N-Able’s breakaway from Solarwinds – Canada-based N-able has completed its breakaway from parent company SolarWinds via an IPO.
In the MSP industry, it can be extremely difficult to go at it alone. Whether an MSP is just starting out and is offering services under the Break-Fix model, slowly making the transition into offering managed IT services, or running a decades-long business with a team of technicians, there is always room for growth for MSPs, regardless of where the MSP currently stands—especially with the right help.
This is one of the reasons why SolarWinds MSP has become N-able. The transition signals a substantial commitment to the MSP industry, allowing the company to turn its attention to serving its MSP partners. ”I like that N-Able has spun off into its own separate company. My hope is that this will allow N-Able to concentrate on its much fewer offerings and innovate in the space”, said Joe Cannata of Techsperts, LLC.
Adam Rippon of Sydney Technology Solutions said, ”I think it’s great for news for partners. N-ABLE are showing their intent on being focused on assisting the MSP to grow their business & revenue. If the MSP wins, N-able wins. A great foundation for a solid partnership!” N-able believes that placing more focus on MSP partners will all be worth it.
We wanted to hear from N-Able partners and on-partners on their thoughts regarding this move, and how this will impact their relationship.
Dave Brewer of BC Networks, an N-Able partner stated:
We have been a partner of N-Able’s for almost 20 years now and an Elite partner for the last 11 years. In my opinion, the N-Central platform is best of breed and has provided our business with an incredible platform for us to build our business on top of. This has enabled our business to develop sophisticated integrations and automations couple with two decades of operational experience & best practices that had provided our business an extreme advantage in the marketplace. When SolarWinds acquired N-Able they provided some great refinement to the N-Central product platform, however, it was clear over the course of the last couple of years that their ability to execute was slower than expected and the direction was not always clear. I think the completion of the spinout will enable N-Able to be more independent, nimble, provide additional resources, and will improve their ability to execute on their vision.
Mark Hicks of Mathe Inc., another N-able partner shared the following thoughts:
We have been using N-Able for many years for certain functions and assets. It is not the only RMM/Monitoring application we use, but it has been the right tool for some of our needs. Prior to the Orion incident, we had at many points felt SolarWinds was not adding new features or evolving the N-Able product, and they always seemed to treat it as an oddball product.
We even speculated that they may have purchased N-Able for the client base only and were letting the product get stale by not investing in it, continuing to raise its price, and trying to upsell into its base. Little was done short of slapping their logo on it and only serving it with security patches and core updates.
However, the N-Able product has historically been solid compared to the others in our experience, and while not having as many features and functions, security was always a focus. All steak, no sizzle. Another way to look at it is that without all the additional features and functions there is less to break as well as be exploited.
After the Orion incident, I knew it was only a matter of time before they spun off N-Able for a variety of reasons from the public stigma of the SolarWinds name from the recent breaches of their flagship product, to the fact it was readymade to spin back off as they never integrated with the rest of the company or products.
We do not see it impacting our relationship or continued use of N-Able for the niche purposes we use it for, and it actually solidifies the path forward. Now the N-Able solution has a future and won’t be spun down or depreciated over time. If anything, it will allow the N-Able team to take lessons learned, new funding, and the autonomy with being their own company again and blaze a prudent path forward.
Nick Martin, Mainstreet IT Solutions shared the following regarding N-able’s breakaway from SolarWinds:
We currently partner with N-able and have partnered with them before Solarwinds purchased them a number of years ago. In a lot of ways, it feels as though we’re heading back into the good old days with N-able. Solarwinds has a powerhouse name, but in a lot of ways that also created concerns among partners when this purchase occurred. N-able had a solid product that was developed and there was a fear that SolarWinds would come in and ruin what N-able had going. SolarWinds will have a big name among technology for years to come, but N-able’s split from Solarwinds is a breath of fresh air for partners. After the SolarWinds hack a couple of months ago, there were a lot of questions coming in from MSP customers about how this was going to impact them. Thankfully, there was zero impact for N-able partners, but the damage in reputation was already starting to form. Now that N-able has separated itself, it helps rebuild confidence that it had grown through years of hard work. There was very little evidence that SolarWinds provided any support to N-able products, so there isn’t anything lost as far as product development goes.
Matt Bullock of Accelera IT Solutions stated:
As a long-time N-Able partner, we were using the software before the SolarWinds days. We are happy that the company is back on its own. After the purchase by SolarWinds, there were competing departments and products that we were always wondering how it would affect the great, core N-Able product. Although upgrades came out and some SolarWinds apps were made available for integration, having N-Able as its own company with a singular focus to create great MSP RMM software is a welcome announcement. We will continue to evaluate and possibly implement SolarWinds products in the future, but we are ready for the new (old) company to continue its development strategy to give us a competitive advantage in the MSP marketplace. Although the N-Able product had no relationship to the Orion platform which was hacked last year, it is good to have a safe distance between N-Able and SolarWinds when speaking with our current and prospective clients.
Palindrome Consulting, a non-N-able partner, has doubts that the breakaway from SolarWinds will have any positive impact on the MSP industry moving forward. ”We are not N-able partners because they did not do right by us many years back. I thought the SolarWinds purchase would help, but I hear it did not. How many times must they fail before MSPs find better partners”, said Ilan Sredni.
N-able is investing in the success of its MSP partners. What do you think of N-able’s breakaway from SolarWinds? What impact do you expect it to have in the future?
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