Unlike many vulnerability scanners, Downey adds, the new ConnectWise tool presents results in a digestible format that MSPs can take straight to their clients. “For anyone that’s ever run a vulnerability scan, it gives you an enormous amount of information,” Downey observes. “We’ve taken that information and put it into a really easy to consume format that a lawyer or a dentist or a restaurant owner is going to be able to understand.”
Prices on the advanced version of Fortify for Assessment, which have yet to determined, will be similar to what subscribers pay for the standard edition. “Our objective is not to create an enormous price gap between the two solutions,” Downey says, adding that ConnectWise will provide the new product at no additional charge to all current Fortify for Assessment users through the end of their present contract.
Partners who use the original Fortify for Assessment during the security sales process collect significantly more revenue, according to Downey. “We’ve actually seen them grow their advanced security tool deployments by 352% in the first nine months,” he says.
The Fortify product family was originally developed by Continuum, a provider of software and services for MSPs acquired by ConnectWise last October. In addition to the assessment tool, it also includes solutions for endpoint and network security, as well as outsourced SOC services. ConnectWise announced today that it has changed the offering’s name from Continuum Fortify to ConnectWise Fortify.
Continuum’s Command RMM product, Recover BDR system, and Assist help desk service all have received new ConnectWise names now as well.
Much of the news from IT Nation Explore this year concerns security. According to Downey, that’s partly an accident of timing and partly a reflection of the enormous and still growing opportunity in security for MSPs.
“One of the biggest transformational things happening right now in the MSP market is security,” he says “It’s a place where MSPs are starting to differentiate themselves from one another, and we’re starting to see it as one of the new revenue streams and businesses that MSPs can grow into.”
The switch to remote work due to the coronavirus pandemic has only amplified that trend, Downey continues. “If you’re working on the same system that your teenage kids are working on, there’s a higher likelihood that has malware on it [or] that it has a key logger that’s recording your user names and passwords.”
ConnectWise accelerated development of Fortify for SaaS Security in response to increased use of cloud solutions by SMBs and increased demand for the entire Fortify product suite.