SolarWinds (SWI) Earnings: N-able MSP Sales Climb, Roadmap Coming

SolarWinds (SWI), the parent of N-able Technologies, has announced strong Q3 2013 revenue growth and also says N-able’s subscription revenues to MSPs (managed services providers) are ahead of plan. Next up, SolarWinds will describe its product and marketing strategy during an analyst day Nov. 7 in Boston. N-able’s momentum is good news for MSPs, some of which were nervous when the software provider changed ownership in May 2013. Those fears seem unfounded.

For SolarWinds’ Q3 2013:

Duirng an earnings call, CEO Kevin Thompson praised the N-able business, acquired in May 2013. Thompson stated:

“N-able continues to drive outstanding results and deliver bookings in the third quarter, above what was included in our outlook and above our expectations. The transition to subscription only for new business appears to be delivering positive results as N-able’s strong momentum among MSPs resulted in 29% year-over-year growth in new business transaction volumes this quarter.”

Thompson also said N-able’s subscription revenue was “well ahead” of SolarWinds’ original outlook.

Reality Checks

The SolarWinds earnings arrive one week after N-able hosted a successful global partner conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. Several partners at the event told MSPmentor on background that they are striving to increase their use of SolarWinds’ software.

Where might SolarWinds and N-able head next? SolarWinds is set to host an analyst briefing on Nov. 7 in Boston. MSPmentor will offer an update at that time.

Meanwhile, portions of the MSP community has been concerned in recent months as multiple software companies (Kaseya, Zyrion, N-able, Level Platforms) got acquired. Insight Venture Partners now owns Kaseya and merged in Zyrion. AVG Technologies now owns Level Platforms. AVG is scheduled to announce quarterly results on Nov. 7.