Voccola Addresses Datto Acquisition, Partners React at Kaseya Connect IT Global

KASEYA CONNECT IT GLOBAL — Day two of Kaseya’s Connect IT Global 2022 event in Las Vegas began with another rousing keynote from CEO Fred Voccola. Voccola covered a range of topics, focusing on the state of the MSP and SMB industry, and what this means for Kaseya and its different business units.

“SMBs are driving everything,” said Voccola (pictured above). “They are shaking up the big boys. Business scales faster in today’s world, and SMBs have transformed into a new operating model. COVID accelerated this, of course, so now more than ever, there’s a right place and time element to this. Business applications are transforming the SMB — they’ve become mission-critical. That means they need to work, and they need to be secure. Organizations are requiring enterprise-class business applications. And the people in this room are the ones who do it.”

Voccola also pointed out that budgets these days aren’t keeping up with demand. Partners are feeling the pinch, meaning they have to do more with less. The burden is on these already overworked, and overlooked IT professionals. 

So what’s the solve? Automation, right? Yes, technician efficiency means automation, which goes hand in hand with integration. But integration is … not easy.

This is the reality in a heterogeneous software environment. Most integrations are difficult and don’t end up working. It’s hard to build something meaningful enough that overcomes the challenges that both parties have.

Compliance Is Coming

Another challenge, according to Voccola, is compliance. This is a big one, or at least is becoming a big one. 

“This is the next big thing on the horizon for everyone, but definitely for the SMB,” said Voccola. “The standards coming down the pike have teeth. One of the biggest forms of this will be cyber insurance policy claims.”

Voccola mentioned that soon, customers will be able to use Kaseya’s Compliance Manager service solution for this. 

Mergers, and One Very Specific Acquisition

Kaseya exists to solve the aforementioned challenges for partners, said Voccola. One of the ways it has done this is to acquire companies with the capabilities to do just that. Being one intelligent engine and one source of integration is Kaseya’s company strategy, according to Voccola. And, Kaseya has made a lot of acquisitions to get there. One such notable acquisition is, of course, Datto, which Channel Futures covered extensively when the announcement broke.

“No company on this planet can be organically competent — that is to say, no one has all of the knowledge/expertise in the areas of security, compliance, RMM, backup, etc.,” said Voccola in his keynote. “Those are complicated areas. So we buy companies that have expertise in those areas, with industry-leading products, and integrate those into our platform. We make them workflow-integrated; we now make them intelligent, and we lower the price for them. We’ve done that with every deal we’ve made. There is no difference in why we’re buying Datto. It’s the same strategy. Datto will make us more complete and commercially integrated. Datto has amazing technologies that we are going to integrate into our platform.”

According to Voccola, the goal is to continue to solve the same problems; Datto just happens to be …

… on a larger scale. 

“Datto makes us ‘more Kaseya,’” said Voccola. “Kaseya is a company that is singularly focused on delivering the solutions partners need. We are keeping Datto, Datto. Our goal is to not mess things up. When we buy companies, we keep what makes them great, and augment other things.”

Partner Feedback

Channel Futures, of course, hit up partners once again for their point of view in light of these reassurances. Should Kaseya’s claimed track record when it comes to acquiring companies reassure MSPs? The sentiments lie on both sides of the fence, with some partners remaining skeptical, while others choose the more glass-half-full outlook.

PCH Technologies’ Timothy Guim

“I feel that the Datto brand will stay intact based on previous acquisitions,” said Timothy Guim, president and CEO, PCH Technologies. “There is too much at stake with how much Kaseya paid for Datto. Datto is its own ecosystem, but by owning the code base, Kaseya and Datto products can be integrated more fully to create productivity benefits for users of both platforms. I think it will keep the Datto brand as a Kaseya company. I am interested to see how the Datto and Kaseya cultures combine to hopefully make an even more successful combined entity.”

Guim added that in terms of PCH Technologies, he foresees having more integrated tools that will improve technician productivity, more consolidated billing and having a streamlined process for presenting solutions to clients.

In terms of the industry, he predicts/hopes that the scale this transaction creates will lower overall tool costs over time and future acquisitions will add value to the integrated platform.

Kaseya ‘Knows What It’s Doing’

Groff NetWorks’ Lauren Groff

“Here’s a good analogy: If Chrysler bought Maserati, would they roll it into Dodge? That’s ludicrous. I think this is the brilliance of Fred’s move,” said Lauren Groff, CEO Groff NetWorks. “They actually see that they can do with Datto what Datto couldn’t do on their own. Datto was slowing down in growth and profitability. Kaseya has the lowest cost to market and they will be able to do that with Datto. With TruMethods rolled up into Kaseya, myITprocess is already seeing that benefit — three times the investment. The road map is already going faster.”

Groff NetWorks is an Autotask and Datto client, so these two companies coming together “is pretty cool for us,” continued Groff. 

“Obviously, we were quite nervous when it was first announced because we didn’t understand. Until I understood that Fred and their investors are not Thoma Bravo. ConnectWise is getting cost-cut. They won’t cut their way to better market share/profit/cheaper cost to market. Fred gets it. The brands have a lot of value in themselves ; they are putting more money into each of them. I hope they buy more.”