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Security acquisitions high on the agenda for SolarWinds MSP

Expresses intentions to bolster capabilities within the security space

SolarWinds MSP is on the lookout to acquire businesses with a stronghold in the security space, as the IT service management vendor seeks to bolster its protection capabilities across the channel.

After operating as “a bit of a sleeping giant” following its acquisition of LogicNow and the privatisation of SolarWinds in February last year, the business is now looking to make bold moves in the industry.

“We’re no longer two separate companies competing with each other," SolarWinds MSP vice president of sales and customer retention Mike Cullen said. "We’re now integrated and one of the things that we’re looking to do is go to market with a collective strategy. Our goal, as a company, is to infiltrate the whole market."

Addressing local partners at the vendor's Empower MSP event in Sydney, Cullen said plans are now in place to capitalise on the lucrative potential of security across the broader industry.

“With all the security issues lately, we’re investing heavily into our security products," he added. "With companies constantly reinventing to become security-as-a-service businesses, we’re looking to support such businesses that have managed services following suit."

Furthermore, the software provider is looking to build out strategic partnerships across Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ), alongside increased investment in back-up technologies and solutions.

"As a company, we’ve made several investments in security by acquiring security technologies and integrating them into our products," SolarWinds MSP senior director of community and field marketing Dave Sobel added.

"We’re going to continue to do this. And you can expect, over the coming months and years, that we double down on security because we both need it. You as a service provider need better security solutions and we as a provider, need to be moving into those spaces."

Coupled with increased spend in security, Sobel said SolarWinds MSP will also be investing in cloud management technologies.

"Customers are managing all kinds of clouds," he added. "You need to be able to get insights into that. That’s also an area that we’re going to be making investments into."

As physical servers move off to the cloud, Sobel outlined intentions to ensure partners and customers alike are supported through the changes.

"We want to be able to support you better as we look to the ‘cloudification’ of the industry," he explained. "We’re seeing more of an adoption of SaaS [software-as-a-service] products, so the concept of user experience is something we’d like to work more on."

According to Sobel, to move into data driven automation, businesses must also go beyond desktops, servers, and traditional device management, moving into things such as the network.

"So we’re going to be extending technology to allow you to manage more devices and extract more value from it," he added. "We’re not doing enough as an industry into making that data into actionable insights from an automated insights perspective.

"So, we’re investing more into machine learning and artificial intelligence. This is what we think will make you more accelerated than your competitors."

Cullen also spoke about the company’s product roadmap, mentioning that the channel can expect solutions such as Autotask and ConnectWise integrations to support its products, as well as an aggressive push to market of its MSP Manager product.