Monday of this week started with a leadership shakeup at ConnectWise, and the channel news just kept coming, including a new partner program from JumpCloud. Other news MSP Success doesn’t want you to miss includes the new bundled offering from HaloPSA and NinjaOne. And there’s other product news from Infoblox, Zyxel, Bitdefender, Compliancy Group, and more. Plus, be sure to scroll all the way to the end to find out where one of your fav channel community leaders has landed. The company name may or may not include a number … happy reading!
Products
HaloPSA Rolls Out New Bundled PSA/RMM Offering With NinjaOne
At its first user community conference, ORBIT24, held at McLaren headquarters in Woking, U.K., HaloPSA announced a bundled offering with NinjaOne as a single license with what the company calls “a great price.”
VP of Product Strategy Pete Bretton told attendees that the bundled offering provide three key benefits to MSPs. “One is the best RMM and the best PSA in the market for the first time together, bought together at a great price. We know that price is really important. We know great product is important, we know great support is important, and we’re bringing these two products together to give you that as a partnership. Number two is, all of our MSP partners who buy the bundle together get single-source procurement, single-source billing, and NinjaOne’s best-in-class support. So you’re able to have one vendor to go to when something goes wrong, or something goes right, to get the support that you need to grow and be effective as MSPs.”
Third, he said, the bundle is designed for smaller MSPs that traditionally haven’t had access to Halo.
Asked if the pricing bundle is a competitive response to Kaseya 365, Rahul Hirani, SVP of product management at NinjaOne, told MSP Success this: “You can always expect that all of our partnerships and product development are customer-driven. We’ve had a close partnership with Halo for a while. Our MSP customers need both a strong PSA and RMM solution. Our integration with HaloPSA brings together these best-in-class solutions to best serve our customers. Together, we make MSPs more efficient, secure, and productive.”
However, NinjaOne user Corey Kirkendoll, president and CEO of 5K Technical Services, an MSP in Allen, Texas, does view it as a competitive response to Kaseya. “This is a direct response to what Kaseya is doing. I think you will see this with all of the big vendors. They are finally responding to bundles and better pricing that we as MSPs have been asking for, for a long time. It will simplify some of our biggest pains like billing and reconciliation.”
Founded in 2011, HaloPSA executives said the company has reached $100 million in revenue and serves over 4,000 MSPs across 77 countries. Leadership has publicly committed to remaining independent and declares on its website: “As of 13th June 2023, we’re adding to our contracts that we will not be involved in any mergers, acquisitions, or private equity deals for a rolling 10-year period.”
At ORBIT24, founder Pau l Hamilton said HaloPSA will be leaning into MSP partners to achieve their growth goals and will be protecting partner margins. “The only way we can actually achieve our goals at a billion dollars is to have a very, very partner led strategy That’s, as you know, very core to our philosophy. It’s going to become increasingly core to our philosophy and more and more of our resource is going to be channeled into working with our partners. It’ll be absolutely key and we’re absolutely set as well at sharing that success with our partners. You can have my word that we will not be squeezing partner margin at any point in time.”
Infobox Reimagines DDI
Infoblox, a cloud networking and security services provider, announced their new Universal DDI Product Suite. A first for the industry, this will allow MSPs to fully integrate their cloud-based, hybrid, and on-premises infrastructures. The Universal DDI Product suite will include DNS, DHCP, IP address management (DDI), and asset insights, all accessible in the Infoblox portal. “[Universal DDI] allows cloud teams to move fast, while giving them the visibility and control they need to manage the network effectively,” said Mukesh Gupta, CPO at Infoblox, during the announcement webinar.
Finally, the product suite will be available with three delivery options: via physical server, via virtual server, and as a service. The new Infoblox NIOS-X as a Service offering will allow businesses to consolidate their assets without having to manage or deploy any infrastructure themselves.
For those who aren’t ready to make the switch yet, the grid NIOS will still be available. Gupta assured attendees of the announcement webinar that Infoblox will continue to invest in and improve the original grid system as well.
Zyxel’s New PoE Extender Makes It Easier To Deploy Networks Across Outdoor Spaces
Got a customer expanding to a larger space? Zyxel Networks’ new Power-over-Ethernet extender, the PoE12-3PD, is a cloud-managed device that makes it easier for MSPs to extend network connectivity to cover larger outdoor areas, across large internal floor spaces, in historical buildings, or over extended ranges without sufficient power outlets.
“Many smaller businesses prepare themselves for expansion, but often find moving to bigger offices can cause connectivity headaches,” said Kell Lin, associate vice president of networking strategic business unit at Zyxel Networks, in a press statement. “That is why we have developed a plug-and-play solution that empowers SMBs and MSPs to deploy networks in complex environments with ease and confidence.”
Capable of delivering a total power budget of up to 45W through three PoE+ downlink ports, the PoE12-3PD allows multiple PoE clients—such as IP cameras, access control systems, IoT devices and smart home devices and sensors that are typically installed outdoors or in the hard-to-reach corners of a building—to be connected. The PoE12-3PD can operate in temperatures from –20°C to 50°C (–4°F to 122°F). It can be used on both wall mounts and pole-mounts, and features an IP55 enclosure, 6KV surge protection, and a grounding cable.
Once installed, users can monitor their network status through Zyxel Networks’ Nebula cloud platform, accessible via the web and a mobile app, making troubleshooting straightforward for MSPs.
Bitdefender’s PHASR Technology Aligns User Behavior with Cyber Defense Strategies
Cybersecurity company Bitdefender unveiled Bitdefender GravityZone Proactive Hardening and Attack Surface Reduction (PHASR), a technology that analyzes individual user behavior such as application use, resource privileges, and others, clustering users into groups with similar patterns. This approach ensures security policies and controls are mapped precisely to user intended privileges and behaviors, dynamically adjusting as the attack surface evolves.
GravityZone PHASR enables MSSPs and MSPs to anticipate and mitigate emerging risks before they escalate and seamlessly adapts as threats and user roles evolve to ensure security measures always remain aligned with business objectives. For example, if a user’s responsibilities change or a new attack technique emerges, GravityZone PHASR automatically suggests policy adjustments to maintain protection.
GravityZone PHASR is integrated into Bitdefender GravityZone, the company’s unified security and risk analytics platform.
“The attack surface continues to expand making it extremely challenging for security teams to keep pace with fluctuating levels of risk in their organization stemming from employees, customers, third-party partners and various systems,” said Andrei Florescu, president and general manager at Bitdefender Business Solutions Group, in a press statement. “GravityZone PHASR is a true game changer and aligns with our broader vision of providing a holistic view of organizational risk in one unified platform. This approach provides businesses with enhanced security automation and real-time control over their risk posture, empowering them to strengthen defenses and stay ahead of evolving attacks.”
Bitdefender GravityZone PHASR will be available to a select group of customers as part of the GravityZone Early Access Program, with broader availability planned for 2025.
Compliancy Group Releases Texas HB 300 Program
Compliancy Group, a provider of compliancy management programs, has added Texas HB 300 program to its roster. Texas HB 300 is a state privacy law regarding rights to access, authorization, breach notification, and how and with whom information may be shared. Any organization or person that does business in Texas and has access to Texas electronic protected health information (ePHI) or sensitive information or is the employee, agent, or contractor of someone with that information must comply with Texas HB 300.
Compliancy Group’s Texas HB 300 program includes program controls mapped to Texas HB 300 requirements with guidance on how to meet them; a QuickStart Guide; and a policy template that can be shared with employees for adherence and attestation.
GoTo Resolve Introduces Software Asset Management
GoTo, an IT management, support, and business communications provider, announced new software asset management features for GoTo Resolve. Building on the solution’s existing hardware asset management capabilities, GoTo Resolve Software Asset Management allows admins to track, manage, and optimize their software assets.
Features include: centralized inventory oversight, security management, and asset lifecycle management; automated real-time software discovery; and monitoring of software license agreements, automatic reminders and notifications of over-utilization, contract renewal management, and cancellation of inactive installations.
HPE Expands Aruba Networking Central With New Capabilities
Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced the expansion of HPE Aruba Networking Central, its network management solution, with new AI insights and capabilities that include integration of OpsRamp for third-party network device monitoring of industry vendors such as Cisco, Juniper Networks, and Palo Alto Networks.
New capabilities of HPE Aruba Networking Central also include an improved network device configuration engine, expanded network observability, and AI-generated network optimizations, powered by AI insights from its customer base.
HPE Aruba Networking Central’s Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) capabilities have also been expanded with the integration of HPE Aruba Networking User Experience Insight (UXI) monitoring natively into its interface. When combined with HPE Aruba Networking UXI sensors, this capability continuously monitors service level agreement (SLA) adherence from the user to the application from a single pane of glass.
In addition, HPE Aruba Networking Central’s device management now includes a common configuration model across HPE Aruba Networking wired, wireless, and gateway products, new hierarchical configurations capabilities, and 90 new APIs.
The new AI Networking capabilities will be available in public preview starting October 2024. Third-party monitoring, UXI integration, and select device configuration capabilities will be added to the public preview prior to year-end 2024.
In addition, HPE also announced that it is integrating the HPE Channel and Partner Ecosystem organization and the HPE Aruba Networking Channel organization into a single, combined channel organization within HPE Global Sales, effective November 1. HPE acquired Aruba Networks in 2015.
Partnerships
Nerdio, ControlUp Work To Advance Azure Virtual Desktop Adoption
ControlUp, a digital employee experience management provider, and Nerdio, which provides a solution to manage and cost-optimize native Microsoft cloud technologies, have expanded their partnership with integrated tools to enhance performance, reduce costs, and streamline Azure Virtual Desktop management, while driving adoption through coordinated sales and marketing initiatives.
“The combination of Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop, ControlUp Real-Time DX, and Nerdio Manager for Enterprise is the ideal solution for reducing the cost and complexity of DaaS,” said Joseph Landes, chief revenue officer of Nerdio, in a press statement. “This partnership accelerates the value of Azure Virtual Desktop for IT teams, offering tools that simplify management and monitoring while improving the digital employee experience.”
Sales and marketing enablement initiatives include:
- New joint Nerdio and ControlUp customers receive a 40% discount on each solution when purchased together.
- Joint events, webinars and technical workshops
- Training sessions and certifications for joint channel partners and managed services providers to promote and support the combined solution.
People
Pax8, a cloud commerce marketplace, appointed Eric Torres as vice president of channel and community engagement. He will report to Rob Rae, corporate vice president of community and ecosystems at Pax8. Torres, who has over 17 years of experience in the IT channel, was most recently VP of Channel at ScalePad, an automated asset lifecycle management solution … Nancy Henriquez, who headed up U.S. community at SuperOps, has departed the company.
Staff writer Sarah Jordan contributed to this roundup.
