Labtech\Connectwise going away

[phlmk18]

So, we had a pretty gnarly outbreak at a client and had to deploy MBAM through labtech which is still at 1.8. I had asked when they heck they were updating it and was told not only is it going away, but MB is replacing it with a new product that is triple the cost and essentially stopped talking to them. So what about us MSP's that want to deploy a product that coexists with say our current antivirus? Or have a quick remediation product?

Sure, I get it, you want to replace the antivirus, but you are more expensive than the most expensive AV for MSPs already for a 4yr old 1.8 version. At triple, plus my 2k+ endpoints. No way Jose. I'm not spending $10k a month on AV alone. I get ESET for pennies a machine per month and that works good enough. I'd rather buy a new Mercedes for my wife, than pay that kind of rate.

But not even that, Connectwise said you guys cut off communication with them about any future plug-in. I like having an all-in-one dashboard with a single point for alerts, that's why I spend $40k a year on Connectwise.

I'm sure the owner of MB has a few Teslas or Maseratis, probably a few private jets. Do you REALLY need MORE money? I would like a Tesla, look all "Environmentally Friendly" to the hippy tree hugger clients.

[kahml]

Continuum dropped Malwarebytes at the start of the year and removed the Business Edition at the end of January.  They are relying solely on Webroot...

 

[phlmk18]

Well Webroot doesn't hold a candle to ESET or MBAM. My security consultant who is a CSO for a national bank told me to use ESET and when I was looking at upgrading from ESET 5 I looked at Sophos and Vipre. Vipre is buy far the most expensive. It worked nicely, but the CTO at the Hospital that is one of our clients and my security consultant both said to stick with ESET 6. So far that has been fine, this worm looked like it made its way through before ESET 6 pushed to the machines in that client.

I'm looking at OSSIM for added security, but that may not block worms, just alert. I am applying as an MSP partner for MB directly, but unlike AlientVault that called me today, MB rep said I might get a call back by Friday. AlienVault was $600/month for their cheapest option, but he said to look up their free open-source offering. 

I do not know as of yet, what MB will offer or what it will cost. I didn't get a call today. 

[kahml]

No comment on Webroot.  It comes with the Continuum subscription, but we all know about how useful it is....

Regretably, Malwarebytes does not have a monthly MSP pricing plan - it is strictly an annual license, paid up-front.  I was in touch with Cris Martinez (the only Malwarebytes employee with NO signature file in his emails), who oversees the MSP program, back in early November 2017 when Continuum first announced their upcoming change.  I got dragged along with "we're working with distribution" for a couple of months before I received this email on the last day of January 2018:

Quote

 

Hi Larry,

We can discuss pricing and seat counts again if you’d like (MSP pricing would be based on volume seat tier), but this would still be a 12 month commit, paid upfront.  I know monthly billing was very important to you as it is not yet in place, but our teams are currently working on this.  You can still order\add new prorated seats throughout the term as you need them as well, if you’d like to start out doing that. 

Just let me know if you have any questions and how you’d like to proceed.

 

That same week I received an email from Steve De Marco, Senior Vice President, Global Sales, and asked him to comment on this.  No response at all.

And just last week, I received an email from Russ Swanson, Enterprise Business Representative, and asked him to offer any additional information about an MSP pricing plan.  Also no response.

So, using Malwarebytes to remove malware is simply not going to happen for my business until something on their side changes.

In terms of overall security, there are only two vendors in the market that make sense to me:  Sophos, with its Endpoint and InterceptX offerings, and Carvir, with SentinelOne.  And while InterceptX has most of the functionality of Malwarebytes, the product is still not linked to the Sophos Cloud dashboard.  I need to see and - more importantly - report to my clients the status of the health of their machines.  On the other hand, Carvir provides a fully-manned SOC and reporting for the SentinelOne software.  Sure, its more expensive than most products, but using it I gain the resources of a staff that's larger than my own, as well as the protection.

I'm still looking for something that's going to do what Malwarebytes does: and that is clean up all of the debris associated with the garbage that gets inadvertently pulled into a browser.  I want more than a product that simply eliminates an exe file.  But I guess I'm going to have to wait...