The Cloud-Based, Remote-Enabled Future of MSPs

Why Iconic IT’s Partnership with Datto is Creating More Opportunities Than Ever

For several years now, we’ve been hearing that MSPs will become obsolete, rendered unnecessary as businesses take advantage of more plug-and-play, cloud-based platforms, and tools. “Why use an MSP,” they say, “when in the very near future, I’ll just be able to buy all my services and monitoring in the cloud?”

But at Iconic IT, we’ve found just the opposite to be true. The more cloud-based tools we offer to small and medium-sized businesses, the more they seem to need our services. In a way, the move to the cloud has freed us, taking us away from wires and server rooms and into the boardroom. And Iconic has provided that leadership to our clients, in no small part because of our partnership with Datto.

There’s an abundance of cloud backup and monitoring systems out there, but we’ve found that Datto products have allowed us to do more and provide better for our clients. To put it simply, Datto tools have allowed us to be more:

1. Strategic

Cloud-based tools have taken away a lot of the grunt work, installations, and comms bottlenecks we used to know. And with Datto, we have visibility into our client’s entire network. And because it’s in the cloud, we don’t have to worry about our own hardware to maintain. We can manage all our client’s endpoints, and come back to them with focused, clear security advice. We can focus on the true issues because Datto filters out the noise. And when we make big cybersecurity saves, our clients can relax knowing we have their back.

That’s no small thing. When they know their basic security needs are covered, they have space to talk about their future needs. We can ask them questions like: how can we help you solve the issues you’ll be facing soon? And how can we build your tech infrastructure now, so you’ll have the right foundation to build on?

This kind of discussion led us to land a small bank system in the Denver area as a customer. We were able to consolidate all their backups and monitoring into one unified system—while helping them meet all their data regulatory requirements. They got better service, at a better price, and reduced their business headaches considerably.

2. Responsive

What will happen to my business if there’s a disaster? A power outage? Flooding? A massive ransomware attack? How quickly can you get my business up and running again?

This is the central question clients ask us, and we’d better have the right answer. We feel comfortable selling our Datto backup systems because we use them ourselves. And we’ve seen first-hand how well it works. Just last winter, for instance, we had a power outage at our headquarters in Rochester, New York that lasted for two days. When we had that snowstorm, our servers went down too. But we were able to run everything on Datto’s servers, and it worked just like our own on-site server rooms were operating. Our employees never knew the difference, and neither did our customers, who are relying on us to be able to keep their networks going. 

3. Affordable

This may raise some eyebrows, but we’ve found the investment is worth it. Why? Because Datto was one of the first to market with their backup and monitoring technologies, and their systems are the most mature. Their systems work seamlessly with ours. The labor costs that save us are enormous, because it works every time, with very few hiccups.

Datto’s products also scale well, based on the size of our clients and their user base. As more providers like Datto provide this kind of price package, the more we can drive enterprise-grade security and backup to even the smallest of clients. 

4. Ahead of the security curve

Cybersecurity has been topic number one for MSPs for a while now, as ransomware and hacking attempts have risen to near unimaginable levels. But it’s our job to imagine just how bad it can get, and keep encouraging our clients to invest.

Datto products help us get there because they’ve created a true partnership with MSPs. When monitoring tickets get to us, we know they’re actionable and worth our time. We never have to worry about whether our backups are going to work. We know they will.

Luckily, market forces seem to be pushing even smaller clients to invest in sophisticated cybersecurity tools. It doesn’t hurt that the Biden White House has taken on the cybersecurity of businesses as a national security issue. They will be issuing guidelines that will likely help us sell through complex security products like RMM.

With the right partnerships, the future looks bright

We firmly believe that MSPs will only continue to rise, as we combine our “friendly local IT guys” with the monitoring power and backup capacity of companies like Datto. Small businesses have always been the country’s great innovation engine. And as their tech partners, it’s up to MSPs like us to see that they keep pace. We’re looking forward to everything the future can bring us, and we hope you are, too.

Learn how partnering with Datto can transform your business.

By Sitima Fowler, Partner, Iconic IT.