Data protection vendor Datto Inc., of Norwalk, Conn., has rolled out a major new integration with the LabTech RMM system that lets users of that solution administer Datto BDR appliances from directly within the same interface they use to manage servers, desktops, and other customer end points.
“So many people, MSPs, in the channel are using LabTech and really love having LabTech as their daily monitoring platform, and so we thought why not take what we have and bring it right into that platform,” explains Ian McChord, Datto’s vice president of product management. The end result, he continues, is fewer consoles for technicians to monitor and easier BDR administration.
“This is going to help our partners save time in management,” McChord says, adding that reduced management time translates into higher profits on data protection service offerings.
The software that powers the new integration is available immediately and free of charge to LabTech and Datto users via both Datto’s partner website and the online application marketplace operated by ConnectWise, the Tampa, Fla.-based vendor that makes LabTech. Once installed, the software automatically detects Datto appliances and adds them to the LabTech interface.
“The configuration time for the LabTech integration is absolutely zero,” McChord says.
From that point forward, users can manage an entire Datto appliance fleet through their RMM solution, and click through from LabTech to Datto’s web management system if a problem arises. According to McChord, those are capabilities many MSPs have been lobbying for.
“LabTech partners wanted integration with Datto and Datto partners wanted integration with LabTech,” he says.
LabTech is the second RMM solution with built-in Datto integration. AVG’s Managed Workplace solution has offered similar functionality since 2013, when that product was still made by future AVG acquisition target Level Platforms. The new LabTech integration is far deeper though, McChord says, and provides capabilities that Managed Workplace users don’t yet have. That could change soon, however, as Datto plans to launch integrations like the one announced today with as many as six other RMM platforms in the near future.
“This is the first of a growing trend of integrations that we’re going to be rolling out in the next six to 12 months,” says McChord, who declined to specify which other management solutions would be involved.
Also in the works are integrations with other members of the ConnectWise managed services software family.
“We would like to continue to further integrate with the ConnectWise stack,” McChord says. Datto is actively developing integrations with the ConnectWise PSA platform and Quosal quoting system at present, he adds, and hopes to have them in partners’ hands by the end of this year.
The technician productivity benefits Datto touted today dovetail with a key theme ConnctWise emphasized at its annual Automation Nation partner event in Orlando, Fla., last month. In an opening day keynote largely dedicated to showcasing capabilities in the latest LabTech release, Brett Cheloff, general manager of the LabTech product unit, pointed to the new system’s streamlined interface and enhanced patching functionality as two of several innovations that would improve managed service margins by saving MSPs hundreds of hours of management time.
