IT Functions and Managed Services – Kevin Bury, N-able,

This is Textron TV. Hey guys. Thanks for the throw.

We're here with Kevin bury Who's chief customer officer for enable and we're talking about how the it ecosystem is going to evolve in 2023 Kevin. Welcome the show. Hey Mike.

Thanks for having a man excited to be here. If I look back in time historically maybe 20% of it was consumed that some sort of managed service and it seems at least post covid those numbers have gone up germanically more people are relying on some sort of external service provider and yet the service providers themselves are consuming platforms as a service such as yours that help them monitor various Networks. And there is a call for more transparency in the whole process.

So how do you think this whole ecosystem is going to evolve and how will end customers know what service is coming from where and who's going to be able to kind of? Give them the tools to see what's going happen across these extended Networks. Yeah, it's it is it is a ever-evolving and rapidly changing environment.

I think that you know, you you talk about what we're seeing and we've seen dramatic change just since the the world of covid. It's been thrust upon us. Right.

Look there's a bunch of kind of macro trends that are driving these things there are more and more services available. You know, it seems like today everything is available as a services or as a service internal it is struggling to keep up with it to try and you know maintain some level of continuity in order and they can't you know, then you add in the the ever-changing global labor Marketplace. They're challenged to keep people and retain them.

So now they're able to they're being faced with the challenge of trying to do more with less and how do they get all these things done? And so what we have seen specifically is more and more of the will say the msps which generally have been working with the smaller, you know, kind of Medium and small type of Enterprise customers through their prevent providing a holistic type of services. Let me manage everything for you now being asked by the more traditional internal it customer saying look, I just need some help with a particular thing.

One of the recent ones. We had a what we call co-manage which is where the internal it and the MSP work together on some specific initiatives. We had a co-managed executive briefing in our Raleigh office earlier this year and what we heard was more and more of the msps who are typically represented.

There are very traditional customer base saying look, we're being brought into more and more of these it shops saying hey, can you help us with this? Whether it's things like providing some of the basics like patching as a service or some of the basics of help desk and things like that all the way up through some of the most advanced types of things around endpoint detection and some of the security really Advanced features because again the internal it Are struggling with this ever-growing list of services Services, everything is a service and a very distributed Workforce Now and and also the challenge of they just can't find enough of the right qualified people. So there's really this kind of Almost Perfect Storm of why you're seeing this this transformation.

Do you think there is some cultural issues to still be worked out because historically all times an internal it team would view the MSP almost as a competitor and and we got to the point to this notion where you describe it as co-management where yeah, they're working a little more hand in glow. I think they have to right and you know, it's not even necessarily that they viewed them. It's just a competitor.

It's like you don't do what we do. Well, they did it but they didn't kind of the smaller type of environment. I think what one of things I've heard coming from and having spent my entire career in it.

And in this space was they thought that the msps were generally working on the smaller end of things right? They didn't have the level of sophistication and experience. You know, we are we are it we work on big glass house kinds of systems, right?

Well, you know we talked about just a minute ago, Mike. Um with everything becoming available as a service that we have that very specialized knowledge at our level kind of goes away. And so now it's a matter of okay.

I may not have I may have made some of you do as a competitor, but what I've you now is look you can be a compliment to my team you can bring in specialized skills that frankly I can't get or I don't have enough of inside of my organization. So yeah there might definitely cultural issues. Absolutely that's always going to be a big challenge for for some of these things.

But we're seeing that Evolution happen rapidly in front of our own eyes because some of our many of our larger msps are now building their businesses around being an extension and a compliment to those internal it shops. Once the overall state of security these days among Banner service providers because there were a few attacks saying that them especially a couple years back and yes that served as a wake-up call. So what have you seen them do since Well, so it is there have been you know, there are a lot of Bad actors out there and and it's it's one of the key things that we talk about with our partners is making sure they're ready and capable of supporting their own customers whether they be the the small and medium Enterprises or now is this extension of the internal it shop right?

But I think what you're seeing is more and more sophistication more and more call for more sophisticated tools more capable tools, you know, if you go back just a few years ago. Everyone thought well, we protect to be a AV and making sure that we had a good patch strategy and oh by the way, we were providing backups. We were covered.

Well, I think that that has been proven to be a flaw kind of thinking the bad guys have got much more sophisticated and now they needed to evolve into where we are today, which most companies are looking at endpoint detection and then taking steps to remediate when they need to the next level of this and we're seeing it directly is the need for constant monitoring right? And so one of It things that we have been talking about with our biggest security partner, which is Sentinel one is moving into a managed EDR type of world word. Look they have the sophistication.

They have the tools and the staff that they can monitor the endpoints in real time 24 by 7 and be able to take proactive remediation steps as soon as it's happening. We think that's the next big coming because frankly the sophistication of the the Bad actors is there called continuous to evolve and they're they're constantly trying to up their game. So we need to get more and more sophisticated and more capable of weight and the ways that we're monitoring and then blocking them from from getting in into our customers environments.

You guys have been doing remote monitoring forever and a day. How do you think that's gonna evolve as we go forward? What should people be looking for?

We hear a lot about things like observability AI are we on the cusp of some major changes in the way we think about monitoring. Well, you're right. This is this is kind of our our Birthright.

If you will, this is where we were born. It's what we've been doing, you know for the last couple decades, but I do think there's an evolution going on right it's there endpoints are you know a thing today being able to Monitor and have that visibility but the next big kind of turn of the crank if you will we believe is as more and more things move into the cloud. It's the ability to Monitor and manage the cloud, right?

So now you start to think about cloud services and it's a different mindset than just protecting the the end users computer or a file server because frankly file servers are no longer a key thing. Everything is staying up in the cloud whether it be an Azure or be an AWS. And so it's the ability to Monitor and manage those things.

And so we're now seeing that evolution is into more sophistication around managing. Things that are available as a service which we talked about a little while ago and so we're building more and more sophisticated tools to be able to do that which can't leave the endpoints or the you know, the nodes if you will behind because there are still devices that people walk around with and have it their desktop. So we're seeing now a certainly a evolution of that moving away from just needing things that are located at your physical presence to things being able to be monitored in the cloud as well.

What's your best advice to the End customer or the IT team? That's trying to sort through all these msps that are out there. How do you distinguish between who delivers what and because you know on the face of it.

They all kind of say the same thing. So how do you kind of look at this and evaluate that in some sort of objective? What?

Yeah, it's it's a really it's a great question. So thank you for asking. It's interesting.

We just came out of our Empower that which is our annual like to say it was annual because we had to pause it for you know covid but our our customer Gathering event and I spend a lot of time with our very largest msps and ask them almost a similar question. Like how do you guys differentiate? How do you go to market in a way that you can provide the confidence?

Because look at this point. It's a confidence play right? If I am a small or medium Enterprise or I'm an internal it shop.

I need to know that you're gonna be there you have the sophistication you have the right tools your teams have the right training that something goes bump in the night and very really it goes bump in the night like that. They can count on me as an MSP to be able to do that. And so we talked a lot about what they've been doing.

And so I think it's asking for things like show me the capabilities of your team show me the tools that you're working with. Now that being said a lot of smaller enter. Don't necessarily have the experience to be able to differentiate.

You know, who is a good one and who's a bad one. So, I think it's asking for things like credentials and asking for references some of our large MSP piece now and msps of all sizes and shapes are doing a better job about explaining their processes the tools that they use right one of the big things that we've seen in our most successful fastest growing msps is that they have standardized around a stack and they are very confident in that stack. And so it's working with the company like enable and there are other companies out there that provide good tools, but that they develop deep deep skills and knowledge and understanding of how to use those tools as well as the the security tools like vendor like Sentinel one that they've got a good relationship with Microsoft because really those are the three kind of components if you will Mike that you have to look for someone who understands how to do Remote Management and all this things around that someone that has a good story and a strong technical stack of security and then someone who is going to be able to manage Microsoft because as we all know Microsoft is the most used tool of all of the of the technology vendors, especially by small and medium Enterprises.

So that's where I would give guidance to and I have friends of mine who own businesses and they ask me for medication like okay. These are the kinds of things I would be looking for. Do you think if you get your crystal ball out, I would say that the bulk of it people largely work for some sort of internal it team at the moment.

But do you think is you look out in the years ahead that that might shift were more it people are working for services provider rather than an internal organization is the way we consume it continues to shift. Well, I don't know if it'll be the majority but I certainly think it is a shift to your point. Right?

I think we are seeing more and more and we're seeing it firsthand more and more services providers are being asked to come in and augment and compliment those it or organizations because what they're finding is and what what we've seen firsthand is the msps are usually working on the latest Technologies. They're they're able to offer it professionals. If you will an opportunity to work on some really cool things.

Sometimes they don't get that inside of internal it right. And so I think what you're seeing is more and more people interested and becoming very specialized and you'll see then msps being able to offer them opportunities to work on those kinds of tools. Right?

And then the other challenges is that with everything changing as rapidly as it is internal it shops are just struggling to keep up with that. Right? And so the ability to look to a specialized partner.

Lot of advantages for that. So yeah, I do think we're going to see the msps continue to support in a much more dramatic way the internal it shops, you know, we've just announced a new partnership with IP it by Design. And they are doing now essentially Outsource knock right and they can do that for a fraction of the cost that an internal it shop can run their own dock, right?

So you're gonna see more and more of these specialized skills and specialized Services popping up and being brought to Market and then maturing like the one by it by design that can ultimately grow and help that that internal it shop or the MSP provided that a higher level of service than they can possibly build because they just don't have the economies to do it themselves. All right, speaking of economies. We are seeing shall we say uncertain times and there's always pressure on pricing for services.

A lot of times though, you'll hear about people who are promising a level of service that a price point that seems a little difficult to believe shall we say pricing is always been an issue for msps because they are worried about profitability themselves. How do I kind of balance this issue between you know, what's good enough for an MSP to survive versus me is the End customer who's always trying to get the best deal. Yeah, it's it's a good question.

And by the way, you know, we're seeing this first hand with our MSP customers and our internal it customers everybody is going through this and and you know, we're seeing you know, while the economy is looking like it's headed into some some headwinds and we you know, we're like I said, we've seen it we're seeing we're still seeing very strong indicators by our MSP customers our customers of all shapes and sizes and that's globally things have slowed down a little bit but not necessarily to the point of where we're seeing people cancel projects that we're seeing them pull back on the number of of divine places and subscriptions they have with us, so we're still seeing growth, but it's just slowed down a little bit. But when you come back to the conversation about pricing, it's interesting and I go back to those conversations. I'm referenced earlier at our power that The largest most successful msps that that showed up and spent time with us our advising they are continuing between continuing to invest in their people and their Tech stacks and they're actually raising prices because they recognize if anything goes wrong, especially in the in the domain of security Mike if you think about this while you may be able to save a few pennies or a few dollars on what you pay per device or per kind of note in your environment on a monthly basis something goes wrong and it does and you're not protected and you can't get your your devices back up and running very quickly.

You're gonna be in some cases out of business. And so what they have told us is they can afford it and if they're not at the customer and customer isn't willing to pay that incremental price, then they will ultimately quit that customer which is a different kind of way of thinking about it. Right?

So I think there's a lot more there's a lot more emphasis on the value that your dollar buys today, right? And so they need to MSP. And customers alike need to make sure that they're mapping what they need what they think they will need to that.

Right? This is not a time and especially when it comes to things like security where you want to cut corners or trying to save a few pennies because ultimately that's going to come better. It has the potential to come back and bite you and a bad bad way.

All right, folks you're hurting here. If you're MSP calls you up and says, you know, they want to terminate that relationship or essentially far. You probably have a much bigger problem than just that Hey Kevin.

Thanks for being on the show. Thank you so much. I appreciate Mike.

All right back to you guys in the studio.