Scenes From The N-able Partner Summit

Partner Summit

N-able Technologies held its 2010 Partner Summit in Scottsdale, Ariz., drawing more than 300 managed service providers and vendors to talk about the latest services technologies and trends. Here are a few scenes from the show. At left, MSPs mingle during N-able's technology showcase.

CEO Message

N-able CEO Gavin Garbutt urged MSPs to try to gain 100 percent IT coverage with their clients before somebody else steps in.

Got Godgart?

Autotask's Bob Godgart, left, and Lenny DiCostanzo, right, talk with Paul Boyer, executive director of sales at Ancero, a New Jersey-based MSP.

Marketing Matters

Kutenda's Ben Berghoff, right, explains his company's Internet marketing suite to VISN IT President Joe Ambrosole, left, and senior solutions specialist Wayne Higgins.

One-On-One

Zak Karsan, vice president of business development at VaultLogix, listens to a question from Chris Cramer, director of managed services at IT Works.

At The XiloCore

Jennifer Dittemore, national channel account manager at XiloCore, explains her company's storage offerings to Allison Ohman, senior account manager at Morrison-Maierle Systems, a Billings, Mont.-based MSP.

Unique Analogy

Justin Crotty, executive vice president and general manager at NetEnrich, which provides NOC services on behalf of N-able, joked that NetEnrich is "the dung beetle of the IT industry" -- and had a slide to prove it. Crotty's point was that his company does a lot of the back-end grunt work so that MSPs don't have to do it themselves. "While everyone else is asleep, we're out there crawling around making sure nothing's going wrong," he said.

Platform Preview

August Wehrmann, vice president of research and development at N-able, previewed the company's upcoming N-central 7.2 platform, which will transform from a monitoring and management platform to an automation platform. "We want to be your one-stop shop for using N-central as a single pane of glass," Wehrmann said.

MSP Growth

Mike Cullen, N-able's vice president of sales, said the company's number of customers has increased 45 percent since February and the number of devices managed has increased by 51 percent.

"We're having a phenomenal year. Twenty-five percent of our [new customers] come from competitive ripouts," Cullen said.

Customer Perspective

David Thibodeau, vice president of IT for Workers’ Credit Union, explained the value his organization gets from managed services provided by CalTech Software Systems.

"Primarily, my goals are to do as much with as little as possible. It's all about the proposition. When I work with a partner, I want him to tell me where the value is. I don't expect everything to go out the door and I expect to keep control," Thibodeau said.

Growth Award

N-able handed out several awards to partners, including this one to Tony Chiappetta of CHIPS Computer Services in Hugo, Minn., at left, for being the top-growth partner. CHIPS more than tripled its customer base with N-able in 2010. N-able's Garbutt, right, presents the award.

Innovation Award

NetServe365, based in Pittsburgh, and Dedham, Mass.-based Ntirety were co-winners of N-able's Innovation Award. NetServe365 was honored for its third-party integrations using the N-central platform while Ntirety was recognized for its database administration services. Pictured here, Justin Cameron, NetServe365's co-owner, executive vice president and COO (right), accepts the award from Garbutt.

Midmarket Award

CalTech, a San Angelo, Texas-based MSP, was presented the Midmarket Award for its focus on winning customers in that market segment. Brent McCasland, president of CalTech (left), accepted the award from Garbutt.

Success Award

Rick Monnig, president of TechSolutions, a Wilmington, Del.-based MSP (left), accepts the Success Award from N-able. TechSolutions won for its successful go-to-market strategy and quick transition to the managed services business model, according to N-able.

Top Contributor Award

Steve Songaila, CEO of Twin Systems in St. Albans, Hertforshire, England (left), and Nathan Franks, director and principal consultant of Dynamic Business Technologies, based in Australia, each took home Top Contributor Awards for "going the extra mile" to foster a stronger partner community and help other N-able partners build successful MSP practices, according to N-able.

Rookie Of The Year

Ed Garay, co-owner of Catalyst Computer Technology, receives N-able's Rookie Of The Year Award. The Chandler, Ariz.-based MSP signed on with N-able in April and quickly ramped up and deployed N-central NSM software platform across its customer base.

MSP Of The Year

Mike Jones, CEO of ETG, a Birmingham, Ala.-based MSP, took home the evening's biggest prize, the MSP Of The Year award. N-able recognized ETG for its accomplishments and upholding the highest standards and integrity, according to N-able.

In August, ETG was honored by CRN as well as one of its