JASON HOWELLS FEATURE
CREATING AN
MSP BUSINESS
Going private, creating an MSP business and an
acquisition trail have helped Barracuda in the MSP space.
Jason Howells, Director of EMEA at Barracuda MSP explains.
In 2015, Barracuda made the
strategic decision to enter the MSP
space, and the company felt it
was important to not just have an
MSP partner programme, but an MSP
business.
“Service providers need something
different to the traditional channel
and that’s why we pride ourselves on
having a dedicated team that is selfsufficient
in terms of sales, marketing
and technical capabilities, so we
can deliver to those MSPs what they
need, and don’t need to have an MSP
programme,” says Barracuda MSP
director of EMEA, Jason Howells.
“We’ve been working on adding a
lot more of the Barracuda portfolio as
well as new acquisitions, and building
out products that we feel are very
relevant to the MSP space right now –
it’s just the beginning of an exciting
journey,” he adds.
The results in the years since
have been impressive; in March, the
company announced that its annual
recurring revenue for MSP security
solutions had increased 120 percent
year over year; its internal MSP partner
base had increased 280 percent
over the past two years; and that
the number of MSPs using multiple
Barracuda solutions grew 34 percent
year-over-year.
Security products have played a
big part in this; as small to medium
sized businesses (SMBs) who may
have previously felt they did not need
protection, are now making security a
priority.
“They’re being targeted with the
rise in phishing and other attacks, and
so it’s become important for smaller
businesses to ensure they’re covered by
investing in best-of-breed technology
at extremely reasonable rates,” says
Howells.
In line with Barracuda’s success
in the MSP market around security
offerings, the company recently
acquired Managed Workspace, a
security-centric remote monitoring and
management platform for MSPs, from
Avast.
“The Managed Workspace
acquisition came after a series of
other acquisitions which made us
the security leader in the MSP space,
in particular around e-mail security.
Managed Workplace is more of a
foundational product that MSPs use at
the core of their businesses to be able
to provide the services they provide to
their customers,” says Howells.
Barracuda’s shift in strategy has
also come at a time during another
significant change; the company
went private at the end of 2017, with
private equity firm Thoma Bravo taking
ownership. Last year, CEO BJ Jenkins
suggested that the company was able
to operate much more swiftly, meaning
it was less likely that an acquisition
would fall through. This has been
important as resellers and channel
partners have tried to focus more on a
service model, rather than a productmodel,
the company has been able to
find the right blend of services to offer
its partners through acquisitions.
“It has allowed us to make the
investments we’ve needed to make to
set up for the success we’ve seen over
the last few years, and we’re perhaps
ahead of the curve compared to other
vendors,” says Howells.
Over the next few years, Howells
believes Barracuda MSP will focus
more on its email protection portfolio
as that’s where its customers are
requiring the most support. He
says that the company is also likely
to expand its team, and that it will
continue its focus on supporting
companies who are shifting to a
services model.
“I think customers of traditional
resellers and MSPs are going to need
more services from them, and this
will definitely be the case in the SMB
market, the technology needs be
driven down to these businesses
who didn’t worry about it in the past,”
Howells says.
One of the key obstacles that still
remains despite the company going
private and creating a separate MSP
business, is educating MSPs on the
importance of email security.
“It’s amazing how many times we
see an MSP and once we talk through
the portfolio we’ve got and they
understand it, they realise how many
of their customers need this because
they’ve been hit by a spear phishing
attack or another type of issue,”
Howells explains.
“I think customers of traditional resellers and MSPs are
going to need more services from them, and this will
definitely be the case in the SMB market, the technology
needs be driven down to these businesses who didn’t
worry about it in the past.”
April 2019 www.technologybusinesstoday.com 17
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