IT Nation Secure: MSPs and the Intersection of AI and Cybersecurity

Hyperautomation, or automating everything in an organization that can be automated, took center stage at last year’s IT Nation Secure. ConnectWise’s Ameer Karim saidMSPs' embrace of hyperautomation varies.

“I think it depends on the maturity of the MSP, where they are and how big of a client base they have,” he said. “Those that have a lot of clients have embraced hyperautomation, our robotic process automation (RPA) and workflow engine. We have a lot of partners utilizing that, writing their own bots. We've held Automation Nation, where we brought in technicians to come in and understand best practices, and how they can go build and streamline some of their daily workflows. So from that perspective, I'd say we've seen some really good success as partners embrace that. But it’s still new. There are partners at different levels of the spectrum. There’s partners who are just learning about it, and they're seeking to understand how some of these new tools can help them, while others are saying, 'Hey, you can't live without it anymore because now I can do 10 times, two times or five times, let's say, depending on what I'm trying to do and how many clients I'm trying to serve.' So absolutely, we've seen some huge level of adoption, usage and engagement on our hyperautomation tools.”

When it comes to AI and cybersecurity, MSPs need to get their houses in order and get ready, said ConnectWise’s Gregg Lalle.

“We've got to make sure that people start taking the preparatory phases now and catch up on their security,” he said. “I don’t want to see anyone left at the train station. So it's about getting your hands on an understanding and joining communities, joining virtual groups. If you're going to stay in this business, you better dive head in and get your arms around it. So it's about taking action and awareness, and opening your eyes and you don't have time to wait. This isn't a sales tactic to go buy something. I don't care what you buy. It's about preparation and education for you so that you can communicate to your constituents, to your customers because AI is a practice, AI is a service that needs to evolve. You're going to have to educate and tell them how their outcomes are different … what MSPs are deploying and how they can make that happen.”

MSPs are focused on doing more with less, streamlining and automating things, and being more proactive, Karim said. At the end of the day, if their customers are happy, then the MSP is growing.
“So we're empowering them, providing them with the tools, the processes and the best practices, enabling them with how they can market and expand,” he said. “In the case of cybersecurity, are they going to expand their cybersecurity practice? How do they go to market? How do they sell cybersecurity? How do they sell data protection? So it's a whole host of things that I would say that have transpired over the last year that continue to drive growth for ConnectWise. And our products have been evolving as well. Our business management tools have been completely reimagined, as well as our RMM product. And then, of course, with our cybersecurity, there’s our security information and event management (SIEM) product, our managed detection and response (MDR) service, our SaaS security solution, our vulnerability management and so on. In addition, we have a solution called backup monitoring where it helps partners manage multiple vendors. So there's just a tremendous amount that's happening and we continue to see new avenues of growth.”

It’s important for MSPs to realize that when it comes to cybersecurity, “we need to do this together,” Lalle said.

“There's some different opinions out there of communities about manufacturing the best of everything, and kind of keeping other people at bay or out,” he said. “We are absolutely arms wide open, that it takes a village. The problems that come up are not going to be solved by one company or 10 companies, so we need to stick together in order to accelerate, to be able to defend at the rate that we need to defend.”

Many partners are still using antivirus (AV), but “AV is of the past," Karim said.

“So one of the biggest things we've been promoting is how partners can move to endpoint detection and response (EDR) and MDR so that they have a greater level of protection across the device landscape because that is another weak point," he said. "People are on their devices on a daily basis clicking on things. How do you know what's right, what's wrong and so on? So I think partners are definitely going to look forward to coming to IT Nation Secure and learning a lot about all these things because the threat landscape is an ever changing thing.”

Karim said he hopes MSPs leave IT Nation Secure knowing that ConnectWise is going to make it easier for them to manage their cybersecurity.

“The second is AI is here to stay, and so how do they embrace it to help them stay ahead of the threats,” he said. “And third is how can they learn from other MSPs because it's not just about coming to the event to learn everything new about cybersecurity, but also it's engaging with your peers and talking to other MSPs, and understanding their set of challenges and sharing best practices among each other, and learning from each other around how can they grow to be a profitable MSP. How can they build their business and improve their practice in various areas? So I think it's all about networking. It's about learning about new tools, and how they can embrace and stay ahead of those, and then understanding how new product solutions can further enhance their business.”

Karim said he hopes MSPs leave IT Nation Secure knowing that ConnectWise is going to make it easier for them to manage their cybersecurity.

“The second is AI is here to stay, and so how do they embrace it to help them stay ahead of the threats,” he said. “And third is how can they learn from other MSPs because it's not just about coming to the event to learn everything new about cybersecurity, but also it's engaging with your peers and talking to other MSPs, and understanding their set of challenges and sharing best practices among each other, and learning from each other around how can they grow to be a profitable MSP. How can they build their business and improve their practice in various areas? So I think it's all about networking. It's about learning about new tools, and how they can embrace and stay ahead of those, and then understanding how new product solutions can further enhance their business.”