SolarWinds MSP was formed from the former N-able and LogicNow (acquired in June) were combined into a single business division. But that doesn't mean the company plans to merge a bunch of acquired products into a bouillabaisse. John Pagliuca, SolarWinds MSP's leader, once again drove home points that he shared with ChannelE2E back in October. MSPs running N-able RMM (remote monitoring and management) won't be forced to switch to LogicNow's alternative. Nor will the opposite be the case. Instead, the company continues R&D upgrades for both platforms.
While SolarWinds MSP focuses on R&D, MSPs need to focus on leveraging those automation tools to stay ahead of rivals, according to Dave Sobel, senior director of community and field marketing at SolarWinds MSP. Indeed, many aging MSPs owners are trying to figure out how to maximize their business valuations even as new rivals enter the market. The big opportunities involve IoT, data automation and security, Sobel asserted while sourcing various industry research. Not by coincidence, SolarWinds MSP has an array of offerings in each area -- including the LogicCards push.
On the product roadmap front, VPs Steve Rodda and Chris Groot described a "Yellow plus Blue Equals Green" strategy -- which means SolarWinds MSP will take the best of all of its technologies and create the best possible solutions. In 2016, the software groups delivered 80 minor releases and 24 major releases. That pace of innovation will accelerate now that the R&D teams are under one roof, the company asserts. A big area of emphasis involves the MSP Customer Lifecycle: Onboard, Monitor, Manage and Report, Sobel communicated to ChannelE2E. Feature updates must fall into one of those four areas to earn serious R&D consideration.
Groot also made a strong pitch for its backup offerings -- covering everything from simple file restores, to deploying at scale; from granular exchange restores to bare metal restores, and reporting to wrap the entire package, Sobel communicated to ChannelE2E.
The updates come at a key time for SolarWinds MSP, which continues to grow but faces intense competition from multiple automation (Autotask, ConnectWise, Continuum, Kaseya) and backup (Acronis, Carbonite, Continuum, Datto, Intronis MSP Solutions) rivals in the MSP software sector. Next up, watch for SolarWinds MSP to launch an "Empower MSP” event series with multiple stops in 2017.
