Top 3 Takeaways from DattoCon 2024: Empowering MSPs Amid Kaseya’s New Offerings

This week, DattoCon 2024 brought together 5,000 attendees in sunny Miami, South Beach, Florida. The event kicked off with an opening keynote by Fred Voccola, who shared significant announcements that could reshape the Managed Service Provider (MSP) landscape. Here are the top three takeaways from the event that MSPs should pay attention to:

Kaseya’s new “User” offering for Microsoft 365 is set to make user management more efficient. It centralizes control and eases administration for MSPs handling Microsoft 365 environments. This tool provides better management of user roles, access, and compliance, reducing the manual work needed and allowing MSPs to focus on higher-value tasks. Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola aptly summed it up when he said, “Cooper ain’t no Clippy”—highlighting the difference between this new AI assistant and the often-frustrating Clippy of the past. “User” is aimed at genuinely enhancing productivity without the annoyance, making the life of MSPs just a little bit easier.

Another standout from DattoCon 2024 was the introduction of Backup Concierge. With data protection becoming an ever more crucial issue for MSPs, this service steps in to simplify the backup and recovery process. Backup Concierge is tailored specifically for MSPs, providing a managed backup experience that ensures client data is safely backed up without the constant worry about configurations or potential errors. By offering a managed solution, Kaseya aims to take some of the burden off MSPs, enabling them to trust the system and spend less time on troubleshooting or operational management. Backup Concierge has the potential to make MSPs more efficient by reducing the backup headache that typically plagues day-to-day operations.

Kaseya also announced its acquisition of SaaS Alerts, a move aimed at beefing up security and monitoring for cloud applications. With the increasing reliance on SaaS platforms, the need for proactive monitoring has never been greater. SaaS Alerts offers MSPs better visibility into clients’ SaaS environments, allowing for early detection of any anomalies, potential threats, or security breaches before they escalate into larger issues. This acquisition is a clear indication that Kaseya is taking proactive security seriously, enabling MSPs to provide enhanced, value-driven services to their clients and ensuring that cloud applications are continuously monitored without gaps in coverage.

These takeaways are noteworthy steps that could help improve Kaseya’s standing within the MSP community. The new User tool aims to cut down on administrative burdens, Backup Concierge aims to eliminate backup complexities, and SaaS Alerts improves proactive security—all initiatives that directly address key pain points MSPs face today. Despite Kaseya’s sometimes contentious relationship with the MSP community, the innovations announced at DattoCon 2024 demonstrate that they are listening to the needs of their partners.