The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy is watching a rather intriguing trend unfold at the Kaseya Connect User Conference in Las Vegas. The trend involves established and emerging security software companies — like Kaspersky Lab, Symantec Corp. and Scorpion Software — potentially plugging into the Kaseya managed services platform for VARs and MSPs. Here’s the chatter.

First, the confirmed moves: Scorpion Software, a two-factor authentication specialist, is among the first software companies to plug into the new Kaseya 2 platform. Also, Kaspersky Lab will be the default anti-virus engine for the K2 platform, Kaseya executives stated yesterday. On previous Kaseya platforms, AVG was the default engine. The VAR Guy is checking to see if/how Kaseya will work with AVG going forward.

The Kaspersky-Kaseya partnership is particularly intriguing. Kaspersky Lab earlier this year disclosed plans to develop a small business SaaS security platform. Fast forward to the present, and the Kaseya relationship may provide an additional path into the small business SaaS market. “Kaseya 2 can be that SaaS platform for Kaspersky,” Kaseya Executive VP Jim Alves told The VAR Guy.

Additional Moves

But the chatter doesn’t end there. Multiple sources say Symantec has approached Kaseya about potentially plugging into the K2 platform. And The VAR Guy knows Trend Micro has been doing some integration work with Kaseya over the past year or so.

Of course, security companies are working with a range of MSP platforms. One of the most prominent relationships involves N-able promoting freemium endpoint security, through a relationship with Panda Security.

Still, some security vendors are taking a Switzerland approach to the MSP software platform market. A prime example: Sophos recently announced a managed services partner program. As part of that effort, Sophos said it would help VARs and MSPs to leverage scripts and APIs to integrate with MSP platforms. But Sophos itself didn’t plan to write all the integrations.

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