Solution Providers Tell All: Who Are Some Of The Most Up-And-Coming Tech Vendors?
With IT requirements changing fast and new demands coming in from customers, CRN asked MSPs about the hidden gem tech vendors that are on their radar right now.
Hidden Gems
IT requirements are changing rapidly but economic uncertainty has plagued the industry over the past couple of years. Now businesses are slowly revisiting IT projects that were forced to the back burner, and many companies are evaluating their infrastructure after some or all employees have returned to the office, at least in a part-time, hybrid capacity.
The shift is also impacting solution providers who are assessing their portfolios to see what areas may be lacking and what kinds of technology or practices they should consider adding to their repertoires. But from cybersecurity, to networking, unified communications and collaboration, to cloud services, there’s a slew of technology vendors to choose from.
While it’s safe to say that some solution providers’ dance cards are full, the new requirements coming in from customers have some looking outside the market heavyweights or tried-and-true favorites. They are discovering new players that are bringing fresh technology and perspectives to the table, and these vendors are catching their eye.
With that in mind, CRN posed the question to solution provicer executives: “Which lesser-known tech vendor do you consider the most up and coming and why?” Here’s what a sampling of they had to say on the subject.
Kimberly Miles, Director, Sales, Marketing, Atom Creek
CyberQP—that’s one that we have used a lot in our co-managed MSP offerings. Most of the [support] tickets that we get in are password resets, and that takes a lot of our time. CyberQP offers an app for your phone where you can reset your password and don’t have to put in a support ticket. We’re able to reduce that workload on our techs as well as our customers’ technicians. That really helps us be better and more strategic. By the end of the year, we should have all of our customers using CyberQP.
Adam Rodriguez, Co-Owner, The Network System Group
INFIMA—they’re a cybersecurity training company [that is less] complicated to get configured and to stay on top of from an administrative standpoint. Literally it is three clicks [to set up]. It’s just easy, and then it just works. And that’s all they do. I do appreciate that—I like a company that stays in their lane.
John Hill, President, CEO, Tech Sage Solutions
There’s a new company that Kaseya recently acquired called Vonahi [Security]. They’re a penetration testing company. Penetration testing has been incredibly expensive. The people that do it are really proud of it. And Vonahi has come in with a program that’s substantially cheaper, that’s more affordable, especially for smaller businesses. Any of these compliance platforms and programs are now requiring penetration testing. And that’s been a major stumbling block. Two years ago when I looked at trying to get a client to do it, it was $10,000 to $25,000 every time a pen test is run. It’s been incredibly expensive. And now with companies like Vonahi, and I’m sure there’s others that will be coming out in that same market space, it’s coming to where you can have ongoing penetration testing just for a flat monthly fee, and it’s way lower. It’s affordable for a smaller business. And so, I think that’s where we’re going to see a lot of new vendor activities [and] other companies doing something like that because the market’s open for it.
David Moadab, Owner, Solutions Squad
Mailprotector because they told me something revolutionary that’s coming out. The way mail companies usually protect us through MX records, these guys are doing something totally different with MX records. So when I send an email, the first thing the mail server does is look at your company’s MX record to say, ‘Where do I send this email?’ Usually when you use a mail protection company, you send it to them and then from them it goes to Office 365. They’re not doing that. They’re doing something much cooler.
Fady Salama, President, Simplify IT
BVoip because I think they offer a fresh solution. A lot of their integrations and a lot of their billings, especially now that they’re a Pax8 member, is going to make life dramatically easier.
Danny Perry, Managing Partner, ITCubed
I would say it’s Lifecycle Insights that’s just been acquired by ScalePad. It’s basically a vCIO [virtual CIO] product that allows you to consolidate information from your clients’ assets, users, [etc.] so that you can give incident analysis in detail to your customers at all times. That’s been the most impactful product that we’ve implemented over the last year by a lot.
Phillip Walker, CEO, Network Solutions Provider
CyGlass. They leverage AI for network threat detection. I’m looking forward to working with them as they grow the AI component, use it to talk to endpoints. The next step is to give recommendations for being safer.
Penny Thurnau, VP, Strategic Alliances, Powernet
It’s Lansweeper. I was just listening to their presentation [at the XChange August 2023 conference, hosted by CRN parent The Channel Company]. I want to get back to our engineer because there’s some things that they’re doing that I think would tie in good with us as an MSP and what we’re looking to add into our product line to align everything. It would help with tying it all together [and provide] a single pane of glass for us.
Marcial Velez, CEO, Xperteks
Cynomi. You’re starting to see these new compliance-minded tools so you can complement it with other tools, achieve integrations, work with the data in a way that makes it easier for us to meet requirements. [With] Cynomi, we’re working with them to provide vCISO [virtual chief information security officer] services. I’m looking forward to seeing how they continue to develop their software.
Anthony Robbins, Partner, Network Services
I was really impressed with NinjaRMM. I think I started talking to them in 2016 or 2017 when they weren’t ready to launch yet. And so, we moved to a different RMM, but I kept an eye on NinjaRMM. I think their offering for startup MSPs is fantastic. I think it gets them into the RMM space with without all of the additional bloat that comes along with larger RMM platforms. So, I like NinjaRMM quite a bit.
(Editor’s note: NinjaRMM was renamed NinjaOne in 2021.)