5 Product Releases That Made the DattoCon Audience Cheer
Partner at Datto's annual conference are always an enthusiastic bunch. Here are the top five moments that made them break out and cheer during CEO Austin McChord's opening keynote.
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“Disaster” doesn’t mean the same thing to an MSP that it does to most people. When it comes to backup and disaster recovery, oftentimes all it takes is a software tweak, and that’s something everyone in the room could relate to.
“There’s lots of situations where you didn’t lose the entire machine. It’s not like the building burned down or you had to go out and buy a new server. Instead, it can be something as easy as Microsoft pushed out a Windows update and ruined everything.”
McChord unveiled Rapid Rollback, a file system restore that doesn’t need to reimage the entire server. Instead, it intelligently compares the last backup to existing files, identifies what changes were made where, and restores only the changed files, speeding the whole process up.
“This makes recovering from the great technological panacea of a Windows update incredibly fast.”
McChord’s stated goal is for Datto to be the most and best integrated BDR provider in the world. Part of that effort, of course, was its blockbuster acquisition of Autotask, and the company has spent a great deal of energy around rebuilding its integration with Autotask’s PSA.
“They answer our phone calls now,” McChord quipped. “That helps.”
Data unveiled new support templates, ticket categories and ticket insight panel, but by far the most well-received announcement was that of the long-awaited native iOS mobile application that lets MSPs manage their Autotask PSA dashboards from their mobile device.
“If we’re going to deliver these data-driven insights, we’ve got to be able to get them to you wherever you may be.”
Now that Autotask Endpoint Management is Datto RMM, McChord says the platform is getting some hefty new features. Among them is a new application users can run right on their desktops that enables them to identify issues, prioritize them with however many exclamation marks they wish to use and shoot them over to an engineer who can troubleshoot the problem without having to sift through a mountain of screenshots.
But attendees let fly with the real laughs and cheers when McChord said Datto’s new 6.0 release holds huge improvements in reporting capabilities—not something historically that has been all that impressive.
“If you look at reporting today, well—we’ve got some work to do,” he admitted with a grin. “While the information you’re looking for may be there, it’s hard to find, and it’s not exactly clear.”
There’s a gap in the MSP networking market, says McChord. On the one hand you’ve got commodity hardware that doesn’t offer the features and capabilities MSPs want to provide their customers. On the other are enterprise-grade offerings that are priced well out of the reach of the lucrative SMB market.
As part of a push toward that MSP-centric networking dream, McChord announced Datto will now provide a lifetime warranty on all access points, switches and manuals. If for any reason the surge suppression is blown, the company will ship MSPs a new device absolutely free.
The warranty got a respectable amount of applause, but audience members let out cheers when McChord revealed that the warranty wasn’t just for new devices. It applies to every device from the very first networking appliance Datto ever sold.
“We’re the only vendor in networking that wakes up each day and asks, ‘What do MSPs need?’” Amid new device releases like a next-generation wireless access point and the new E24 switch, the Datto Networking Team unveiled the MP60 managed power device that acts as a cloud-managed power strip and surge protector.
An MP60 was actually powering things on the stage during a live demonstration when Andrew Tran sent colored stage lights blazing and set inflatable tube figures to dancing with the touch of a button.
When McChord made a brief cameo onstage to cause an actual power surge, attendees ate it up. We later found out that the whole Datto team let out a collective sigh of relief when the stunt worked. Surges trigger an automatic shipment of a replacement device. As a cherry on top, Datto automatically loads the old device configuration from the cloud onto the new device as soon as it’s plugged in.
There was a lot of enthusiasm from partners about the flood of new releases, but nothing prompted giddy smiles quite like mentioning the MP60. Even MSPs like their fun new toys, and it was Christmas in June when McChord announced every partner present would get to take one home.
“We’re the only vendor in networking that wakes up each day and asks, ‘What do MSPs need?’” Amid new device releases like a next-generation wireless access point and the new E24 switch, the Datto Networking Team unveiled the MP60 managed power device that acts as a cloud-managed power strip and surge protector.
An MP60 was actually powering things on the stage during a live demonstration when Andrew Tran sent colored stage lights blazing and set inflatable tube figures to dancing with the touch of a button.
When McChord made a brief cameo onstage to cause an actual power surge, attendees ate it up. We later found out that the whole Datto team let out a collective sigh of relief when the stunt worked. Surges trigger an automatic shipment of a replacement device. As a cherry on top, Datto automatically loads the old device configuration from the cloud onto the new device as soon as it’s plugged in.
There was a lot of enthusiasm from partners about the flood of new releases, but nothing prompted giddy smiles quite like mentioning the MP60. Even MSPs like their fun new toys, and it was Christmas in June when McChord announced every partner present would get to take one home.
We go to a lot of conferences here at Channel Futures. We sit through a lot of keynotes, talk to a lot of partners and eat a lot of buffet lunches. Some vendors rely on wild parties and big celebrity keynote speakers to generate enthusiasm among partners. Datto takes a different approach.
Okay, we’ll admit, the parties weren’t exactly tame at this year’s DattoCon, where MSPs gorged on BBQ and boogied to live music in Austin, Texas this week. And CEO Austin McChord’s fireside chat with Sir Richard Branson was one of the most entertaining and inspiring conference experiences in this reporter’s recent memory. But the real energy at DattoCon comes from the knack the company has for connecting with its partners.
Executives work every crowd, shake as many hands as possible and listen to whatever partners have to say as much as they can. Instead of reserving all the keynote stage time for the c-suite, actual Datto engineers walk attendees through the nitty-gritty details of all the product and service releases. A Datto partner even took to the stage to interview Robert Herjavec of “Shark Tank” fame during one keynote.
So it’s no wonder energy levels were soaring and partners were quick to cheer during McChord’s keynote. Click through to see the top five moments that got hoots, hollers, hurrahs and ha-has from the partners in attendance.
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