MSP-Reliant Datto Picks Up Open Mesh

Datto is fairly well-known in the field by virtue of its data protection tools, which are only available by making purchases through managed service providers (MSPs). A company so closely connected to MSPs for everyday operation therefore understands the need to provide more services routinely, and recently, it underscored that point with a new acquisition: Open Mesh.

Though not much of the deal has been made public as of yet—it was only announced with the departure of January—what's known about the whole affair makes it clear there was synergy to be had between the two firms. Open Mesh, according to reports from Datto senior product marketing manager Scott West, relies very heavily on channel sales, and MSPs account for about 70 percent of its revenue.  Open Mesh will be joining Datto as a subsidiary, with its headquarters set to remain in Portland, Oregon.

Datto has been offering networking products for the last couple of years now, mainly in the form of its Datto Networking Appliance. With that product in play, Datto partners could get access to a complete threat management system, which is valuable for just about any firm these days. It could likewise serve as the lynchpin of other bundles and potentially draw new interest to lesser-selling items.

However, it became clear that the Datto Networking Appliance wasn't covering all the waterfront it could, particularly in regard to access points and switches. With Open Mesh's acquisition, Datto could offer new Ethernet switching and wireless access point options, making Datto's offering more valuable and versatile, offering even self-healing and self-organizing options.

The best news here is that Datto will be able to immediately benefit in another way. Reports note that the overlap between Datto's market and Open Mesh's is “not huge,” which means there will be plenty of new contacts to bring the Datto line to, as well as to bring the Open Mesh line to. It's one of the greatest things about a channel partner operation; one company's customers can take the new product line to current customers that the other company may never have been able to contact. In this case, that actually works both ways, as Open Mesh customers can get a look at Datto systems and vice versa.

The end result should mean greater sales for both firms and a lot of extra value generated for purchaser Datto. That's good news for anyone, and it will be interesting to see just what kind of new revenue comes of this.