ConnectWise CloudConsole, the Office 365 and cloud management platform, is off to a strong start. Roughly one month since launch, roughly 470 MSPs leverage CloudConsole to manage 750,000 Office 365 seats for 3,800 Microsoft customers, ConnectWise CEO Arnie Bellini confirmed to ChannelE2E.
ConnectWise first described CloudConsole publicly during IT Nation in November 2015. Scores of IT service providers beta tested the platform during winter 2016. An official launch arrived in February 2016. The system allows partners to "manage, monitor and bill the cloud," according to the company.
Bellini has evangelized total vendor management services to MSPs for several years, telling them to oversee all IT vendor relationships within a customer setting. That message started with traditional telecom, cellular and office equipment invoices. And has now extended to the cloud. In a February podcast, Bellini called on partners to embrace CloudConsole as part of a Microsoft Cloud Solutions Provider strategy.
Office 365 Management Tools
CloudConsole certainly isn't the only Office 365 management tool in the IT channel. Kaseya 365 Command, LogicNow AppControl, and several other options have sprung up for VARs and MSPs.
The twist? While CloudConsole pursues the low-hanging SaaS fruit today (i.e., Office 365), ConnectWise plans to extend the platform to manage Microsoft Azure cloud services as well. Sources say ConnectWise's R&D team will likely support additional public clouds down the road, though formal plans have yet to be announced.
Admittedly, at least 50 cloud management tools for Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Cloud and other public clouds have emerged. Even Google has introduced a cross-cloud management tool called Stackdriver. And it's a safe bet the top 25 SaaS applications for business will attract more third-party tools.
In the meantime, it sounds like ConnectWise's cloud management tool is off to a strong start -- apparently adding more value to the ConnectWise Business Suite software portfolio -- which includes ConnectWise (professional services automation), LabTech (remote monitoring and management), ScreenConnect (remote control) and Quosal (quoting and sales proposals).
