Will Kaseya Make an Industry Shaking Announcement, Is It AI?

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Fred Voccola has been marketing a major announcement at Kaseya Connect.

…in November, he previewed a Powered By Kaseya branding campaign that would roll out at this month’s Kaseya Connect Global 2024 conference. The CEO said the campaign “will disrupt the entire industry and that’s why end customers are going to start to look for MSPs powered by Kaseya, the same way that we bought a PC 15 years ago powered by Intel. We’re going to make it impossible for people not to be ‘Powered by Kaseya.’”

At the Kaseya+Datto M&A Symposium for MSPs in London last December, Voccola added that Kaseya would deliver news in 2024 that will make the Datto acquisition “seem insignificant.” He certainly wasn’t talking about layoffs.

At Robin Robin’s Bootcamp in Nashville in April of 2024 he said:

We’re announcing in Vegas and three or four weeks, we believe we will fundamentally alter [the industry]. That’s a big statement. [This is a] 20, $16 billion bet, and this is my career bet — that we will fundamentally alter our industry for the better, change the dynamics of it, so this will be one of the most lucrative and rewarding industries on this planet period. 

I think we found the way to do that, it’s a combination of a lot of things… it’s a culmination of everything we’ve done over the last decade. 

I think the most interesting portion of those two quotes is “this is my career bet.” A $16bn bet would be a career bet for Vocolla for sure. A few months ago it would have been the Datto acquisition. With a valuation of nearly 10x ARR, it was a big bet that Datto would significantly outperform the market.

Let’s talk about why it can’t be anything special, and then how it could be ground-breaking AI.

The Pessimist

Of course, for those of us in the industry, it is not remotely clear how “Powered by Kaseya” could “fundamentally” alter the Channel. Kaseya has a mixed reputation in the industry and virtually no reputation outside of it, except for those who remember its mammoth cybersecurity incident a few years ago.

Honestly, it isn’t clear how any single announcement from any single company could “fundamentally” alter the MSP industry. AI has the biggest potential to transform how things are done — as in take tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of low and mid-level tech jobs — but that will be a transition with incremental progress made by multiple companies.

The second most interesting thing is him throwing out $16 billion dollars. Kaseya does $2 billion in ARR1, which means it isn’t anywhere near a $16 billion company,2 and nearly a third of that ARR came from the Datto acquisition3. It also doesn’t seem likely that this is simply more acquisitions, if for no reason than there are no rumors of deals remotely that big circulating, at least that I am aware of.

The Optimist

Let’s take two of the pessimistic ideas and flip them on their head: Kaseya doesn’t have that kind of money and AI doesn’t move that fast. In fact, the two of these together make more sense than other options, AI still attracts lots of money and high valuations, and Insight Partners has (or can raise) the money.

I believe the biggest challenge to applying a general AI to IT is data: you need a lot of data to train on from a wide variety of industries, and Kaseya has that.

  • Kaseya owns two PSAs, full of 10+ years of tickets, solving processes and the ultimate solutions, from hundreds or thousands of MSPs serving probably every industry in the US (or the world?)
  • Kaseya owns two RMMs, also full of 10+ years of information
  • Kaseya owns the industry-leading IT documentation platform — IT Glue — which is full of documentation and SOPs for tens of thousands of IT environments

In fact, Kaseya is probably one of only a handful of companies globally that has this much IT data from such a wide variety of sources. ConnectWise would be the only competitor here. Not even Microsoft has this kind of data.

If Vocolla was talking about $16-$20in in R&D over several years both the total expense would make sense, and why he wasn’t sure if it was $16bn or $20bn, kind of a big gap to not know otherwise.

Critically, Kaseya also has all of the pieces needed today. An interface for customers and AI (PSA), an interface between the AI and the endpoint (RMM), and documentation including passwords (IT Glue). And all of these are already validated tools. If you use Datto (Kaseya) Networking or are using their M365 RMM plugin, Kaseya also has network and cloud visibility into client platforms.

Finally, Kaseya doesn’t need to invent a model from scratch. It’s possible to take an open-source model and fine-tune it, or partner with OpenAI/Microsoft to fine-tune a general LLM to work for IT. If you had a multi-model model you could ingest screen captures and, possibly, return keyboard and mice commands in an RPA-like product.

It would be slow to start, sure, but well within the realm of possibility. It would also be expensive, but probably less expensive than a tech.

It would also be one of the few products that might attract enough attention that “Powered by Kaseya” could mean something to a general audience.

Now use your imagination and start tying all of these together: a client sends in a ticket to a PSA. KaseyaAI looks at the ticket and responds, possibly scheduling a remote session. Next, KaseyaAI remotes in with the RMM. It has access to passwords in IT Glue, along with client documentation. Between specific documentation, general IT knowledge and publicly available KBs it can solve most low level issues by itself. Finally, validating with the client that the issue is solved and closing the ticket.

Kaseya could also automate RocketCyber (their SOC) this way. Get an alert, research it, and automatically remediate on the endpoint.

Insight Partners currently lists 82 investments in ML/AI/Data on their portfolio page, and their news is absolutely dominated by AI stories. They have 99 investments in IT Infrastructure companies, although some of those overlap with AI.

We’ll see in four weeks if my predications hold water.

The second quote is my transcription, as always, I’ve lightly edited it for clarity.

  1. Per Robin Robins at the 2024 TMT Boot Camp. I’m pretty curious how Kaseya got to that level. ↩︎
  2. At least not shy of massive valuations ↩︎
  3. From the December 2021 Datto annual report: “As of December 31, 2021, our ARR was $658.4 million and our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2021 was $618.7 million, of which approximately 93% was recurring subscription revenue.” ↩︎

Kaseya Layoffs

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From CRN, Kaseya laid off 150 employees last week in Miami. Whether it was a layoff or a “performance based termination” depends on which side you believe.

It always sucks to be fired, regardless of the reason. If you are an MSP that doesn’t like your account manager (I love mine, FTR) then maybe this is good news; except I expect that performance-based terminations is a euphemism for not meeting quota.

As Yahoo Finance noted, there are dozens of openings for new account managers on Kaseya’s website, (Archive) which would fit with the theory of current (now former) AM’s not making quota.

Jordan Peterson is a Canadian Existentialist

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Jordan Peterson speaking at an event in Dallas, Texas. By Gage Skidmore, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jordan_Peterson_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg
Jordan Peterson speaking at an event in Dallas, Texas in 2018. By Gage Skidmore.

Jordan Peterson is a Canadian Existentialist. Or at least that’s what I got out of hearing him speak for an hour at Robin Robin’s (aka Technology Marketing Toolkit) Boot Camp.

First, let me say, it was enjoyable, he has very memorable soundbites.

Second, this one-hour is all I know about Peterson. Maybe his books say something else — but I doubt it.

The entire hour of content could be boiled down to:

  1. Life is miserable, you must admit it and confront it.
  2. After you’ve admitted it, you should embrace it as the adventure that it is
  3. You have a moral calling to do good, which is essentially getting rid of the worst parts of you one layer at a time
  4. The point of the adventure of life is to explore and expand your (limitless) limits by doing good (as good is defined above) and finding and doing the things that make you happy

And he used a lot of words to get us there.

And a lot of those words are Christian-y. Faith, heaven, Abraham, Christ, God, Job, sacrifice, spirit, calling, pearl of great price, fool*, and so on.

But the message he gives is quite different. It is about finding meaning in the struggle of life.

Let’s break down a couple of the Christian-y things he says, and then briefly unpack some of the existential stuff he said.

First, his interpretation of Jesus’ command to seek first the kingdom of God:

The injunction [in the passage] was, put the love of God above all else. Well, what does that mean?

It means aim at the highest thing you can conceive of in all that you do. That’s your best bet practically. So orient yourselves in the most stringent and disciplined and hopeful and courageous and faithful manner possible in everything you do….

There’s nothing you can do that will make things work out better around you than that.

This is not what that passage in Mathew means. The passage is about going all in with God. That means to live righteously and have faith that God will provide for you in your daily needs. Most specifically for food and clothing, meaningful items in the poor society Jesus was talking to.

Sure, that’s practical, but it isn’t practical for practicality’s sake, it’s practical because God is good so He will provide.

Later Peterson says that we are called upon to confront “the entire burden of life, all of its injustices, its moral limitations, it betrayals,” and to:

“give up everything about yourself that isn’t worthy in your attempt to cope with the limited conditions in the fact of malevolence. Theres no difference between the spirit that dwells within you and God. That’s the same thing. That’s the core message of the Judeo-Christian enterprise, fundamentally, that if you’re willing to take on that burden, the more of what you’re willing to take on that burden the more of what it is within you to enable you to even celebrate that, the more that would become manifest within you.”

I think he means that “taking on” and “confronting” the “burden of life” is about admitting that those things are part of life, and may seem arbitrary, and that by struggling through those things in life you discover more of yourself. (Which is not the core of Judiasm or Christianity)

Later he said, “you’re going to bear the full burden of your existence one way or another,” and also vaunts becoming a person “who can bear up under the catastrophe of existence properly.”

What he doesn’t mean is “confront” in the sense of righting injustice in the world, standing up for those who are oppressed, or fighting an objective and tangible evil. (Which are tenants of Judiasm and Christianity)

He would go on to define heaven as “the highest good you can conceptualize.” Again, this isn’t a Christian idea, which believes in a literal, probably physical, heaven.

As he wrapped up he threw out:

You might say, “well I don’t know what the ultimate good is.” Well, you don’t and neither does anyone else, but you could probably at least to start to envision a good that is higher than the good you occupy now.

Finally, a very stark departure from Christianity, which very clearly believes we know what the ultimate good is, and how to aim at it. Also, an existential idea that we essentially create the good by deciding what the good is.

But lets allow him tell it:

If [a person] could have what [they] wanted, what would [they] aim for? And here’s the rule: aim for that which would satisfy you in your struggle. That’s the great aim. Life is very difficult and it’s rife with betrayal and it’s rife with travesty and yet there are times when it’s so rich that it delivers to us what we need and want in a manner that makes us appreciate that we’re alive.

Well, that’s what you need. You need an aim that would make you appreciate being alive if that was realized, what would satisfy you? And that’s going to depend on some degree to how much suffering you have to do. Some people have heavier loads.

It would also depend to some degree of how easily you are satisfied, but you can ask yourself, “what would be sufficient?” What would keep you going another day or another week or another year? Happily, without resentment — imagine that — without resentment. We lay out that vision, that focuses you. Your whole enterprise will fall into place behind that. Partly because this is how perception works. Once you specify an aim, you see a pathway forward.

So: Life (existence) is difficult and at the same time life (existence) is what makes life worth living, so define the things that make living worth it and go after those.

He’d go on to say that we need to do this “in faith,” but at this point it should be pretty clear that this isn’t faith in God, it’s faith that you can find joy in life during its struggles, and that is what happiness and self-realization is.

And if you think that all of this seems circular, well, he’s still easier than reading Kierkegaard.

—

At one point he said, “That’s why we celebrate Christmas, the notion that every child is a locus of divine possibility.” (Which is neither Christian nor existential)

I guarantee you no one ever looked at Santa to consider “the locus of divine possibility,” and second, that Christmas in the religious sense is about a single child who was the locus of divinity. In simpler words: Christmas is about Jesus, Jesus is God, and celebrating that Jesus-God came to earth.

*This is not a word used much in every day English, but is used frequently throughout the bible, and so in churches and similar contexts.

Burning Desire

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Can you get rich as a Christian?

Most people would say yes. Many would also say it was a sign of God’s blessing on your life.

Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich) advocates thinking about riches every day, visualizing it, it becomes an all-encompassing mental focus:

Here is where a BURNING DESIRE will come to your aid. If you truly DESIRE money so keenly that your desire is an obsession, you will have no difficulty in convincing yourself that you will acquire it. The object is to want money, and to become so determined to have it that you CONVINCE yourself you will have it.

Think and Grow Rich (Emphasis mine)

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

1 Timothy 6:10

Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.

Ecclesiastes 5:10

The further I get into life, the easier it is to become convinced that this type of thinking is good, or correct, or necessary. It isn’t as obvious that I am falling for a BURNING DESIRE for wealth, it is the small(er) things. I need to save for retirement, I need to save for college, I want to be able to bring my kids to Disney World some day (with 8 kids that is a lot of money).

Of course, none of those are bad or problematic by themselves. They are even wise things to consider. But when they begin to become a focus, it is problematic.

I don’t know if I struggle with this more than most people as a business owner or not. I’m sure I spend more time with a Profit & Loss statement than most people, and have to watch the profit if I want to continue to have a business. One that provides valuable services, employment and supports multiple families.

But providing valuable services, employment and supporting families is an entirely different focus.

“You cannot serve both God and money.”

Matthew 6:24

I am at a conference this week that is all about growing IT businesses. Better service, better products, better profits. This is what I expect out of a conference for business owners, of course. But it’s dangerous, too.

All week, I am surrounding myself with people, sessions and lessons that are on some level, antithetical to the call of Christ.

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?

Mark 8:36

Moreover, it is a situation where there are pretty high potential downsides to success.

“Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Mark 10:24-25

A secular Kara Swisher made this observation about many that she covered in tech:

the richer and more powerful people grew, the more compromised they became—wrapping themselves in expensive cashmere batting until the genuine person fell deep inside a cocoon of comfort and privilege where no unpleasantness intruded.

Burn Book: A Tech Love Story

So, can a Christian be rich and stay a Christian? I don’t think we answered that.

What we can answer, definitively, is this: it’s dangerous to focus on it, and dangerous to try, if that is the end goal.

This is a post I wrote for myself, it doesn’t matter if you never read it, so long I took the time to consider it.

Only a few hours after I wrote that, a speaker threw up this slide and stated, “That’s why we are all in business, to save money or to make money.”

Graphic with text reading "SAVE MONEY AND/OR MAKE MONEY" in bold white letters centered on a dark background.

There is more to business than to make money. It’s a requirement to stay in business, but it doesn’t have to be the driving why.

Ew

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Split-screen image with two sections. On the left, a video thumbnail showing a person diving into the Seine river with the Eiffel Tower in the background, video duration 4 minutes and 45 seconds. On the right, an article headline reads "Herculean Feat in Paris Olympics: Make the Seine Safe to Swim," with a subheading stating that officials are working to prevent sewage from contaminating the waters of the long-distance race course for the upcoming Summer Games. The article is a 4-minute read.

If I were one of those athletes, I think I would have a hard time stomaching this. You know that some will have issues that they (rightly?) blame on infested waters, especially if it is a long distance swim.

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