Syncro launched XMM (Extended Monitoring and Management) today, an extension of its RMM/PSA platform that unifies IT and Microsoft 365 security management through a collaboration with Microsoft.
The platform consolidates RMM, PSA, and Microsoft 365 multitenant management into a single, integrated solution. It integrates with Microsoft Secure Score, Defender Antivirus, and Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory), enabling MSPs to manage their clients’ infrastructures in the cloud. In addition, XMM automates Microsoft 365 compliance monitoring, security hygiene, and risk assessments, helping MSPs improve customers’ Secure Score and CIS compliance.
Michael George, CEO of Syncro, calls XMM “arguably a whole new product category.” He says it delivers on three strategic pillars. First, he says, it will enable MSPs to provide better security for their customers.” It’ll improve the ability to secure their customers’ infrastructure and enhance their security monitoring and management capabilities at the most fundamental level. Number two is to simplify their stack. They’re going to be able to start to reduce the technology stack that they have, to decrease operational complexity with deep integration into the Microsoft 365 environment.”
The third pillar XMM addresses, George says, is enabling MSPs to scale their business cost-effectively. “They can leverage powerful AI and automation capabilities fundamental to the environment. [It will] reduce the surface attack area and provide new revenue opportunities and enhance efficiency within the platform.”
“Microsoft and Syncro share a deep commitment to the MSP community,” said Jose Gomez Cueto, general manager, Small and Medium Business, at Microsoft, in a press statement. “The Syncro XMM integration with Microsoft 365 will help MSPs serving SMBs to easily manage and secure customers with a unified, multitenant platform, and streamline their operations.”
XMM is available now through both Syncro and the Azure marketplace, with additional features rolling out through 2025. Current MSP partners on Syncro’s Team Plan, its highest tier, will receive XMM at no additional cost, George says.
Syncro XMM Approach: Microsoft at the Core of SMBs
George says XMM has been under development for a year and a quarter. “When I joined Syncro in January of 2024, I had been working with the management team and with the board and so forth to do something transformational in the industry,” he explains. George, former CEO of Continuum, which ConnectWise acquired in 2019, replaced former Syncro CEO Emily Glass and brought on Continuum alumna Dee Zepf as chief product officer.
MSP Success asked George how XMM’s approach of consolidating IT management, security, and automation into a single platform, differs from the direction of MSP platform leaders Kaseya and ConnectWise. “There are similar attributes to what they’re doing, but I think everybody has sort of taken their own approach to this … Microsoft represents 98% of the operating system in the small to medium business market, whether it’s through the MSP or direct. At the core of everything everybody does is in the Microsoft world. When a technician gets an alert, when a help desk gets a call, when a SOC is dealing with a potential incident, it is all inside of the Microsoft operating system.”
XMM enables technicians to leverage their RMM and PSA tools “from inside of the Microsoft 365 environment as opposed to independent of it the way that the world operates today,” George explains.
Timing and Competitive Landscape
Asked about the timing of the announcement, which coincides with the opening day of the Kaseya Connect conference, where Syncro is exhibiting as a sponsor, George says, “We believe strongly in what we call ‘co-opetition.’ In other words, it’s OK to compete with people, but we want to collaborate with them as well if it’s in the best interest of the channel. We care about what the channel wants and what the channel cares about.”
MSP Success also asked George if the recent leadership changes at both ConnectWise and Kaseya provide any competitive advantage for Syncro.
His response? He believes the leadership changes at the two biggest companies in the industry “are symbolic of and systemic to a much, much bigger transformational change. The market has spoken. They don’t want complexity; they want simplicity.” He adds, “XMM is an important element of that new transformation. This is a new generation of product and approach and capability.”
Syncro’s intent with XMM, George sums up, is “a very Microsoft-centric approach, number one. And number two, it is a very automation-specific approach.”
