KromeCast Video Podcast Enterprise Network Monitoring
SPEAKERS
Sam Mager, Martin Hodgson
Introduction 00:01
Welcome to Krome Cast, Tech-it-out. Hosted by service-centric people first UK technology consultancy Krome Technologies.
Sam Mager 00:011
Welcome to Krome Cast Tech-it-out. I'm Sam Mager, Commercial Director of Krome technologies. I'm joined today on the podcast by one of our vendor partner managers, Martin Hodgson. He is the vendor General Manager for UK and Ireland for Paessler AG. Martin, welcome.
Martin Hodgson 00:28
Thanks Sam, thanks for having me.
Sam Mager 00:30
To add some context to this conversation, we've been dealing with Paessler for, I wouldn't put a year on it, but the best part of decade. Obviously, great product, a very interesting tool, and you're probably aware of this, but we actually came across your product as a customer. So we were using, and you'd be more aware of the product, Nagios at the time, which was a good piece of open source software did the job, but was horrendously, was horrendous to operate on a daily basis, the overhead was kind of outweighing the benefit of having a tool that monitors everything reporting on it, because we had a full time guy just monitoring Nagios, which is obviously not what you need out of your network monitoring system. So we went out to market looked at plenty of products, Solarwinds etc. People like that, and good products. But this was in the early days of Krome, potentially didn't have the budget for that sort of product, if I am honest with you, and found Paessler, but actually found that gave us everything we needed from a functional perspective, to monitor our systems, our infrastructure as a service platform for our customers. Fantastic. And it was, you know, but becoming a customer of it. We saw it and said you know what, we need to take this out and become a reseller of it, and take it out our customer base, obviously, that's, you know, it's been going well for a while now. So I guess that's our, how we discovered you guys. And obviously, we're clearly fans of it. If you could tell us a bit more from your perspective, some of the how you've expanded your products and some interesting features that people would be interested in?
Martin Hodgson 02:03
Yeah, sure. Well, with PRTG, our target customer is the IT Admin, and the target that we set ourselves is simply to make their working life easier. So we're looking to do a number of things for them, we want to proactively notify them of any issues or problems. We want to give them insightful, useful data to address their issues, and we want to look for any opportunities we have to reduce their workload. Now in recent times, we found more and more admins are sharing a service availability dashboard, or a map, as we call it in PRTG parlance, and that's allowing some of the users who are working from home, the ability to see which systems are available for them to connect to. The reason we do this is that it helps users help themselves, which is a massive boost for IT, but also, it really reduces the number of duplicate tickets when users know that there is an outage. So now you've asked about other vendors, ultimately, the biggest difference between us and some of the other folks out there is that where they have bolt on modules for different aspects of monitoring with PRTG, we give our customers all of our sensors, we give them everything.
Sam Mager 03:23
I think that was a real boom for us when we looked at your product is I guess it's you know, you buy a car, you can buy a BMW, but you've got to be willing to tick every box there is to get a car that's worth having. And then for us, obviously, when Rupert and I looked at this as owners of the business and with our CFO, Alex, looking at obviously the counting the penny side of it, kind of refreshing to see that that's, you know, all-encompassing from a license perspective, there was never a gotcha, we'd like to add this, we'd like to have that and there was suddenly an extra line about a license fee that we had to tick and pay for. That was a real, for us as a consumer of the product, that was a real big win for us.
Martin Hodgson 04:03
Yeah, I think one of the things that I'd say, you know, looking back over 2020 is the rapid rate of development of our new sensors, obviously, 2020 was a very challenging year for many businesses. We were able to grow a little which, you know, we take that and we also managed to launch our new product. Paessler PRTG Enterprise Monitor.
Sam Mager 04:27
Absolutely. Yeah. So that's a good point actually, we're certainly seeing from our side of it, [coughs] excuse me, a bit of a change in our customer base with PRTG. Traditionally, it's been more the medium-sized enterprise that we've implemented to and supported PRTG in. But I'd say a higher, larger enterprise customers are using more of the, let's call them, I suppose 'reassuringly expensive', tools that are offer, but we're seeing a shift, and we're seeing the larger organisations now, you know, implementing very large, again, implementing, wrong word, over and over. We're seeing larger installs of PRTG. And the number of sensors that we're selling is kind of growing exponentially. So from your perspective, I guess, it would be good to understand how you guys, how your tool has evolved, and how you're able to scale now into the enterprise space, I suppose where the benefits are with PRTG with those larger, kind of massive, let's call them, environments.
Martin Hodgson 05:34
Well, when I joined Paessler in 2017, there were a number of customers who said to me that they loved PRTG. And that's a word I've heard throughout my time, Admins love PRTG. They love how easy it was to implement and live with. But they felt that we could do more to help them with the large scale deployments. And that's pretty much what we did. So when we introduced Paessler PRTG Enterprise Monitor, we brought in a number of fundamental changes for our customers who needed scale. So firstly, we removed the link between licensing and architecture. So customers, where previously they'd been compelled to build fewer, larger PRTG servers to accommodate licensing, we got rid of that. So they can build as many PRTG servers as they like with no restrictions, so that their architecture is their own choice. Of course, that then brings in a problem in itself, which is how do you bring them down into a single pane of glass. And that's where the ITOps board, the ITOps dashboard, with its simple elegance comes in. And it allows a user tailored view of the health and the performance at an appropriate level for whoever that user is, whether that's, you know, a CXO, or an Engineer, they get an appropriate level of insight into the services and the like. And then finally, one of the, one of the big differences that we implemented was that we allowed customers to shift over to an OPEX model. So the Enterprise Monitor product is available exclusively on a subscription basis.
Sam Mager 07:18
Yes, I think that's, that is the way the software market is going, but the shifting that capital expenditure into an operational spend clear advantages for a lot of businesses, it makes absolute sense to me. So many of our, as we're seeing, as I say, we're onboarding a lot more of the larger enterprise clients to PRTG. And historically, and whilst we've done a good number now, of the Enterprise Monitoring tool, have been your standard monitoring tool customers. But you know, as you as you've alluded to there, but with, you know, a large growing amount of sensors, so we need to take them, and other people that will be listening to this podcast that are PRTG customers need to understand how they get themselves from point A, a standard customer, to point B. If you can talk us through what does that upgrade path look like? And then how does the pricing structure wraparound look as well?
Martin Hodgson 08:12
Sure. So I think the first thing is, we draw a line in the sand, which is that a PRTG core, a PRTG instance, has a recommended cap of 10,000 sensors as a maximum and that's the the XL1 license. Now, what we've done, you know with a with a number of your of your XL1 and multiple XL1 customers, we've helped them migrate from, from PRTG Network Monitor up to the Enterprise Product. Now, because we did that, we broke the tentacles by breaking that link between the license and the architecture, they've ultimately got better performance. And they've been able to reuse all of the knowledge that they've gained over the years of monitoring with PRTG and then leveled up. Because all the monitoring within Enterprise Monitor is exactly the same. But then it's the ITOps dashboard, and that service level overview that you get. So commercially, the Enterprise Monitor starts from a shade under 15,000 euros, you know, and with a minimum initial subscription of one year and 20,000 sensors. But in terms of, you know, existing PRTG customers, you know, we've always had a very fair upgrade policy. We like to give our customers as much as we possibly can of their investment in PRTG back, and typically I've seen that where we're doing a three year subscription. They've had, you know, a fair proportion of their capital costs back. So, I would encourage them to talk to you.
Sam Mager 9:52
Thank you. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, if you look at just the pricing, I remember being very pleasantly surprised, you know, when we did a bake off, and I've mentioned Solarwinds, there are a number of others, which people will be aware of, you know, and you look at the tick boxes or feature sets, etc. And then you kind of look at the commercial difference on the end, you know, to be able to for what you offer there for a shade under 15,000 euros, very compelling. You know, I think that's the takeaway on that it's such a good, feature rich tool for the money. That is why I'm such a big fan, and such an advocate as well. You know, when you take into the cost saving operationally, that it delivers you to be proactive. Yeah. And obviously, now with the added features of Enterprise and the scalability of Enterprise, it's really, it's quite compelling as to why wouldn't you rather than would you, so? Anyway we're obviously clearly an advocate, as I said, we've been doing this, crikey, I am trying to think of the exact date, but it is the best part of a decade, you know, and some of our customers, people in the channel will know, people outside the channel may not. But obviously, you have a direct model, and a channel model. From Paessler's position, from your position, obviously being a channel manager, if you can talk our audience through, you know, where you feel the importance of channel, good channel partners are, and I guess, you know, how you feel Krome, along with our expertise, and our professional services wrap around knowledge, fits into your ecosystem.
Martin Hodgson 11:28
Yeah, sure. I mean, as you know, you're one of our top tier partners. And indeed, you're one of only two UK partners certified to resell the Enterprise Monitor platform. So you know, that's something that you should be very proud of. And when we brought that product to market, the intention was absolutely for it to be fulfilled through our channel. Our channel is super important to us, we are a global team of just over 300 people. And we have 300,000 customers, and we don't provide professional services. So it doesn't take too long to see what your contribution is, you know, we do not sell professional services. And you can imagine, there's a big difference between an enterprise class customer who wants a whole solution, and you know, somebody who simply wants a transactional business, because they already know what they need to about our product. And that's why we have our direct model.
Sam Mager 12:40
Absolutely.
Martin Hodgson 12:24
So, but I mean, I love the backstory of that you guys have, the idea of being a customer before you became a reseller. You and your folks know your onions. We love what you do with creating the custom sensors. And you know, for those people who are listening to your podcast, I have no reservations in recommending you personally. And the feedback that I've had from our mutual customers is without parallel, so keep doing what you're doing.
Sam Mager 12:50
Thank you, you'll make me blush. It comes down to the fact that we really believe in the product. We do monitor all of our environment, our hosted platforms, everything is monitored by PRTG. And we've done some interesting things with the product over the years, you know, obviously, it's a network monitoring tool. But it's amazing what attaches to the network these days. And you know, what you can actually do with it. We've had an interesting use case, I was talking to, I shan't name names, but a very large, higher educational institute in the south of the country. And I was talking to the team there and they had other tools for the job that they couldn't see a place for PRTG at that time, but I caught the ear of the AV team. And their pain point was the fact that they had a huge number of auditoriums, and they booked these out for people like, the late, Stephen Hawking, to come in and speak at etc, as a huge revenue generator for them. And they've instances where, you know, they wouldn't realise that an auditorium you had a broken bulb and a projector or whatever wasn't working, until it was kind of go time and the disruption and disturbances that caused, it was huge. The cost implications were massive. And we did a POC with PRTG there. I think they dipped their toe in for a few 100 sensors. In fact, it was the free 100 sensor license, to prove the case that it would work and they very quickly became an XL1 than XL5, you know, literally huge installation, but it was outside of what people I guess would see, perceive as being the norm, you know, looking at the AV and, and whatnot. That's my, well hopefully, my interesting war story. You've probably [laughter] seen a few, you've probably seen something similar in your time at PRTG.
Martin Hodgson 14:45
Oh, there's, one of the things that we love to hear is all the unique and interesting ways that people implement the product. The one, one of the ones that leaps off the page to me that I really enjoyed working with was, with me being a definite nerd, is the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park. And to, you know, in a single leap go from, we have the oldest working computer in the world there. It's a 1950's super calculator for want of a better word. And it's paper tape based. And it's obviously super important being so old, and we monitor it using IoT. So, you know, from paper tech to IoT, and a single leap. I've read recently about one of the implementations up in the Nordics, where one of our ISP customers had written their own custom sensor. And this one very much appeals to me because he's created a custom sensor to check on the weather and sea conditions and PRTG alerts him when he should book a day off to go fishing for cod! [laughter] That's, that's our sort of sensor.
Sam Mager 15:56
A real world 'Fishing' attack.
Martin Hodgson 16:01
And then finally, I have to go back to you know, where all this came from, Dirk Paessler, Dirk's vision is that PRTG can positively impact on a company's use of energy, amongst other things. And some time back, we implemented a solar array. I know lots of vendors have done that. But being a monitoring company, we didn't just do that. And we're actively monitoring, you know what, what a difference that's making, and trying wherever we can, to not only make those initiatives to reduce consumption, but also to monitor and measure them. So yeah, that's, that's our bigger vision.
Sam Mager 16:46
I like that, that's good. I see, it's always interesting to I guess, share war stories, and to see how other people are taking a product and then adapting it and use it in versatile and inventive ways. I guess, you know, you've certainly got a product, which is adaptable. We can we can push this across most verticals, most industry sectors, and find those unique and interesting use cases for it. So yeah, again, I can't say enough about the product, I don't usually shut up about it talking to customers, because it is so useful to help us you know, to find out the pain points we need, especially as a Managed Services provider, having an install of this is a no brainer, because it literally tells us, what's up, what's going on, and our team are on it proactively. You know, so you make us look good. Obviously, conversely, we make you look good by doing our professional services. But that's a very much a reciprocal relationship. So yeah, again, huge fans. Ok, so elephant in the room, how to phrase this? I'm sure viewers of our podcast, obviously being in the tech industry will be aware that there's been chat in the press around hackers and vulnerabilities found in, let's just say, other solutions. So, I'm not going to dig into details around the who's. But I'm sure people have questions for you, for your company, around what is Paessler doing, in response to kind of recent attacks that you guys have seen?
Martin Hodgson 18:08
I've had lots of conversations in recent time about this. I mean, we took a step back. And perhaps that's an insight into the sort of organisation that we are. We started, we've intensively examined all of our systems, our processes, our protocols, to, first of all rule out any misuse. But also, I think, more importantly, to discover where we can improve, you know, this is an opportunity for us to take that learning and improve. We have an internal task force there monitoring all the available information about the attack, you know, it's an ongoing thing, and trying to, you know, as I say, take those learnings. But let me be very clear, thus far. I hasten to add that there have been no indications whatsoever of an account on Paessler PRTG. Or that there have been any compromises. So, but we're, we're not sitting on our laurels. We're taking the threat very, very seriously.
Sam Mager 19:40
That's good. I'd expect nothing less from you, and from all the partners that we work with. I'm just looking at time, I've probably kept you longer than I should. So thank you for investing the time to join me on the podcast today. And I really appreciate it. It's been really good to understand and as I say, how you've advanced and evolved and where you're going as a company. Some of the backstory and war stories also they're good to hear. So thanks for your time today.
Martin Hodgson 19:36
Thanks for having me, bye bye.
Sam Mager 19:38
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Out jingle 19:38
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