AI nearly overshadowed cybersecurity during the keynote address at ConnectWise’s annual IT Nation Secure conference in Orlando, an event that attracted 1,200 MSPs.
ConnectWise executives, appearing in pairs on stage, spoke about the interconnected technology trends of cybersecurity and AI, providing insight into the threat landscape and how ConnectWise has shaped its technology to meet the challenges of this new time. Additionally, the company has made a series of product/solution announcements. More on these below.
Joining ConnectWise CEO Jason Magee on stage, IT Nation Senior Vice President and General Manager Gregg Lalle described the conference theme as “a groundswell for all things AI-powered.” .
Magee agreed: “There’s no doubt about it. AI is a game changer and AI is the ultimate sidekick or disruptor,” a bit of a play on words as ConnectWise’s AI assistive technology is called Sidekick.
“It’s bigger than us,” Magee said. “We talked about it last year, and in just 12 months, AI has taken a leap forward. »
How AI and Cybersecurity Collide
ConnectWise CISO Patrick Beggs was joined on stage by Jay Ryerse, VP of Global Security Sales, for a discussion on the challenges technology service providers face as AI becomes a force in the field of cybersecurity.
Beggs said the future of cybersecurity will be powered by AI. Ryerse said AI and cybersecurity are on a collision course.
“AI is an open source tool that drives innovation. It’s kind of like a hammer that can be used for both good and evil and is accessible to everyone,” Ryerse said.
But Beggs noted that AI is also used for defense. He said his red team used AI to test ConnectWise’s own defenses. Additionally, ConnectWise has guidelines and policies on the safe and ethical use of AI.
ConnectWise Security Solution Announcements
ConnectWise’s Ameer Karim, executive vice president and general manager of cybersecurity and data protection, was joined on stage by John Helms, director of product management for a series of announcements related to security products and solutions . here is the list
360 security
This product builds on Asio, ConnectWise’s unified cloud-based MSP tools platform, and is designed to create a single source of truth for everything related to cybersecurity for MSPs. This dashboard provides a total risk score for MSPs and then breaks down risk by various functional cybersecurity categories, including endpoint, network, vulnerability, identity and data. MSPs can drill down into each category to determine the cause of low scores and determine what corrective actions are needed to improve those scores.
Executives said the company has reinvented its vulnerability management offering to make it part of the 360 experience.
This dashboard also allows MSPs to dig deeper into, for example, email security, bringing together all data from Microsoft, Proof Point or any other vendor integrating a solution with ConnectWise.
Safety Companion
ConnectWise already offers Sidekick for RMM (providing scripting support) and for PSA (providing technicians with a 20% decrease in resolution time and a 30% increase in technician efficiency.) Naturally, Sidekick would then be applied to Security. Sidekick for Security can be activated from anywhere in Asio, Microsoft or Microsoft Copilot. ConnectWise showed a demo of a technician asking for security scores and vulnerability summaries.
ConnectWise ConnectWise Security 360 and Sidekick for Security are free through October for MSPs who sign up during the event.
RPA expansion
ConnectWise demonstrated low-code RPA (robotic process automation) capabilities at a previous event. The company is now expanding its capabilities with custom triggers that allow technicians to trigger via webhooks and use the time feature to schedule how often workflows should run. Additionally, ConnectWise has added a custom form designer that allows you to ask someone for the information needed to trigger a workflow. Additionally, ConnectWise provided the much-requested custom bots functionality.
MDR for Microsoft 365
ConnectWise offers Sentinelone, Bitdefender, and Microsoft Defender for Business. It is now deploying MDR for Microsoft 365 to protect more components of the Microsoft stack. ConnectWise announced that it will offer this solution to MSPs at a 50% discount until the end of July.
MDR Executive Report
To help MSPs demonstrate value to their end customers, ConnectWise deploys the MDR Executive Report, accessible through Security 360 or scheduled via email or exported to PDF. In the coming months, ConnectWise said it will add additional features to make it easier to share the report with customers.
