Automation Nation 2014: LabTech Software's Technology Roadmap

LabTech Software provided partners with a look at the new features in the most recent patch to its remote monitoring and management platform, plus offered managed service providers (MSPs) a preview of some of the features on the roadmap during Automation Nation 2014 this week. So what can MSPs look forward to?

A lot. The company is adding virtualization monitoring, a native remote control/support feature, more certifications, improvements to training programs and curriculum and more. He’s a quick summary of the announcements this week.

The 2013.1 patch to LabTech, adding ESX monitoring and management (with other hypervisor support to come later, including Hyper-V), integrated CA D2D and Symantec Backup Exec, Intel vPro configuration and management workplace,  (and maintenance and stability improvements.)  The patch was released to Automation Nation attendees on Tuesday.

An automated script to do a full audit of partner LabTech servers and proactive monitoring of those servers. The service will also provide a backup of server configurations. This is provided at no charge to partners.

LabTech University 2.0: new role-based tracks to simplify finding the right training material for systems administrators, sales and other roles in managed services businesses.  (to be released in the next few weeks.)

An expansion of LabTech Software’s instructor-led virtual bootcamps.

An expansion of LabTech’s Tampa-based training from 3 days to 5 days to help in preparation for the certification test.

New certifications – LabTech Certified Engineer will debut in September. LabTech Certified Architect will debut in December. Nachtrab said that the company is looking to make the Architect certification as prestigious as the top Cisco engineer certifications. He has set the following goal: “85 percent of people won’t pass this certification test the first time they take it.”

Availability of the SDK program. This program has been in beta for the last year and is now hitting general availability with 272 vendors participating to start. “If you can imagine something in LabTech that you want to do, you can create it,” said Nachtrab.

A Solutions Exchange.  This gives ISVs and development-minded MSPs an online marketplace to offer their LabTech plug ins to other managed services providers.  Nachtrab said the goal is for 700 companies to integrate with LabTech by 2017.  This marketplace will debut in July.

Remote control/support functionality. This is a roadmap feature, and LabTech Software’s CEO wouldn’t commit to a release date yet. However, he did say that the technology is entirely internally developed and current internal tests for lag time indicate superior performance.

Also on the way long term – Microsoft Office 365 monitoring and management and more cloud environment monitoring capabilities.