Paglo: Patch Management and Beyond for MSPs

Paglo, which debuted its SaaS-based IT management offering in January 2009, continues to flesh out its service for MSPs. In its latest move, Paglo unveiled patch management and reporting applications. The new additions, according to Paglo CEO Brian de Haaff (pictured), join others such as server health, inventory management and network monitoring. All build upon the IT data Paglo collects and stores. Here’s more about Paglo’s strategy.

Here’s Paglo works:

Paglo’s applications rollout on top of that platform. “We’re building applications that provide a different view of the data,” said Brian de Haaff, Paglo’s CEO.

Patch management, for example, handles patch monitoring, reporting, and alerting tasks. The software integrates with Windows Server Update Service. The reporting application, meanwhile, offers six categories of pre-defined reports such as inventory management, software auditing, and server monitoring. Reports may be exported in PDF or HTML.

Pricing for Paglo’s IT management service starts as $1 per managed device per month. That price includes 30-day storage of data history vis-a-vis networks, devices, and configurations. Fees apply for storage beyond 30 days. The various management applications come at no additional cost, however.

Your Brand, Paglo’s Back-end

In addition to launching new applications, Paglo announced that MSPs can rebrand its management service. Specifically, MSPs can upload their logos for presentation on Paglo’s Web interface. MSP customer logos also can be displayed. MSPs manage customers through the Web interface and customers can log in as well to view their own IT data. Logos can also be displayed in Paglo-generated reports. The custom branding is priced at $25 per month per account.

According to de Haaff, Paglo’s SaaS take on IT management lets MSPs avoid the software licensing costs and server infrastructure investment associated with traditional products. Moreover, SaaS ventures such as Paglo’s potentially address the concern that some MSP software providers have pushed more licenses on MSPs than they can handle.

Assessing the Situation

Here’s another twist regarding on demand: MSPs have the option of using Paglo’s IT management tool to conduct a one-time assessment for a customer. This audit is priced based on the number of devices involved ($150 for up to 100 devices, for example).

The one-time assessment includes branding so MSPs can brand the reports they generate, de Haaff said. He said this use of Paglo provides “a great way to assess a new client’s environment and to be able to provide compelling reports.”

MSPs can upgrade from the one-time audit to ongoing monitoring, if they so desire. They may well do that if the assessment via Paglo yields new business.

Building Buzz… A Business… Or Both?

Paglo is an interesting case study in branding and business development. Seemingly out of nowhere, the company has presented at a Silicon Valley Bank Investor Forum and landed on an InformationWeek list of top startups to watch.

Paglo says it has attracted more than 5,000 business customers and MSPs to its platform. But what does that 5,000 number represent? Large, active, long-term engagements? Or simple tests by thousands of businesses and hundreds of MSPs looking for a low-cost SaaS solution?

We’ll be watching.

Contributing blogger John Moore covers Master MSPs and Web hosts, and has written about the IT channel for two decades. Additional perspectives by Joe Panettieri. MSPmentor is updated multiple times daily. Don’t miss a single post. Subscribe to our Enewsletter, RSS, Webcast and Twitter feeds.