MSP Update: Service Providers Come Together to Help with CrowdStrike IT Outage

Each week MSSP Alert brings you an overview of the important news for service providers from our affiliate site ChannelE2E. This news covers cybersecurity but also goes beyond to cover tools, trends, M&A, AI, and other important insights and news to help you run your business.

This week we lead off with full coverage of the Crowdstrike IT outage from the CyberRisk Alliance network. We’ll also bring you the news of how MSPs helped each other during the crisis. We’ve also got some more perspective on the M&A market for service providers in 2024 so far.

Plus, we provide you with an update on Kaseya 365’s update on its cut rate license for a full IT stack for end customers including MDR along with the post-promotion pricing for those services. Thrive has made a new acquisition, and we examine how MSPs are managing compliance efforts for their clients.Here’s this week’s coverage.

Full CRA Network Coverage of the CrowdStrike Outage

MSPs Come Together to Hasten CrowdStrike Outage Remediation

As the world grapples with the fallout from the ongoing IT outage caused by an update to CrowdStrike, I'm reminded of Fred Rogers's quote encouraging us to "look for the helpers" in times of crisis.

Here's the full quote: "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'"

Of course, we're adults now, and we should be doing what we can to help. Right now, the MSP/MSSP community is stepping up and showing us that they are just the helpers we need. As Robert Cioffi said in a LinkedIn post, "Someone is having a really bad day. Remember to practice your empathy skills. Be nice. Be helpful. Or BE SILENT!" Because, he added, the community is watching. And they are stepping up to help.

Read the full story here.

Cybersecurity, Consolidation, IT Services Driving ‘Robust’ M&A in 2024

Despite diminished volume in the first half of 2024, merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the North American IT services space vastly exceeded pre-pandemic levels, according to a report from middle market investment banking firm Corporate Finance Associates (CFA).

"Although the volume of M&A activity in the first half of 2024 in the North American IT services industry fell slightly from the first half of 2023, it vastly exceeded the pre-pandemic levels," said John Holland, managing director, CFA, and author of the report. "Therefore, from a historic perspective, the current volume of M&A activity in the North American IT services market is robust. Whenever interest rates descend in the near future, the volume of M&A transactions will likely surge," Holland told ChannelE2E.

The report, Mergers and Acquisitions in the IT Services Industry in Q2 2024, tracked M&A activity and unearthed some interesting trends in the space, including the explosive growth in demand for cybersecurity solutions.

Read the full story here.

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.

Read the complete story here.

MSPs: Move Beyond Spreadsheets to Seize Compliance Opportunities

MSPs are increasingly being called upon by end-user clients -- particularly in vertical markets such as healthcare, retail and finance -- to help manage their compliance efforts. It's a big opportunity for MSPs, but it's not always an easy job or one that MSPs are equipped to handle.

Apptega’s 2024 State of Continuous Compliance report found the majority of MSPs struggling to maintain regulatory compliance for customers, with half of respondents still using spreadsheets to manually track, measure and report cybersecurity compliance.

Apptega's CEO Dave Colesante tells ChannelE2E there's a better way: A compliance automation platform.

"When asked what software they were using, a very high percentage of the partners, the people that are out there doing this, are still using spreadsheets like Excel for for that service," Colesante said. "And so it was more than we thought. But many of them are interested in using our platform and interested in trying a partner that can help them build a compliance-as-a-service framework," he said.

Read the complete story here.

Thrive Acquires The Longleaf Network to Bolster Security Offerings

Thrive, a global provider of cybersecurity, cloud, and IT managed services, has acquired The Longleaf Network, a North Carolina-based technology outsourcing provider, to bolster its cybersecurity offerings. Financial information was not disclosed.

The deal aims to enhance customer experience and provide additional technology ROI by integrating The Longleaf's local expertise with Thrive’s global security operations center (SOC) and cloud capabilities, according to the company. The combination of The Longleaf’s local team and Thrive’s 24x7x365 service delivery is expected to offer cutting-edge solutions to North Carolina clients.

“The Longleaf Network has a proven track record of bringing customer-first IT strategy and services to clients across North Carolina – a culture that resonated with us from the beginning,” said Rob Stephenson, CEO, Thrive, in a prepared statement. “The Longleaf partnership will provide us with a strong market presence in a very desirable North Carolina footprint to expand our client base via our NextGen platform.”

The additional footprint and customer base also strengthens the company’s cybersecurity offerings since it will learn and grow with new customers seeking unique business outcomes, Stephenson said. 

Read the complete story here.