N-able has inked a security-related managed services partnership with Untangle. But I believe there’s a bigger trend here.
Untangle has a strong position in the open source industry. That position is prompting MSP platform providers — N-able, Level Platforms, Kaseya and others — to evaluate their definition of “open” platforms, and (in some cases…) their potential use of open source software.
Full disclosure: I run Ubuntu Linux (see our sister site, www.workswithu.com) and have covered the open source industry since around 1998. So, I strongly believe that open source will play a growing role in the MSP arena.
MSP platform providers are also coming around to open source, and open systems. A year ago, Untangle had a difficult time hammering out partnerships with MSP software providers, concedes Dirk Morris, founder and CTO of Untangle, which promotes open source security solutions to MSPs.
That’s changing — as evidenced by Untangle’s relationships with N-able, Level Platforms and Kaseya, just to name a few.
The N-able deal, scheduled to be announced sometime June 17, focuses on technology integration between N-able’s platform and Untangle’s software. However, Morris foresees a day when the relationship blossoms to include joint sales and marketing efforts.
The Open Road
Meanwhile, most MSP platform providers are trying to decide just how “open” to make their platforms.
For some platform providers, the term “open” involves documented application programming interfaces (APIs) that partners can cross leverage. This, for instance, has allowed Autotask and Kaseya to write to each other’s platforms.
But APIs only go so far, and they’re often designed — for better or for worse — to attract ISVs to a specific platform, much in the way that programmers flocked to Windows in the 1990s.
Some CEOs are looking beyond APIs. During the 2008 Kaseya User Conference in Las Vegas earlier this month, CEO Gerald Blackie mentioned to me that Kaseya is leveraging open source code here and there in the company’s products.
Sweet Alternatives
But longer term, I suspect some platform providers will decide to further open their systems in dramatic ways. I’m not talking about pure open source platforms. Instead, we may see add-ons and enhancements with open source features.
A case in point: One industry CEO is trying to decide if and how to integrate his MSP platform with Salesforce.com’s hosted CRM system, according to a recent conversation we had.
Supporting Salesforce.com provides a rapid path to software as a service (SaaS), but executives should also watch the open source landscape for alternatives. For instance, SugarCRM is an immensely popular open source CRM system, and it’s also gaining momentum in the SaaS world.
Could — or would — the MSP platform provider embed SugarCRM’s code directly into a managed services system? The possibilities seem endless, assuming CEOs truly are committed to open systems.
Posted In: Platforms
Tags: Kaseya | Level Platforms | Managed Service Provider | Managed Services | MSP | N-able | Open Source | Untangle
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I think you made a similar statement a few weeks ago calling for msps to open up their platforms more. I agree that it will happen but gradually. Most of the channel grew up using, selling and supporting microsoft. Open means different things to different people.
Steve T: I just got off the phone with Michael Proper, CEO of DirectPointe, the top-ranked on our MSPmentor 100 list. He mentioned open source — again and again — as a core component in his strategy to continue scaling DirectPointe.
I recorded the conversation for an upcoming podcast. I should have the podcast online in the next few days for you, if you’re interested. http://www.mspmentor.net/category/podcasts/
This just in: Some more perspective on open source converging with managed services, and MSP platforms opening up, from eWeek Channel Insider.
Good blog – Great topic. We’ve been an open software since day one for many of the same reasons you noted here. As you may know, our N-central software is Linux based, Uses PostgresQL databases, leverages a Tomcat application server, etc. The reason we use these types of technologies is so we can design flexible, high-performance applications that don’t require our customers to purchase operating systems, per processor licensing for SQL server, etc. They also open the doors to greater opportunities for integration with other products such as PSA tools, Intel vPro and Microsoft System Center Essentials which is a huge draw for VARs and MSPs. Another key area is the Application Programming Interface (API)-based integration we have with both Autotask and ConnectWise – this gives our partners the ability to share Customer, Device, and Asset information and integrate these tools into their own back office applications. Keeping in line with the example you cited prior, these API’s could also be used to integrate with Salesforce, should a partner want to. In fact, the integration announced below with Untangle leverages our native integration capabilities – meaning there was no programming or code development required.
Bottom line is this: Having the ability to integrate with other products, systems, and workflow processes is a critical and necessary component for any MSP platform and it’s certainly an area that we continue to invest in and that holds tremendous value in the eyes of our partners. It’s good to see integration and the value of open source get more air time.
Rob Bissett
Director of Product Management
N-able Technologies
rbissett@n-able.com
Rob: Thanks for weighing in. Open source is something that’s near and dear to me. But I also realize many journalists spend far too much time painting open source as “good” and closed source as “bad.”
I think we’re heading to hybrid source, where most vendors offer a mix of closed source and open source solutions. But ultimately, I hope all vendors are striving for open interoperability.