5 Companies That Came To Win This Week

For the week ending June 24 CRN takes a look at the companies that brought their ‘A’ game to the channel.

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The Week Ending June 24

Topping this week’s Came to Win list is Kaseya for closing its $6.2 billion acquisition of Datto, making it the biggest player in the market for management and security tools for MSPs.

Also making this week’s list are Telarus for an acquisition that makes it the industry’s largest technology solutions brokerage and AWS partner Mission for an acquisition that expands the service provider’s application development capabilities.

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Data management software provider Ataccama makes this week’s list for an impressive funding round. And IT management software vendor SolarWinds is here for rebounding from the 2021 “Sunburst” cyberattack by creating a new software development process to prevent such attacks.

Kaseya Closes $6.2 Billion Datto Acquisition

Kaseya completed its $6.2 billion acquisition of onetime rival Datto this week, making it the biggest company in the market for unified IT and security management tools used by managed service providers to run their businesses and support their customers.

The acquisition puts Kaseya ahead of such competitors as ConnectWise, N-Able and others within the market space.

Kaseya and Datto competitors have been critical of the deal. But this week Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola (pictured) fired back against what he called “FUD—fear, uncertainty and doubt”—from critics.

Kaseya will integrate all of Datto’s products—including its popular networking technology—into the Kaseya portfolio, Voccola told CRN. The company plans to reduce pricing for Datto products by an average of 10 percent and offer flexible customer contracts. Voccola also vowed that Kaseya will increase its investment in R&D.

The CEO said retention bonuses will be offered to account managers and there will be no layoffs—the company is even planning on hiring 1,000 additional account managers

Datto CEO Tim Weller is leaving the company. But in a move important for MSP partners, Voccola said that Ryan Weeks, Datto chief information security officer, and Rob Rae, Datto senior vice president of business development, are staying on with Kaseya.

Telarus Expands Technology Solutions Brokerage Scope With TCG Acquisition

Telarus struck a deal this week to acquire TCG in a move the company said will make it the industry’s largest technology solutions brokerage (TSB) with increased regional coverage, broader technical expertise, and an expanded portfolio of cloud, unified communications, mobile, SD-WAN and other communications services.

The deal to acquire TCG, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., will make Telarus the biggest TSB in the channel in terms of revenue and new monthly bookings, the company said.

Telarus, based in Sandy, Utah, provides its network of service provider partners with cloud, unified communications, contact center, network, mobility, IoT and cybersecurity services. TCG is a leading broker of advanced network, unified communications and mobile internet access solutions.

Telarus has operations in the U.S., Canada, EMEA, Australia and New Zealand, and the TCG acquisition will help it increase regional coverage within the U.S. TCG boasts more than 6,000 partners nationwide, including MSPs, VARs, technology advisers and systems integrators, and it also works with the largest cable companies and telecom providers.

AWS Premier Partner Mission Boosts Development Capabilities Through Acquisition

Mission Cloud Services is expanding its application development credentials with its acquisition of software specialist Dozen Software.

Mission, a cloud MSP and AWS Premier-level partner, said the acquisition will allow it to expand its development service capabilities. Mission offers a suite of cloud services to help businesses migrate to AWS and manage and operate their AWS environments.

While the strategic service provider does application development work for customers, the company said the Dozen Software acquisition will expand its existing development services to help customers modify existing applications or build new ones.

Mission executives said they are seeing increased demand for such development services not only from customers, but also from AWS itself.

Data Management Tech Provider Ataccama Raises $150M From Bain Capital

Unified data management and governance technology developer Ataccama raised $150 million in a growth capital funding round this week, financing the company will invest in new product development and go-to-market efforts.

The funding came from Bain Capital Tech Opportunities, which acquired a minority stake in the Toronto-based company, according to Ataccama.

The funding comes as Ataccama reports significant growth. The company doubled its annual recurring revenue in 2021 and added a new customer every three days during the first quarter of fiscal 2022. The company added 150 employees to its workforce in 2021 for a total of 450.

The company said it has significantly expanded its footprint in the banking, financial services, insurance, life sciences, health-care and retail industries. Customers include TIAA, BlueCross BlueShield and T-Mobile.

Ataccama said it will apply the new funding to “strengthen the company’s go-to-market engine,” accelerate product R&D and innovation work, and continue its global expansion. The company recently opened an office in Melbourne, Australia.

SolarWinds Says It Has Found A Way To Avert Another ‘Sunburst’ Attack

IT management software developer SolarWinds wins kudos this week for unveiling details of its new software development process that’s designed to prevent a repeat of the widespread Sunburst cyberattack—discovered in early 2021—that the U.S. government attributed to Russian intelligence hackers.

SolarWinds became a household name last year after it was revealed that hackers had accessed the company’s Orion software, widely used by U.S. government agencies and leading IT companies, during its build stage and inserted malware into software updates issued by the company.

Following the Sunburst attack, SolarWinds has focused more on security and implemented its own ‘Secure by Design’ initiative aimed at making the company a model for enterprise software security.

On Wednesday, SolarWinds unveiled its Next-Generation Build System, which it described as a “transformational model for software development.” The new development process is basically a series of checks and balances designed to thwart potential hackers if they try to corrupt software in the build stage.

SolarWinds is releasing components of the new build system as open-source software, enabling other organizations to benefit from the company’s work and hopefully raising supply chain security standards in general.

Tim Brown, SolarWinds chief security officer, told CRN that the new measures “absolutely” would have prevented the Sunburst hack had they been in place at the time.