Content, MSP, Security Staff Acquisition & Development

Kaseya Doubles Down on European MSPs, IT Departments

Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola is seeking to double the MSP software company's expansion in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) over the next 12 to 18 months, according to a prepared statement, though specific headcount and revenue targets were not disclosed.

Ronan Kirby
Ronan Kirby, President and GM of EMEA, Kaseya
Fred Voccola, CEO, Kaseya

The growth target and other key milestones surfaced this week during Kaseya Connect IT Europe, a conference for MSPs and internal IT departments. Key moves designed to drive the EMEA growth and overall global expansion plan include...

1. Executive Leadership - Kaseya EMEA: Kaseya has named Ronan Kirby as president and general manager, EMEA. Kirby owns Kaseya' go-to-market strategy across the region -- including new business and account management as well as general oversight of the company’s EMEA operations. He is based in the company’s Dublin office. Kirby previously was VP of vEMEA for NGINX, which F5 acquired in May 2019. Earlier, he held key posts at MOR Solutions and Red Hat.

2. Cross Sell, Upsell: Kaseya clearly communicated its growing portfolio of software for MSPs -- including products from such sister companies as Unitrends, RapidFire Tools, ID Agent, IT Glue and Spanning Cloud Apps. The goal: Educate MSPs about the combined benefits of monitoring, backup, cloud and SaaS management, security, compliance and IT documentation.

3. MSP Security: Amid continued ransomware attacks against MSPs, most software providers in the sector are rolling out or boosting two-factor authentication (2FA) and other risk mitigation efforts. Kaseya's own efforts include various Password Protection and enhanced 2FA across products, the company said, though we don't have deeper details at our fingertips. Also, Kaseya highlighted IT Glue’s newly released Vault feature -- which allows IT Glue users to decrypt passwords at the endpoint level with a user-specific passphrase, the company says.

4. Identity and Access Management & Directory Services: Kaseya BMS, a professional services automation platform, highlighted integrations with Microsoft Active Directory and third party Identity Providers (IDPs).

5. Cyber Insurance Management: RapidFire Tools has a new Cyber Insurance Manager, which ensures that companies with Cyber Risk Insurance actually get paid in the event of a claim, the company asserts. That tool surfaces at a key time since many MSPs and end-customers often don't fully understand what a cyber insurance policy does -- and doesn't -- cover.

Kaseya also discussed or demonstrated various mobile, documentation, user interface, pricing, billing, and localization capabilities.

MSP Software Market: Key Battle Shifts to Europe

Kaseya has had global reach for more than a decade, and was one of the first MSP-focused software businesses to establish footprints across North America, Europe and Australia.

Still, Kaseya's far-flung offices were sometimes unwieldy under former management. CEO Fred Voccola, the company's leader since July 2015, has delivered a more disciplined -- but certainly aggressive -- focus to the international expansion strategy, sources say.

The continued European push is a familiar theme in the MSP software market. Indeed, so-called "sell-to" business models (example: Vendor RMM software sold to MSPs) faces slowing growth in North America. Most new wins in that area involve rip-and-replace contracts -- i.e., MSPs jumping from one RMM vendor to another, multiple vendors tell ChannelE2E. As a result, vendors such as Kaseya are introducing aggressive pricing offers and bundles designed to grab market share, particularly in North America.

MSP Software Market: Who's In Europe?

The situation is somewhat different in Europe, where certain markets are still emerging and particularly fertile for first-time MSP software sales. Still, the vendor competition for first-time or expanding MSPs is intense since most of the major platform providers have been in the market for several years.

Datto, for one, has a particularly strong European footprint thanks to its Autotask business. Under former ownership, Autotask localized its software for multiple geographies. ConnectWise also has European operations. And SolarWinds certainly has a major global footprint within IT departments and across MSPs. A range of European-based PSA, RMM and cloud software providers also competes in Europe.

Kaseya's Kirby, no doubt, has an EMEA battle plan to face those entrenched and emerging rivals.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.

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