Pax8 sees Nuvolex as a game-changer for MSPs for their advanced multi-tenanted management of Microsoft SaaS applications.
Ryan Walsh, chief channel officer at Pax8
Cloud distributor Pax8 has begun a new relationship with Palo-Alto-based startup Nuvolex, which makes what the distributor considers to be the most advanced multi-tenanted platform for managing SaaS applications. Today, Nuvolex is Microsoft-focused, with support for Office 365 and Azure. Tomorrow, that’s likely to be expanded as the company grows.
“We are really excited about uncovering such an innovative product,” said Ryan Walsh, chief channel officer at Pax8. “We always have our ear to the ground on the problems MSPs have. This is a major one. Partners have emphasized that this is a problem – and something they want help with. They are particularly looking for ways to improve their profitability, especially around managing Office 365.”
Walsh said that Nuvolex built their platform to focus on these same types of issues. Their ManageX platform automates administration across the entire Microsoft cloud stack, including Office 365 as well as Intune, Active Directory, Azure Active Directory and Azure.
“Nuvolex built this multi-tenanted management platform with a vision to addressing automated workflows,” Walsh stated.
Nuvolex is hardly unique in addressing this, but Walsh said that there is a real difference in terms of what they deliver.
“At a 10,000 foot level, you hear things like ‘single pane of glass’ management, but if you peel that back, Nuvolex goes a lot deeper in terms of how they manage their Microsoft tenants,” Walsh said. “In terms of PowerShell scripts, some PSA tools have solutions around user assignments, but Nuvolex goes much further, and builds scripts into the automated workflow user interface. It means that the MSP doesn’t have to write the scripts in order to automate cloud services.”
Similarly, Walsh said that Nuvolex makes it easy to simplify what had been time-consuming tasks with a few clicks.
“MSPs typically have to harden Exchange online,” he stated. “With Nuvolex, a policy to lock auto-forwarding can be done easily in one place, through the interface. It’s a massive simplification of administration and less time writing scripts.”
For MSPs who want support beyond the Microsoft platform, Walsh said the Nuvolex considers this to be a starting point.
“A lot of their roadmap will depend on the experience and feedback they receive with this, but their ears will be wide open,” he indicated. “The decision to start with Microsoft is such a strong value proposition. It checks a lot of boxes.”
Pax8 came across Nuvolex at the beginning of 2019.
“They had come out with this concept they could streamline, testing the value proposition, which they have been refining over the last two years,” Walsh said. “They had been putting it in the hands of multiple folks to get it to market. Then they came across the channel. We have used their product ourselves. When we were at the Microsoft Inspire show in July, we had more conversations there with MSPs about the need for this. They didn’t see anyone else address it the way they do. Others have bits and pieces only.”
In addition, since the platform is priced on a per-managed user basis, the Nuvolex platform provides the Azure management functionality as a complimentary management capability, to further enhance margin opportunities.
“This is also a perfect Pax8 Stax play,” Walsh added. “Office 365 has been the gateway for many partners, since so many start their movement to the cloud there. From a Stax perspective, this is one of the closest attaches, since it involves how to efficiently manage the Microsoft stack.”
