Augmentt CEO: MSPs Must Think Of Microsoft 365 Security As An Ongoing Service

‘Security magically never improves; it only ever gets worse over time. You’ve got to stay on top of it all the time. So identity, we always say that’s the No. 1 step. If you’re going to do anything, really start to wrap your hands around that,’ says Derik Belair, co-founder and CEO of Augmentt Technology.

For MSPs, Microsoft 365 has become much more than a productivity suite. It’s where customers’ identities, data, applications and access increasingly converge, making it that much more important to secure.

“Microsoft has done an actually incredible job at giving system admins a lot of tools and a lot of portals and a lot of configuration,” said Derik Belair, co-founder and CEO of Ottawa, Ontario-based Augmentt Technology. ... “Now, the reality is these tools are available to almost everybody. If you’re a system admin and you’ve got the skill set, it’s fantastic. But if you’re an SMB or an MSP trying to do the work for an SMB, it’s challenging.”

That gap is where Augment is positioning its platform with the goal of bringing Microsoft’s security capabilities together so MSPs can manage multiple tenants in one place.

Belair, who spoke at CRN parent company The Channel Company’s XChange August event in National Harbor, Md., this week, told MSPs to think of Microsoft security as an ongoing service rather than a one-time project.

“Security magically never improves; it only ever gets worse over time,” he said. “You’ve got to stay on top of it all the time. So identity, we always say that’s the No. 1 step. If you’re going to do anything, really start to wrap your hands around that.”

Zac Paulson, vice president of technology at Fargo, N.D.-based ABM Technology Group, said he sees the value in tools such as the ones Augmentt provides, which he said can help a lot with efficiency.

“Microsoft’s always been a beast to handle, and so it’s educational to see tools that are effectively improving the security and making it easier for providers like us to handle more and more licenses,” he said.

Augment’s approach centers on creating security baselines that can be applied across multiple customer environments, then monitoring those environments for changes. That allows MSPs to standardize their security posture while reducing the amount of repetitive work.

The company also sees compliance as an important driver, and Belair said customers increasingly want evidence that security controls are actually being implemented and maintained.

“It’s one thing for you or for us to say, ‘Trust me, we know security. We’re going to create you a [great] baseline. You’re going to be secure,’” he said. “Nobody really cares about that. What they want is to be able to map to a standard. They want to be able to show the evidence that the work is being done, that [they’re] protected.”

Augment is also expanding its focus into AI readiness. As customers begin deploying Copilot and other AI tools, Belair said MSPs need to understand whether sensitive information is protected and who can access it. Assessing SharePoint permissions, identity controls and data exposure before customers roll out AI creates another service opportunity, he said.

The bigger opportunity, he said, is building repeatable, scalable Microsoft security practices that protect customers while creating recurring revenue.

“Don’t wait for a problem to occur but start thinking about how to make all of your customers’ environment better very, very easily,” he said.