It was no surprise that Security definitely dominated the Exhibit Hall and the rest of the conference. In case you missed going to DattoCon, or even if you did get to the show, but missed a Vendor or two, we are working on articles and other information about all the Vendors that were at DattoCon.

To kick things off, here are the security offerings, but quite frankly, to me, being less technical than most, it was all noise saying the same thing.

Section 1: Cyber Security Insurance

Section 2: Security Training

Section 3: Security Testing

Section 4: Cyber Security

Section 1: Cyber Security Insurance:

Steve’s Comments:

There are two areas I am deathly afraid of for the MSP Industry. Ransomware and an MSPs ability, wiliness, or understanding to do enough.
What impressed me about SeedPod, is they put their money (insurance policies) where their mouth is. They are more than willing to ensure an MSP at very low discounted rates if the MSP passes the SeedPod bar of CyberSecurity Excellence. Forget paying for audits. See if SeedPod will insure you; if they do, you are good to go.
However, if you failed, forget how much the other guys cost; you are at risk, and if Fred is right – 60% of Business hit by Ransomware go out of Business, but 100% of the MSPs that allow a Client to be hit by Ransomware, go out of Business. We need to take our security offerings more seriously, and SeedPod is stepping up with an offer that is hard to refuse – without the horse head in the bed.

Steve’s Comments:

While we look at insurance for us, what about being a Cyber Insurance reseller for your Clients? Little by Little, one revenue stream at a time, MSP can build profitability while we wait for the Tech efficiency to improve above 50%, as presented by Fred V and verified by our Free No-Obligation PSA Configuration Evaluations.

Steve’s Comments:

Another Cyber Security Insurance company that gets MSP. What a great idea. A Cyber Security Insurance company that offers KnowBe4 training.

Matt’s Comments:

I didn’t get a chance to talk to them in the booth, but BlackPoint Cyber is very well known and respected for their 24/7 MDR service, so if they are also going to cover you and provide crisis management, PR, ransomware negotiation, and forensics, this is absolutely something to take a look at. Glad to see companies are starting to “get it” and provide insurance offerings that make sense for MSPs.

Section 2: Security Training

Matt’s Comments:

Breach Secure Now has been around a long time and one of the early HIPAA/Security training providers in the MSP space. Their Team is great to work with. Their platform includes gamification where users compete for higher security scores.

Steve’s Comments:

You have heard of KnowBe4. Well, they were not at DattoCon. Why? Because they are not MSP Centric. They focus on the Enterprise IT Industry and are priced accordingly. What does an MSP need? Phin knows – check them out.

Section 3: Security Testing

Steve and Matt’s Comments:

**Steve:**
I visited their booth and was impressed with the Questions they were asking – “Are you sure you are protected.” As an owner running a business, I do not feel we are as protected as we need to be. It would be nice to run a test on a dispersed workforce using MS Office for all our communication and document management to know we are protected. We educate the Team as much as possible, but Security Training is not our core business. It would be nice to outsource and know.

**Matt:**
I thought Bruce’s talk was awesome and I seriously do believe that he is on that mission to protect a million. I also saw his Robin Robins presentation/offer and the offer was stellar.

Section 4: Cyber Security:

Matt’s Comments:

Vijilan has been attending events and shows in the MSP space for a long time, with many long-time MSP clients. As with any vendor, some love them, and some do not. If you are looking in this space, Vijilan should be on your list to check out.

Matt’s Comments:

Trugrid simplifies a lot of issues with remote work and generally has good reviews. If you’re having issues getting insurance because of an existing RDP installation, you might want to talk to them. Pricing has gone up over the last few years, so many are joining ASCII to get that member discount.

Matt’s Comments:

SocSoter is another vendor that has grown over the years in the MSP space, participating in ASCII and other events. The people are nice to work with, and I’ve never heard anything bad about their service.

Matt’s Comments:

SaasAlerts is another widely used and well-known application used in the MSP space. Not only for locking down client SaaS environments, but your RMM and doc platform.

Matt’s Comments:

Another well-known company, but mostly from their consumer ads. Awesome to see they have a Channel Partner Program and are trying to solve some MSP problems with their Service Management Portal.

Matt’s Comments:

The Perimeter 81 people are serious about security and talked quite a bit in their booth about how an MSP can secure access to their critical tools like RMM by using their platform. Many MSPs are using the platform in just that way in order to check some boxes on the insurance policies.

Matt’s Comments:

Ironscales is a very well-respected security vendor that some of the best security talents in the MSP space recommend. They have both a training component and an AI/crowd-sourced platform that takes a lot of work off busy MSPs. Available from the Pax8 platform allowing smaller MSPs to get great tools at a low cost of entry.

Steve’s Comments:

They were a no-show at the show. I went by their booth several times. Signage, but no body.

Matt’s Comments:

DNS Filter has been in the MSP industry for a long time and, if memory serves, popularized in the ASCII Community, which helped bring them into the MSP world. Well worth your time if you are looking into DNS-based security/content filtering.

Matt’s Comments:

Dark Cubed were some busy people at Dattocon. One of the Team saw their session at ChannelCon and was very impressed, both by the security tool and knowledge and their knowledge of bourbon. MSP attendees hanging out at their booth had great things to say. They were just acquired by Celerium, so we shall see whether they expand or contract.

Matt’s Comments:

Sophos has been selling security software and products as long as anyone can remember. Some people hate them, and some love them. If you listened to Fred V’s keynote and you like the idea of minimizing your vendors, then Sophos cloud firewall, physical firewalls, and security software may check some boxes. Or not.

Matt’s Comments:

Huntress is just a phenomenal bunch of people. They will answer all of your questions in the booth, in the bar, at the airport, and in the bathroom. It is very obvious they are here to help in any way they can (and they did a bit in the Kaseya hack). A lot of MSPs will tell you to just install Huntress on every endpoint you have just as a baseline for your offering. I know of one MSP where a Tech bought licenses for all of his personal and family computers. He believed in the product that much. If you are looking at security vendors, Huntress is a must-see.

Matt’s Comments:

Another security company that has been around a while. Certainly worth talking to if you are looking for a new anti-virus vendor.

Matt’s Comments:

D&H consistently wins best vendor awards from ASCII members. A great distributor that is very MSP friendly and definitely worth having in your toolbox. Be wary, though, as many MSPs have been concerned about stock issues and certain products no longer authorized for them to sell.

Matt’s Comments:

Acronis is a European company considered a world security leader that has been working its way into the MSP space for a while now. They have a lot of integrated products liked by their clients. Worth talking to, but with Channel powerhouse Amy Luby just leaving the Ecosystem head position there, time will tell if they still have the same MSP interest.

Matt’s Comments:

The Team from Solutions Granted are just excellent people. Many are veterans who care deeply for this country. They have a well-respected and affordable managed security offering and will answer questions all day in their very busy booth. They will also sell you Huntress in any quantity if you can’t afford to go direct. If you’re looking at changing your security stack, Solutions Granted is right at the top to talk to.

Matt’s Comments:

If you’re not a Microsoft Active Directory Shop and need a Directory, then go to JumpCloud. Short and sweet.

Matt’s Comments

Now owned by Cisco, Duo is a pretty well-known identity management company from Ann Arbor, MI managed by co-founder Dug Song. Many MSPs love it and resell to their clients, while some left when Cisco bought them. Worth a conversation if you haven’t got MFA figured out yet.

Matt’s Comments:

CryptoStopper seems to be a fairly recent entry into the MSP security market with an innovative approach to stopping ransomware. They just got us all knowing them by that name and then changed it to Canauri. Their Channel Chief is industry super-veteran Ted Roller, who says Canauri is “kryptonite for Ransomware.” Anything that Ted is part of is always worth checking out.

Matt’s Comments:

BlackPoint is widely considered one of the best (and many say THE BEST) of the MSP SOCs. Pricing may make you choke, but if you spend some time with them in their booth, they will convince you it’s worth it. And if you walk within 50 feet of their booth, they will convince you to book a demo (they are that good). It may not fit your stack, but absolutely worth the time to talk to.

Matt’s Comments:

Bitdefender has been around for a long time in the security industry. With their Gravity Zone security product being very popular with MSPs and a good chunk of MSP tools integrating with it, I was very glad to see they had a booth at Dattocon.

Matt’s Comments:

Some would say Threatlocker invented the idea of whitelisting in the MSP world. They’re seen fairly often at MSP events. One of our Clients observed their demo and was quite impressed with how far they’ve come since he looked at them last.
The only negative is that some MSPs have stated that they have concerns the product would be too invasive with their clients and used Autoelevate instead. Definitely a must-visit if you’re at a show with them and are looking for a PAM (or one on steroids).

Matt’s Comments:

Who would have thought? A company with Ian McChord as the CEO and Austin McChord as a Director presenting at Dattocon. It was worth checking them just to see if we could spot a McChord (nope). I didn’t listen to their spiel, but an MSP client did, and he wasn’t excited.

Matt’s Comments:

Wow! These guys have 5 different offerings. Didn’t want to take time from the MSPs there asking questions, but an MSP did say that SpamTitan works well for them.

Matt’s Comments:

It’s Malwarebytes. Everyone alive (and most of the dead ones) in an MSP knows MalwareBytes. Nice to see them at Dattocon.

I hope this helps and as you can see, I was in over my head, so I called a lifeline and owe Matt a favor for providing great industry knowledge content.

If you still need help sorting it all out, feel free to Schedule a Call with me here or email us at Info@AGMSPCoaching.com

DattoCon22 Security Vendor Meltdown: