Kaseya Acquires Datto but with the moves Apple and Microsoft are making does it matter?

While the headlines this month have all been about Kaseya and Datto (who we work with for billing integration, and respect the work both companies do) more news has slipped out which has the potential to change the SMB support market, and by extension the services MSP deliver.

Apple Releases Apple Business Essentials

Apple business essentials offers enough pieces of the puzzle that for a small business, especially if you are Mac/iPhone only what else would you need?

• Application deployment, with support for profiles and groups
• Update management
• Support for BYOD and company owned devices
• Onsite support and repair (Including repair credits)

This is a compelling offering, and while able to be used by MSP’s appears to be directly targeted at the end customer themselves. With the performance of the M1 series of chips, the tepid reception to Windows 11 and the remote work impact of the pandemic I can see more and more companies becoming apple shops – in fact we even have a couple of our team primarily on apple devices now.

Microsoft Releases a range of new Features for Endpoint Manager

Endpoint manager has always been a ‘next release’ type of product. Well, it looks like it’s here now, and covers enough of the expected landscape that if your customers are Microsoft’s shop and on Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 it has to be considered.

• Windows Autopatch – with advanced testing and rollback
• The ability to push out drivers and firmware
• Remote Help – a secure helpdesk tool to connect to end user devices

As Microsoft extends the Microsoft 365 Suite, and more and more companies live primarily in the Microsoft Cloud Microsoft are extending their reach.

These capabilities included in licenses, or as small enough add-ons means customers will feel less need to test the market or explore third party solutions.

Thoughts

Apple and Microsoft are both looking to take a slice of the device management pie. It seems both are positioned at the smaller end of the market – exactly where a lot of MSP’s have many of their customers.

As more and more business start in the cloud and move solely to the cloud the requirement for infrastructure management reduces or is slowly becoming eliminated – especially in the SMB world. If people are co-working or remote working there is no need for network infrastructure, printers, and other office stuff’ and with apps in the cloud, no servers to manage.

Autopatch in particular presents a unique challenge to MSP’s. With Microsoft testing (including against applications!), then deciding to rollout the patches on customers behalf, and including rollback capability customers can perceive the value of the MSP’s device and patch management offering to be dramatically reduced.

Small business owners are now more tech savvy than ever before (remember the phrase Digital Native?), and with these tools becoming simpler and more cost effective there is potential many will do it themselves, only paying for some setup help initially.

So, what’s the opportunity? What are you seeing in the market? What are your customers saying?