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Managed services providers (MSPs) usually thrive in times of economic downturn, as customers look for desktop and server management solutions that can help cut costs, increase efficiency and ease data center management and monitoring burdens. But as these services become more commoditized, there’s less value for customers in these solutions.
PacketTrap has introduced a software solution that takes network and traffic analysis to the next level, allowing MSPs to leverage PacketTrap’s Perspective software to perform granular traffic analysis and determine exactly which users and applications are creating network bottlenecks and slowing down performance.
MSPs using competing solutions from N-Able, Kaseya and Level Platforms can all offer desktop and server management, application monitoring and patch management, says Steve Goodman, CEO of PacketTrap. But most of the hardware and software these solutions monitor don’t tend to fail as much as they used to, leaving many customers to wonder what, exactly, they’re paying an MSP to do, he says.
“We kept hearing that servers, applications, desktops and other data center components just don’t fail anymore,” Goodman says. “Even notoriously tricky deployments like an Exchange server are much more stable, especially with the increased adoption of failover, security and backup technologies,” he says.
The increased reliability of data center technologies is great for customers, but not ideal for MSPs that have built their businesses on troubleshooting and fixing these problems.