ConnectWise Reveals Series of Major New Developments at IT Nation Connect

IT NATION CONNECT — ConnectWise IT Nation Connect 2021 kicked off Wednesday with a rousing welcome keynote featuring top executives.

The session in Orlando covered a number of topics, including usual suspects cybersecurity, M&A and the talent shortage. But it also featured a series of new product developments and program announcements key to the company’s MSP customers. Each centered around helping IT solution providers better prepare to meet today’s most pressing challenges, from cyber threats to digital transformation.

Say Hello to Asio

Headlining the announcements was the introduction of Asio. Jeff Bishop, chief product officer, introduced the unified platform. It aims to provide infinite scalability, intelligent automation, and value-added reporting and insights. The platform makes it possible to deliver rapid innovation to keep partners current, while its open APIs will offer extensibility and flexibility for those who need it. Asio includes a single user interface, allowing partners to manage end-user access and run all aspects of their business from a single pane of glass.

ConnectWise designed Asio to address the fact that IT solution providers no longer manage just physical and virtual endpoints; they also manage users; cloud applications and infrastructure; and IoT. ConnectWise can deliver automation and access for support in all these areas. Furthermore, the company says it has taken steps to ensure that its new platform has no customer or endpoint limitations.

In addition, Asio will allow ConnectWise to easily remove duplicate engineering work and streamline the development cycle for all of its products. With the ability to apply shared services across all products, duplicate work can be removed from the development flow. Valuable enhancements can then reach users much faster and across more products.

ConnectWise CEO Jason Magee and chief customer officer Craig Fulton at IT Nation Connect 2021, Nov. 10.

“It’s not just a platform; it’s not just ones and zeros. It will allow us to innovate faster, bring about better security, and an overall better user experience,” said Bishop. “It doesn’t matter if you’re interfacing with our security bottom lines, you’re going to have one application in one place that has access to all of it. You get access to automation that’s relevant for that ticket at that time. Maybe it’s also tasked to do project information, endpoints, or device information that comes from the RMM or the security products. We want you to be able to solve problems faster and be more efficient. So we want to put everything in one spot.”

“These are challenging times for our industry,” said Jason Magee, ConnectWise CEO. “IT solution providers are working through digital transformation, dealing with technology shifts at hyperscale speed and preparing for impending market consolidation, all while battling cyber criminals who threaten them and their customers. We know this, and we’ve been hard at work re-imagining how we can help IT solution providers meet these challenges head on and thrive. Everything we’re showcasing today – the new Asio platform, ConnectWise RMM, our new business transformation programs, and more – are part of our commitment to deliver more innovation faster, invest in partner growth, and deliver a seamless partner experience.” 

ConnectWise RMM

Bishop also at IT Nation Connect introduced a new solution, the aforementioned ConnectWise RMM. This tool aims to be the next generation of Automate, which ConnectWise built on the Asio platform. Together, this combines out-of-the-box automation coupled with the automation IT solution providers need to deliver customized services to their customers, the company said.

ConnectWise RMM aggregates both software and human elements. It covers the spectrum of do-it-yourself (DIY) and do-it-for-you (DFY) delivery options. Furthermore, it integrates an intelligent automation engine. It’s a solution the company designed to change up how IT solution providers adopt, interact with and manage their RMM. 

It’s no secret that security is the No. 1 thing keeping IT solution providers up at night. ConnectWise stressed it has prioritized the protection of the data, applications and infrastructure in both Asio and ConnectWise RMM. Bishop also said proactive and preventive protections are at the forefront so partners can rest more easily about …

… their data safety.  

Dave LeClair is VP of product management, unified monitoring and management, ConnectWise.

“This is a product that’s going to give you unlimited scale and unparalleled performance,” said LeClair. “This solution is a combination of all our combined history, experience and expertise that are brought into the new Asio platform. In addition, we’ve also worked on additional enhancements so that the platform will be evolving to meet the needs of MSPs as you’re evolving as well. And because it’s built on the Azure platform, we’re built on secure modern cloud architecture that provides limited scalability and outstanding performance.”

Cybersecurity and Information Security Investments

ConnectWise also unveiled its plans to expand and connect its cybersecurity offerings, including expanded products, SOC investments and more. Now, all partners who wish to build cybersecurity practices have access to the ConnectWise Partner Program, which equips them to build and go to market with winning cybersecurity practices.  

Raffael Marty is senior VP of product management for cybersecurity.

“I talked to a lot of you trying to understand your unique challenges and how we can help solve them,” said Marty. “Together with my two decades in cybersecurity, we’re now setting out to build the industry’s most advanced cybersecurity stack for MSPs. At the core of the stack is intelligence — intelligence from all the different tools that we have deployed to the endpoints, the network, the cloud. It’s intelligence from our software security operations center, where we have 150 security analysts monitoring your environments all day long.”

“It’s real people, processes, and tools focused on keeping you safe,” said Steve Cochran, chief technology officer, ConnectWise. “Security is job No. 1 at ConnectWise. I know there’s nothing more transformative for a business than providing a great experience for customers and being protected.”

Modes Theory

ConnectWise’s Arlin Sorensen at IT Nation Connect 2021, Nov. 10.

And the IT Nation Connect product developments just kept coming. Modes Theory, also announced Wednesday, is a new methodology to help partners identify and operationalize their businesses in alignment with their unique business objectives. Modes and its associated resources are now available to the entire ConnectWise partner community. 

Furthermore, by identifying their “mode,” partners can refine their business approach based on desired outcomes. 

“Modes is really about the owner’s growth mindset,” said Arlin Sorensen, VP of brand and ecosystem evangelism with ConnectWise. “It needs to answer three specific questions: What is your destination/what are you trying to build? How will you get there/what does that journey look like? And what is your timeline/how long do you have? You need to know the answers to those three questions. We’ve created an assessment to guide us through that process and begin to really identify where you are on your growth.”

ConnectWise Invent

There was also an update to ConnectWise Invent at IT Nation Connect on Wednesday. Invent is the company’s official program for integration vendors. For partners in the Invent program, it offers development support, readiness, certifications and go-to-market support.

With a nod to partner security, ConnectWise has implemented added measures to ensure that the integrations it certifies are secure. The new program includes a security review of all integrations, in addition to integration certification. For instance, third-party companies conduct static code reviews for every integration certified through the Invent program. That’s in addition to organizational risk assessments on all companies that ConnectWise works with through Invent.

ConnectWise Online Community

Finally, ConnectWise announced that in the new year, it will expand the IT Nation community with a new online community dedicated to helping IT Nation Cohorts and technology service providers engage with peers and product managers about ConnectWise products and services.