N-able Provides VARs With OnDemand Managed Services

Enabling VARs to test-drive the experience of offering remote, managed IT services is part of the value of N-able's new OnDemand MSP subscription service.

For $500 or less a month, N-able's OnDemand service, which launches this week, lets VARs offer a range of remote MSP support to as many as five customers, said Derik Belair, vice president of marketing at N-able, Ottawa, Ontario.

OnDemand spares VARs the expense of having to add the server and switching infrastructure required to host N-able's flagship N-central MSP platform, which they said can cost between $15,000 and $50,000. Instead, N-able hosts the OnDemand service and beams the MSP management interface to the VAR site, which then offers MSP services directly to customers.

A modular toolbox of MSP functions gives VARs that subscribe to OnDemand the freedom to choose the services they offer, Belair said. "And if you are already hosting your own N-central platform, you can lease added modules of functionality you may not have yet, without the headache of on-site integration," he said.

The move by N-able to offer something of an introductory MSP service shows the vendor is "feeling a little heat" from low-cost MSP offerings from competitors such as Ottawa neighbor LPI Level Platforms, which provides VARs with MSP tools for about $60 per managed site, said Rory Sanchez, president of SL Powers, West Palm Beach, Fla.

As an N-able Platinum partner with an MSP business called GuaranteedNetworks.com, SL Powers spent $50,000 to deploy N-central at its site. Sanchez said OnDemand's five-site monitoring ceiling means its lower entry price doesn't conflict with the higher price paid for the N-central platform by VARs such as himself.