on previously direct opportunities, and for partners to add their remediation professional services.
“We’ve done some selective channel sales over the last few years, and now with this formal program we’re fully embracing a channel-first go-to-market strategy,” said Don Landers, channel lead at SpecterOps, in a press statement.
In 2023, SpecterOps raised a $33.5M Series A funding round from Decibel and Ballistic Ventures.
People
Pia Appoints Gerwai Todd As New CEO
Pia, a provider of AI-led automation solutions for MSPs, announced that Gerwai Todd will be its new CEO, replacing founding CEO Christian Pacheco.
Todd, who is currently the CEO of TimeZest, a meeting scheduling tool for MSPs, will continue in his current capacity with TimeZest in addition to taking on the leadership at Pia. According to Pia, the two companies will remain separate, supported by their respective executive leadership teams.
In addition, Pia will integrate with TimeZest, providing MSPs with the ability to categorize tickets in Pia and initiate the scheduling workflow when ticket resolution requires a technician to meet with an end user.
As part of Todd’s appointment, Pia has also fully acquired his company, Triafy, an AI triage product Todd launched in 2019. The financial terms of the deal are not being publicly disclosed.
On the appointment of Todd, Pacheco stated that while he is proud of what the company has achieved over the last 18 months, with most partners now being based in North America, the time was right to appoint the company’s most senior leader in the U.S.
“Gerwai understands the challenges that MSP owners face and how they can benefit from automation,” said Pacheco, in a press statement. “We spent a considerable amount of time searching for the right leader to take Pia forward, and in Gerwai, we have found a natural fit with his experience and vision. I’m excited for what we can achieve with him at the helm.”
Pia will continue to be based within Tampa, FL, and Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
