Barracuda Strengthens MSP Brand

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Two years since the acquisition of Intronis, Barracuda Networks is getting less wordy with its branding. The vendor is doing away with the Intronis MSP Solutions by Barracuda brand and is now Barracuda MSP, the company announced Wednesday.

Barracuda MSP, a new dedicated business unit, also announced two new education programs – SmarterMSP.com and Ready, Set, Managed! – as well as enhancements to its ECHOplatform that is purpose built for MSPs.

Barracuda’s Brian Babineau

“Since our acquisition of Intronis, we have expanded our commitment to the managed services marketplace through international growth, new offerings and partner support models,” said Brian Babineau, senior vice president and general manager with Barracuda MSP. “Our name change combines one of the best midmarket global IT brands with our steadfast focus on the rapidly evolving MSP landscape,” he added.

As a dedicated business unit, Barracuda MSP works exclusively with MSPs and is dedicated to the success of its MSP partners in the U.S., Canada and overseas. Going forward, Intronis will remain a product name but not a company division.

Barracuda MSP wants to help all Barracuda partners, VARs and MSPs, move to or grow a recurring revenue business model. In fact, in a recent report – “State of North America Managed Services” – by The 2112 Group in conjunction with Barracuda, revealed that nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of channel firms cite managed services as their biggest growth driver.

“So, if you’re a VAR looking to transition to managed services and recurring revenue is where you want to be, or if you’re a current MSP, anything that you can do to make that current recurring-revenue stream stronger, continue to offer services because it will make your business that much better,” Neal Bradbury told us.

To reinforce that, Barracuda MSP introduced two new education offerings, each designed to help aspiring or existing MSPs grow their business.

SmarterMSP.com is a website focused on MSPs that want to improve their businesses and stay current with the IT channel. The website will offer partners access to industry news and trends.

For VARs who are newcomers to the MSP business model, Ready. Set. Managed! is an interactive educational and networking program for VARs and MSPs to get tips and tricks, as well as best practices to stand up an MSP practice. “If a VAR doesn’t have an MSP practice today, you’ll be able to add one at the end [after digesting the material],” said Bradbury.

Even MSPs who want to add additional services to their portfolio can benefit from Ready. Set. Managed!

Lastly, Barracuda has completed integration work on the ECHOplatform. Partners can easily provision and activate Barracuda Backup appliances, Essentials for Office 365 and Email Security products, all from within a single, MSP-focused interface. Partners can view products by customer account, enabling them to …

… easily see what services are being delivered, what the costs are, and where there might be service gaps that could lead to new business opportunities. Partners using the ECHOplatform also get single sign-on with Barracuda Cloud Control to administer all their Barracuda solutions.

Barracuda MSP’s Chris Crellin

“From a customer perspective, we’ve been adding multiple products into the MSP portfolio over the last 18 months. So, what we’ve been working on behind the scenes is to knit them together and what our goal has been is to create a centralized, purpose-built MSP platform,” said Chris Crellin, senior director of product management with Barracuda MSP.

Crellin noted that this is the first integration effort and partners can expect to see additional integration efforts.

Barracuda has about 5,000 partners –about 2,400 are MSPs – or partners who reap half or more of their revenue from recurring revenue. The company currently has two separate partner programs — one for MSPs and the other for VARs.

Access to the new education offering, Ready. Set. Managed!, is private and is located within the Barracuda MSP Essentials part of the sales and marketing collateral offered to MSPs. VARs who want access to the interactive material just need to put in a request with their partner account manager.