The managed service provider market has undergone many shifts over the last decade, and this year has been a particularly game-changing. We took a look at our analytics to see which stories most captured your attention in 2024, and the results are in.
The VMware/Broadcom partner saga has been top of mind for MSPs. MSP liability in data breaches was another hot topic that grabbed your attention this year.
The CrowdStrike outage caused a lot of pain, and our story about whether CrowdStrike would have to pay up in liability claims was popular.
We also tracked Kaseya's potentially market disrupting price changes this year. Round all that out with a surprise private equity purchase of CompTIA, some Oracle pricing changes and Canalys' top 5 predictions.
1. Abandoned VMware Partners Courted by Broadcom Competitors
VMware partners continue searching for alternatives post-Broadcom acquisition, and plenty of vendors are jumping in to fill the void.
It's a big difference from the picture VMware painted a year ago. Back then the company said it was doubling-down into managed services, recognizing that it's partners were moving into new revenue streams as the marketplace evolved. But that all came to a crashing halt once the Broadcom acquisition of VMware was completed.
2. Broadcom Relaunches VMware Cloud Program with New Benefits
Broadcom last week announced the relaunch of the VMware Cloud Service (VCSP) Program with new tiers and additional benefits. The revamped program aims to increase standardization and consistency across the company’s routes to market, according to Broadcom.
In a blog post, Ahmar Mohammad, vice president, partners, managed services, and solutions GTM at Broadcom, said the company's strategy is to rely heavily on partners to drive greater adoption of the full-stack VMware Cloud Foundation platform.
"Our goal is to accelerate innovation, enhance customer value, and optimize profitability and market opportunities for our partners. To support our new strategy, we've completely redefined and are relaunching our VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program with new tiers and new benefits. VCSP partners will help take VMware Cloud Foundation to a broad set of VMware’s corporate and commercial customers and deliver it as a managed service," Mohammad said in the blog post.
3. MSP, Backup Vendor Sued Over Cybersecurity Breach
Are managed service providers liable for cybersecurity breaches experienced by their clients? A lawsuit in California is exploring this legal question.
A Sacramento, California law firm Mastagni Holstedt is alleging that its MSP, privately-owned Sacramento-based LanTech LLC failed to protect it from a ransomware attack that took down its systems.
ChannelE2E and affiliate site MSSP Alert have reviewed the complaint in which Mastagni is seeking more than $1 million in damages. The firm employs 42 attorneys. The firm is also suing backup vendor Acronis.
The law firm alleges that they were forced to pay the attacker, Black Basta, an undisclosed sum to regain access to its network. The incident occurred in February, 2023 and the lawsuit was filed in February 2024.
4. CrowdStrike Outage: Legal Experts Weigh in on Liability Implications
Post-CrowdStrike outage, we're now in what's called the "right of boom" phase -- figuring out how to recover, restore, rebuild and move toward continuous improvement. But even though we know this wasn't a cyberattack or a deliberate malicious act, there are many questions that remain unanswered, especially from a legal and liability perspective. The first these involves calculating the costs and who will ultimately be responsible for paying.
Matthew Richardson, partner at legal firm Brown Rudnick, was himself stuck at Chicago's O'Hare airport Friday for about 11 hours due to the incident. There are still industries, including airlines, working to get back to business as usual, he added, and the full amount of the damage done may never be 'paid in full.'
"That was eight hours of my business time lost, and the place was filled with people. So, think about what the actual damages are; it's probably in the billions, and there's probably no way to cover that damage. There's certainly no way CrowdStrike could ever afford to pay that much," he said.
First, CrowdStrike must review their existing service agreements with customers, said David Derigiotis, president of brokerage and head of insurance, Flow Specialty. Pushing out a faulty code change, as happened here, would fall under errors and omissions (E&O), which is a type of liability insurance that covers claims against your business for mistakes you made or services you failed to provide. E&O insurance protects your business from claims by clients for negligence, malpractice, errors or omissions you allegedly made while providing a professional service.
5. Kaseya 365 Subscription Debuts at $3.99
In a move that could change the economics of operating a managed service provider business, Kaseya introduced a new subscription-based offering at low prices for its full lineup of products that MSPs use to manage, secure, backup and automate all client environments.
Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola announced the Kaseya 365 platform during his keynote address at Kaseya Connect. This was the big announcement that Kaseya has teased for the last six months.
The pricing represents a big drop and may put competitive pressure on other vendors. Kaseya 365 is priced at $3.99 per endpoint per month and an Express version that comes without MDR is provided at a price of $1.75 per endpoint per month.
The subscription for Kaseya 365 includes RMM, antivirus, EDR, MDR, patch management, ransomware rollback and endpoint backup. Kaseya said the all-in-one solution includes 20 core automations to significantly enhance workflow efficiency and reduce errors.
6. November Surprise: Private Equity Nabs CompTIA
After 42 years operating on its own as a non-profit 501(c)(6) organization, CompTIA, a global IT training and certification vendor, is being acquired by two private equity firms in a deal that will split the organization into a for-profit business unit and a separate non-profit trade association starting in 2025.
The investment firms, H.I.G. Capital and Thoma Bravo, will jointly acquire the CompTIA brand and its information technology (IT) certification and training business and products, including the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) A+ exams and certifications.
Todd Thibodeaux, the president and CEO of CompTIA, told ChannelE2E that the acquisition will benefit the company by providing more money for the soon-to-be-separate side of the trade association to better serve its members with IT resources and assistance to grow their businesses.
“As the preeminent entry and mid-level certification brand in the IT/tech space, CompTIA plays a critical role in the tech workforce ecosystem through training and certifications,” said Thibodeaux. “We have awarded more than 3.6 million certifications to individuals around the world. To have an even greater impact, the business needs more access to capital, more access than the association can responsibly provide on its own. This is a way to achieve growth for the business and the association.”
7. Kaseya Unveils More AI, Automation and a Surprise
PSA and RMM platform giant Kaseya will be welcoming MSP and enterprise customers to its Kaseya Connect event this week in Las Vegas, where CEO Fred Voccola will make what the company has teased as a huge announcement. The MSP social media community has been abuzz about what that might possibly be – an acquisition that’s bigger than the Datto deal? A product announcement? Improvements to the company’s recent billing issues? Better contract and licensing terms that don’t require a three-year commitment?
The answer to that big question is still unknown, even as theories spawn new variants faster than COVID-19. But ChannelE2E will be at Kaseya Connect, bringing you the news when it breaks.
What we do know now is that, like every other technology company out there, Kaseya is planning to make a series of announcements around artificial intelligence and automation. Is 2024 the year of cybersecurity for MSPs, or is it the year of AI and automation? ChannelE2E believes that all vendors will make major announcements and strides in both these important areas this year.
8. Managed Services: 5 Trends to Watch in 2024
Some seismic shifts have taken place over the last few years that MSPs and other members of the channel ecosystem will want to pay close attention to in the years ahead. It's not all about generative AI.
Want to know the trends that will shape the channel, the tech industry, and the world this year? Futurist and Canalys chief analyst Jay McBain provided his take on the 5 Trends to Watch in 2024 at the Nerdiocon event in Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic.
B2B Buying is Changing. So is the psychology, the behavior and the journey, McBain said. There’s been a seismic shift recently in that most buying is being done by millennials, and they are digital-first buyers. A full 75% of these buyers don’t want to talk to a salesperson. They want to be able to make a million-dollar software purchase without ever talking to a human. These buyers are subscription- and consumption-friendly.
9. Oracle Pricing Change Drives Partners to Pursue Alternatives
Oracle’s January 2023 pricing change from a processor-based license to per-employee license for standard Java has partners raising questions. Partners are concerned about the change's potential impact on Java licensing costs for end-user customers. The change also has partners looking at opportunities to pursue revenue streams with Oracle alternatives.
The 2023 pricing change was based on total employee counts, not the number of employees using Java.
The price list covers the company's Java SE Universal Subscription program. The pricing starts at $15 per employee per month for as many as 999 employees and drops as low as $5.25 per employee per month for 40,000 to 49,999 users. When announcing the change, Oracle cited an example in which a company with a total employee count of 28,000, including full-time and part-time employees and agents, consultants, and contractors, would be charged $2.268 million per year.
10. Kaseya 365 Signs 4K MSPs and CEO Voccola Teases Secret DattoCon Announcement
It’s been just over two and a half months since Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola announced Kaseya 365, a single license for a complete bundle of MSP offerings at a hugely discounted price. Kaseya set promotional pricing at $3.99 per endpoint for the standard package and $1.75 for the “Express” package which doesn’t include the company’s managed detection and response offering.
How has the uptake been?
“The uptake rate has been well beyond our expectations, and I think it’s been so successful,” Voccola told ChannelE2E in a July 17 interview.
So far, Kaseya has contracts with 4,000 MSPs to manage 5 million endpoints using the Kaseya 365 license. Pricing has risen since the original promotional pricing was announced at the Kaseya Connect event in Las Vegas on April 30. It’s now $5.25 per endpoint for Kaseya 365 and $2.25 for the Express version without MDR.
