Halloween is just around the corner, and according to Google, Bob, the shrunken-headed ghost from the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice movie sequel is the top trending costume. But if you were at the ASCII Edge event in St. Petersburg, Florida, this week, you would have spotted the Back to the Future DeLorean, Princess Leia, and the Run-DMC crew in track suits. At the ‘80s themed ASCII Cup party, a nostalgic nod to The ASCII Group’s 40th anniversary, the winner of the coveted annual award was announced. Who was it? Read on! Plus, we have the latest product news from Pia and Ivanti, a slew of new integrations among some of your favorite tools, and some tech trends Gartner wants you to keep an eye on.
Pax8 Awarded The ASCII Cup At The Industry Group’s Year-End Event In Orlando
Closing out the 2024 series of ASCII Edge events in St. Petersburg, Florida, this week, The ASCII Group held its annual ASCII Cup awards, with cloud marketplace Pax8 taking the top honor as ASCII Cup Vendor of the Year.
The winners of the ASCII Cup were selected by attendees throughout the year at the ASCII Edge regional events, two-day conferences for MSPs. ASCII members and other MSP attendees voted for vendors in 12 categories, including best market opportunities, partner support, and innovation.
The other top winners were:
- First Runner-Up – CyberGuard360
- Third Place – ThreatLocker
- Fourth Place – Galactic Advisors
- Fifth Place – RYTHMz
- Sixth Place – SonicWall
- Seventh Place – CloudRadial
- Eighth Place – Kaseya
- Ninth Place – Axcient
- Tenth Place – OSTRA
“We’re thrilled to recognize the companies that continue to lead and inspire innovation in the MSP space,” said Jessie Devine, VP of channel development at The ASCII Group. “Congratulations to Pax8 on winning the 2024 ASCII Cup, and to all the vendors who played a vital role in helping our members thrive. These companies exemplify the values of partnership, innovation, and excellence that drive the industry forward.”
“We are so honored to win the 2024 ASCII Cup Vendor of the Year award,” said Rob Rae, corporate vice president of community and ecosystems at Pax8, in a press statement. “Our partner community is the lifeblood of our business, and this award means so much because we were selected by our peers and partners. This is a testament to the value that the Pax8 Marketplace brings and our passion for the MSP community.”
Products
Pia’s Latest Automation Features Are In Beta
Pia, an AI-led help desk automation platform MSPs, is introducing a slew of new features. These include:
- AutoTriage: Reads and interprets each ticket, then automatically categorizes and reroutes them based on specific client requirements.
- AutoStart: Begins working on a ticket as soon as it recognizes the ticket type. Once identified, it automatically launches the necessary troubleshooting steps without waiting for a technician to get involved.
- Auto Time Logging: The MSP sets the cost for services, and the feature automatically tracks and bills for completed help desk tickets.
- Auto Close: Automates the closure of resolved tickets.
- Auto-reply in SmartForms: Automatically prompts clients when additional information is needed.
In addition, Pia’s revamped Integration Experience offers a simplified interface for connecting with third-party tools, APIs, and custom workflows, eliminating the need for complex coding
New and existing customers can join the beta program now; full rollout will be mid-December.
Ivanti Launches Neurons for App Control to Boost Endpoint Security
Ivanti introduced Ivanti Neurons for App Control, which safeguards devices from unauthorized applications, boosting endpoint security.
The new Ivanti Neurons for App Control prevents malware and zero-day attacks by blocking the launch of suspicious and unauthorized applications. By examining file ownership and applying granular privilege management, it prevents unknown applications from running. Leveraging cloud-based architecture, it enables remote management of endpoints, even those outside the corporate network.
In addition, Ivanti released new analytics in the Ivanti Neurons platform, including a customizable dashboard designer, out-of-the-box device, and patch deployment reports. And new features for Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management include a reporting engine that streamlines and automates reporting and improved deploy-by-risk customization allows administrators to define more precise and criteria for diverse remediation tasks.
Grammarly Announces Tools to Measure the ROI of AI
Grammarly, an AI assistant, announced tools to measure the impact of AI-assisted communication on employee productivity and key business metrics.
The Effective Communication Score tracks and benchmarks the overall health of an organization’s communication. The score will measure key metrics such as communication correctness, efficiency and clarity, brand compliance, and inclusive language.
The Return on Investment (ROI) Report is a customizable report that highlights key business metrics with and without Grammarly for comparison.
Grammarly says future innovations will include suggestions to improve results, reports that show how employees are using AI across the enterprise, and information highlighting the health of the organization’s communications.
The Effective Communication Score and ROI Report will be available in November 2024; the Effective Communication Score will be available in the analytics dashboard by early Q1 2025.
Partnerships & Integrations
GoTo Rolls Out AI-Enhanced Integrations With Leading CRM Platforms
GoTo, a business communications, IT management, and support solutions provider, announced that GoTo Connect now integrates with leading CRM and support systems, including Bullhorn, Capsule CRM, ConnectWise, Epic CRM, Freshdesk, Freshsales, HubSpot, LaborEdge, MS Dynamics, NetSuite, Pipedrive, Salesforce, ServiceNow, SugarCRM, VinSolutions, Zendesk, Zoho, and Zoho Desk.
Moovila Expands AI-Driven Project Management to Autotask
Moovila, an AI-driven project automation platform for MSPs, has released its integration with Autotask PSA, bringing real-time visibility, automated project timelines, and advanced project risk detection to Autotask customers. With this launch, Moovila Perfect Project now integrates natively with three major PSA platforms – ConnectWise PSA (formerly Manage), HaloPSA, and Autotask PSA.
“Our focus has always been on empowering MSPs with solutions that streamline project workflows and deliver unparalleled forecast accuracy,” said Mike Psenka, CEO and founder of Moovila, in a press statement. “This integration provides Autotask customers greater control, enabling them to manage complex projects with greater efficiency and confidence.”
DNSFilter Announces Integration with Six PSA Platforms
DNSFilter, a provider of DNS-layer security and content filtering, announced integrations with ConnectWise Manage, Datto Autotask, Halo, SyncroMSP, Kaseya BMS, and Pulseway PSA. The new capabilities will be demoed at Kaseya DattoCon on Oct. 28, IT Nation Connect on Nov. 6
OpenText Partners With Cork for Cyber Warranty Solutions
OpenText, an information management platform, is adding the Cork cyber warranty solutions to its portfolio. This alliance will enable MSPs to proactively prevent attacks and if a breach occurs the SMB customer has financial protection.
“Our partner-first culture is built around listening to the needs of IT service providers, and the OpenText family of solutions paired with the Cork Protection active insights platform delivers on those requests,” says Dan Candee, CEO of Cork, in a press statement. “Now we have even higher accountability to our partners and the clients we serve together.”
Blacksmith InfoSec Integrates with ConnectWise Manage PSA
Blacksmith InfoSec, a compliance-as-a-service application for MSPs, announced a certified integration with ConnecWise Manage PSA. Blacksmith’s SaaS app provides each of an MSP’s customers with bespoke policies, risk management, compliance roadmap, business system user audits, and security awareness training, all with a centralized management platform
CrowdStrike Partners with Fortinet and Omnissa
CrowdStrike’s Falcon cybersecurity platform will bidirectionally integrate with Fortinet’s FortiGate next-generation firewalls (NGFW). The CrowdStrike and Fortinet partnership provides telemetry across endpoint and network, enabling fast and accurate AI-powered threat protection and response, while streamlining security operations with a single, unified view. Customers and partners gain context-rich insights into network traffic, user activity, and device posture.
And in a separate partnership, CrowdStrike and Omnissa are collaborating to deliver real-time threat detection and automated remediation for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and physical desktop environments. Integrating the Omnissa Platform – built on Horizon and Workspace ONE – with the CrowdStrike Falcon platform will combine virtual desktop and app management, unified endpoint management (UEM), and endpoint security.
The planned integration will enable admins to identify and remediate any virtual desktops without the Falcon sensor and rapidly deploy CrowdStrike’s AI-native protection to those VDI sessions. Omnissa and CrowdStrike also intend to enable the Omnissa Platform to ingest vulnerability and threat status of devices directly from the Falcon platform so that Workspace ONE UEM can centralize and accelerate threat observation, risk-assessment, and automated remediation actions in both physical and virtual desktops.
People
ControlCase, a provider of cybersecurity and IT compliance solutions, appointed Joshua Hoffman as chief revenue officer. Prior to joining ControlCase, Hoffman held executive leadership positions at Palo Alto Networks, Datto, Dell, and Avaya, and most recently was CRO for Netrix Global, a global MSP/MSSP … SIEM provider Securonix appointed channel veteran Marcia Dempster as vice president of channel sales, Americas. Dempster will spearhead Securonix Elevate, a new partner program. Dempster most recently served as vice president of global MSP and channel sales at Keeper Security. Previously, she held key roles as national channel manager at Armor Security and cloud platform executive within CDW’s Cloud Practice.
Distribution/Marketplaces
Trustifi, a provider of AI-driven, next-generation email cybersecurity solutions, is now available through the AppDirect marketplace, a B2B commerce platform that has 5 million subscribers in the IT industry.
By The Numbers
Gartner’s Top Strategic (And Disruptive) Technology Trends Predictions for 2025
Industry analyst firm Gartner announced its list of 10 top strategic technology trends that organizations need to explore in 2025 at the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo this week. They range from future-forward trends, like technologies that read and decode brain activity and polyfunctional robots, to more near-term developments.
Here are a few:
- Agentic AI: Systems that autonomously plan and take actions to meet user-defined goals. Gartner predicts that by 2028, at least 15% of day-to-day work decisions will be made autonomously through agentic AI, up from 0% in 2024.
- AI Governance Platforms: Enable organizations to manage the legal, ethical, and operational performance of their AI systems. Gartner predicts that by 2028, organizations that implement comprehensive AI governance platforms will experience 40% fewer AI-related ethical incidents compared to those without such systems.
- Disinformation Security: An emerging category of technology that systematically discerns trust and aims to provide methodological systems for ensuring integrity, assessing authenticity, preventing impersonation, and tracking the spread of harmful information. By 2028, Gartner predicts that 50% of enterprises will begin adopting products, services, or features designed specifically to address disinformation security use cases, up from less than 5% today.
