Live Blog: Autotask Community Live 2016

Autotask Community Live 2016 is under way in Hollywood, Fla. Roughly 1,000 MSPs are on hand for the gathering. Here's a recap of CEO Mark Cattini's keynote, along with ongoing updates from the Autotask conference. 1. Save the Date: I know we're just getting started here. But poke around this year's event and you'll notice that Autotask has already confirmed Autotask Community Live 2017's date and location... 2. Unified Platform: Autotask has evangelized its unified RMM and PSA platform for much of the year. It's a safe bet Cattini will further explain what a "unified" approach truly means to MSPs during his keynote. 3. SIEM Security: BlackStratus is making the case for CyberShark, the company's new white-label, SaaS-based SIEM. That's short for Security Information and Event Management. 4. Intronis Is Here AND There: Intronis MSP Solutions by Barracuda is on hand. But keep an eye on the company's activities at Microsoft Ignite 2016 this week in Atlanta. If you buy me a burger today I will gladly tell you what's coming -- perhaps on Tuesday... 5. Hold The Door: Elevator doors here are promoting "Autotask Endpoint Backup." Hmmm... I assume it's fair game to promote that publicly available information. Wink, wink. Stay tuned. Now confirmed: Autotask has officially launched Autotask Endpoint Backup. A Fortune 50 customer has rolled it out to 100,000 users, Cattini just said. 6. In the House: New LogicMonitor GM David Powell is on hand. The TekLinks veteran jumped to LogicMonitor in recent days to help the IT monitoring platform work more closely with service providers.

CEO Mark Cattini Takes the Stage

Here's a live keynote recap... 7. Autotask Business Momentum: Customers. Adoption of Autotask Endpoint Management has increased 4-fold over the past 18 months, though he didn't reveal an actual number. 8. Autotask Mission: To empower TSPs to improve their service delivery and profitability. (I've paraphrased but that's the essential message.) 9. Autotask Ownership Accelerates R&D: Since Vista Equity Partners acquired Autotask in mid-2014, the software company has acquired CentraStage and Sooner to deliver a completely rewritten Autotask platform; unified PSA and RMM; and file sync and sharing. In terms of growth from June 2014 through end of Sept. 2016, the company has doubled the size of the business. "But we're growing responsibly and profitably." 10. Business Stats: The company has 75,000 users across 125 countries; 50 million tickets managed annually; and the community serves about 75 percent of the Fortune 500. MSPs are billing $6 billion annually through Autotask, up from $1 billion when Cattini arrived several years ago. The company has about 9,000 customers -- MSPs and IT service providers. The company is on track to have 500 employees by year's end -- with about 475 today. 12. New Offices: Watch for Autotask to open offices in Manhattan; Research Triangle Park, N.C.; and Atlanta. 13. Consulting and Support: The company continues to ramp up consulting services to help partners activate and optimize their Autotask deployments. Also, live chat support, which launched earlier this year, already represents 50 percent of support inquiries to the company.

Autotask: Differentiating From Rivals?

14. One Platform -- From Beginning to Endpoint: Cattini recapped how Autotask has evolved and growing its platform over the past couple of years.

• Phase 1 was "PSA Reimagined: For human rather than module-centric users. Role-based vs. feature based. And analytics that drive insight and behavior. This is already completed, Cattini said.
• Phase 2: To set up his point, Cattini said endpoint management remains the number one revenue driver for IT service providers, based on company research. That's sort of counter-intuitive to me, since so many folks (including me) are focused so heavily on server workloads floating off to the cloud. But since the endpoint never goes away, perhaps Autotask is onto something here. With that thought in mind, Autotask acquired CentraStage to deliver better customer experience more profitably -- and then unified PSA and RMM.

PSA-RMM unification: 1,400 MSPs are using the unified platform, which focuses on the core areas above. Source: Autotask's Pat Burns

This section of the keynote attempts to differentiate from ConnectWise and Kaseya without mentioning those rivals by name. ConnectWise extended from PSA to RMM with the LabTech investment in 2010. And Kaseya extended into PSA with an acquisition earlier this year. Cattini insists the Autotask approach is truly about code innovation, rather than basic integration. Among his key statements: The Autotask unified platform basically has one data store -- one version of the truth for MSPS and their customers. 15. More Software Additions Coming: In the graphic above, watch for Autotask to launch more products or services that fit the managed services area. I suspect organic and/or acquisition moves are coming to extend beyond backup as well as file sync and sharing. Autotask Product Roadmap: Visit Page 2 for details about what Autotask is developing next on the PSA, RMM and Workplace fronts. 16. R&D Roadmap: Autotask's Pat Burns described a range of forthcoming PSA, RMM and Workplace updates, along with deeper unification between the products. The screenshots below explain each roadmap. 17. Autotask PSA Roadmap: See below. 18. Autotask RMM Roadmap: See screenshot below... 19. Autotask Workplace: See screenshot below... More to Come: Keep checking this blog for more updates. We'll share real-time updates through the close of the conference on Tuesday.