N-able plans to release a solution for managing Microsoft Azure environments early next year.
The managed service software vendor previewed the forthcoming system at its Empower partner conference today in Las Vegas.
Called Cloud Asset Manager, or CAM, the solution will be an embedded component of N-Sight, the cloud-based RMM platform N-able shipped in July, and the N-central RMM system.
Once connected to a user’s Azure account, CAM will allow technicians to view and manage virtual machines across all tenants through the same console they use to administer physical assets.
“This is what you guys have been asking for: one place for all resource types by customer,” said Subo Guha, N-able’s vice president of RMM product management, during a presentation this morning.
CAM will also display aggregated data on Azure-related spending and identify “orphaned resources,” Azure instances no longer in use that end users are still paying for. Nearly half of businesses struggle to get cloud costs under control, according to recent research from business monitoring vendor Anodot, and 54% believe their primary source of cloud waste is a lack of visibility into cloud usage.
According to Guha, CAM was designed to help MSPs with two especially steep cloud infrastructure management challenges—juggling cloud management interfaces and keeping track of continually proliferating cloud assets.
“It’s very difficult to discover, manage, and see all the cloud resources,” Guha said. “It gets more problematic when you want to see it across all your customers.”
Future editions of CAM will include support for Azure resources beyond virtual machines, such as SQL databases and backup environments. Functionality for managing Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and other public cloud services will join the system eventually as well.
“We want go deep on Azure first,” Guha said.
N-able introduced its first cloud management solution, called Cloud User Hub, in August. ChannelPro awarded the company one of its 2022 All-Star awards for that milestone.
Based on technology N-able acquired along with cloud management vendor Spinpanel a month earlier, Cloud User Hub provides multi-tenant tools for administering and securing Microsoft 365 accounts, users, and licenses. Cloud Asset Manager is based partly on code inherited from Spinpanel as well.
Forthcoming updates to Cloud User Hub discussed today include expanded automation functionality, integrations with N-able’s N-central and N-sight RMM solutions, and additional integrations with third-party cloud distributors like Ingram Micro and Pax8.
Microsoft 365 management and cloud spending control are two of seven cloud-related needs that N-able intends to address through future products and upgrades. Cloud migration, SaaS workloads, hybrid work arrangements, and data security and resilience are among the others.
Cove, the cloud-based, cloud-focused data protection platform N-able officially launched in May, is the foundation of N-able’s data security and resilience strategy. Updates currently in development for that product include support for Microsoft Teams data and the ability to restore backups in the cloud to an Azure instance rather than a local machine or NAS, according to Vice President of Product Management Stefan Voss.
“For a lot of MSPs that is a game changer, because they are now staying in the context of the cloud and you can now liberate yourself from on-premise infrastructure,” he said.
Cove’s Microsoft 365 backup component is currently N-able’s fastest growing SKU.
Global outlays on cloud computing are large and growing rapidly. Global spending by SMBs alone on cloud services and solutions will climb from $600 million this year to $1 trillion by 2027, according to data from Analysys Mason cited by N-able CEO John Pagliuca on stage this morning.
“That’s the opportunity,” he said. “Who’s going to bring it to them?”
N-able is one of several vendors looking to fill that role in collaboration with its partners. Another, Kaseya, is currently putting finishing touches on a new release of its VSA remote monitoring and management solution that will support native cloud workloads in addition to traditional endpoints. Augmentt, Nerdio, JumpCloud, and SkyKick are among a growing crop of younger software makers competing for a share of the cloud management market as well.
