Cameron Tousley, director of MSP channels at ESET, has spent more than a decade in the trenches with managed service providers. During ESET World 2025, ChannelPro caught up with him to talk about how the company helps managed IT providers achieve high margins while delivering excellent service.
The bottom line? ESET is serious about the MSP market and Tousley’s team is building the tools, programs, and relationships to prove it. Here’s more from ChannelPro’s conversation with Tousley, edited for clarity and brevity.
What’s the Typical Profile of an MSPs that ESET Works With?
Tousley: We serve MSPs of all sizes, but the sweet spot tends to be those managing 250 to 2,000 endpoints with teams of three to 10 employees. Most of them are doing between $3 million and $15 million annually, mostly cybersecurity focused, but it’s a pretty big network. We have partners who are a little bit more generalist. … They manage endpoint security, but they’re not really focused on security like an MSSP.
ESET Leaders Talk About the Evolution from MSP to MSSP. How Do You Help Partners Make That Leap?
Tousley: We break it down for what it is. An MSP is fundamentally an outsourced service provider. They want to provide more services for their clients and ask, ‘How do I get to that next evolution?’ That’s going to mean advanced tools.
But something like XDR is a big ask because it’s causing a lot of different alarm bells. That’s something that an MSP can either manage themselves or partner with us to manage. There are other things as well. We have a pretty cool sandboxing tool that can be activated within our product set. We also have 2FA capabilities, encryption, a Microsoft 365 solution.
Whether you’re focusing on e-mail borne attacks, identity and access management, or simple endpoint protection, we have something for you. Our core mission is, ‘Let’s help you understand the options.’ If you want to evolve into a 24×7, 365 day-a-year monitoring partner for your clients, we can help you take that next step as a service provider.
Cameron Tousley
That Sounds Like a Lot for a Smaller MSP To Take On. Is It Overwhelming?
Tousley: It can be, but like anything else in life, it takes the right coach or consultant. You need somebody helping you understand what needs to be done to succeed and makes things easy. Whether you’re a launching an MSP or you have an existing one, we’re going to talk about your challenges. Then, it’s a matchmaking game. We’re not going to try to push every product that we offer. We only educate you on the right ones that will help you fill in the gaps.
Speaking of Tools, Your Ransomware Demo Was Impressive. What’s Under the Hood?
Tousley: That was our ransomware remediation tool. That was kind of a newer entry into our feature set and it’s a pretty cool little tool.
I think the differentiator is that we don’t use the Windows shadow copy approach. We back everything up ourselves. That makes us different. When we see ransomware attacks, they often target and knock out the shadow copy and then it’s kind of useless. We try to educate MSPs on things like that. A vendor can have an awesome looking GUI and perhaps it’s a somewhat easy product to use. But what is it doing behind the scenes? What’s under the hood?
Let’s Talk About Your Partner Program. What Sets It Apart From the Rest?
Tousley: It’s extensive, and it helps you build your business. We offer an upfront 20% margin. With our volume pricing tiers, partners can hit 40%-60% margins, depending on usage.
But it’s not just about money. We also include things like marketing as a service. We collect and help supplement building lead lists. Then, our marketing experts create campaigns and start marketing on their behalf or through them. Of course, it’s their brand, their logo. We keep them on the forefront and help them sell.
ESET has in-depth technical trainings and certification programs. We provide NFR copies so they can test the software and use the ESET products internally to protect themselves. Most importantly, we offer dedicated account managers — not just for sales, but for strategy and support.
We Heard That Partners Love Their Account Reps. What’s Their Secret?
Tousley: They’re not chasing invoices; they’re consultants. Partners have been excited to meet their reps face to face because there’s a genuine relationship there. We invest heavily in these connections, whether it’s through events like this or day-to-day support. Trust drives everything.
ESET has been in business quite a while. We have longevity, stability, and profitability. Those are things that lot of the companies these days struggle with. That’s partly because they’re answering to somebody but we’re just not. As a privately owned company without outside investors, we answer to us. That makes us a more powerful partner for MSPs.
Some MSPs Have Concerns About Vendors That Aren’t US-based. How Does ESET Address That?
Tousley: It’s concerning for some people and not at all for others. We have U.S. data centers, so that’s a big check mark right there. When our Slovak counterparts visit, they spend time in the region to understand not only the regional market, but also learn how best how to help our MSP partners. That’s a pretty big testament that they’re invested in building this market.
No matter how you spin it, companies are going to have offices everywhere. Whether you’re headquartered here and have a million offices abroad or the other way around, it doesn’t matter. What really matters: Is my data safe here? Is it localized? How strict are you? Do you scrutinize the same kind of regulations there as you do here? In a lot of cases, Europe is tougher than it is in the U.S., so I would argue that it’s probably good that we’re stationed there.
What’s the Feedback Loop Like Between ESET and the MSP Community?
Tousley: We’ve taken a lot of feedback and acted on it. We’ve gotten requests for patch management, 2FA, a true XDR. MSPs told us they wanted deeply integrated solutions that make sense together but not necessarily acquired and stitched together. That’s not always a bad approach but the fact that we build our own solutions makes them fit together better. It’s a smoother experience with less problems. There are fewer windows to log into and a single pane of glass experience.
The same is true on the business side. Need more marketing support? More training? We’ve built a huge menu of options because we listened.
What Feedback or Questions Are You Getting About AI Features Built Into Your Solution Set?
Tousley: It’s really about how we help MSPs automate the solutions set up for them. One good example is our next-generation generative AI tool — our AI Advisor. It’s a product component that supports our XDR. XDR will go hunt, discover a lot of data, and cause a lot of alarm bells. But then the question is: What do we do with all that? That’s the overwhelming part. This tool takes that information, analyzes it, correlates it, and then spits out responses with directives for the MSP. At this point, it’s pretty impressive, and it’s going to help a lot of people.
It’s the same as doing a Google search. People don’t mind asking AI a question they might be hesitant to ask a human. Some people are afraid and wonder, “Is my job going to get replaced?” But the reality is this is a tool to help you level up. We’re trying to take MSPs who may see themselves as average and help make them exceptional. The only way to do that is by leveling up both the tools and the people.
ESET Is Also Investing Heavily in Community and Events. Can You Share More About That Effort?
Tousley: It takes a lot of effort and it’s all about consistency. ESET World is our own special event. We also typically do a North America partner event centered on our partner channel.
For our MSP-specific strategy, we find that being present at the RMM and PSA events is key. The big ones — ConnectWise, Kaseya, N-able — we’re at all of those. But we also do some of the community shows as well. We’re doing a variety of different ones. The goal is to show up, be consistent, and be in front of the people.
For us, the key is to get your brand out there, share your message, and make sure people understand who you are, what you do, and the value you bring.
What’s Your Advice for MSPs Looking to Grow in 2025, beyond Partnering with ESET for Better Products and Higher Margins?
Tousley: Be specific. Define your ideal client — size, vertical, challenges — and go all in on that niche. Maybe you serve dentists. Then, get involved with dental associations, market locally, and refine your offering to speak directly to that audience. Ask your vendors for help with marketing, training, lead gen — whatever you need. The best MSPs aren’t just chasing every opportunity; they’re intentional.
What’s Next for ESET’s MSP Channel? What’s on the Roadmap?
Tousley: We just had our official launch for MDR for MSPs, as well as updates to our AI Advisor tool. That’s all focused on XDR and related services, which is really cool. It’s a big deal for MSPs right now.
Our focus is on promoting these tools and helping MSPs adopt this technology. I believe that’s going to be a significant revenue driver for ESET. We’re not successful until the MSP is, so we put them first. These are the kinds of solutions we’re rolling out to help them and, in turn, help ourselves grow.
➡️ Dive into the ESET World 2025 conference content from Day 1 and Day 2.
⏩ Read about the most important MSP-focused announcements from ESET World 2025.
⏭️ Check out our new ESET World 2025 article: How to Make Cybersecurity Practical
➡️ How can AI address modern security threats? Q&A with ESET’s Juraj Jánošík and Filip Mazán
Images: ESET
