What I’d really like to say..

Pretty much the only downside to running a business is the sense of responsibility you have to your staff and to your clients. It sucks to fail because when we fail it’s not just something we get to deal with – it’s something that affects our partners, our clients, our staff and our families. And since we care about all of that we don’t get to go home and not think about it and we also can’t act recklessly and say exactly what is on our mind at all times.

Today.. you’re going to have to pardon me because this monkey has been sitting on my shoulder for a few years and I have finally delivered something so many of us have been building for years. All I’d like to say is:

I friggin dare you to work with our competitors.

That’s all.

Yesterday we publically announced the launch of the ExchangeDefender Unicorn aka “Business Monitoring”. Here is the premise:

Bring us your email security, storage, filtering, Exchange and Sharepoint hosting business and we’ll eliminate the cost of operating your business (reduce how much you spend for monitoring and remote access) while giving you an edge against the big boys (now you can offer free monitoring too) – the more ExchangeDefender makes, the less it costs you to run your business at worst or the faster you’ll grow at best.

This initial release is all about the remote monitoring – server and workstation monitoring templates, alert-to-ticket integration, free remote desktop access via VNC even if they are behind a firewall and a few other tricks as well. Free. Next up, screenshot logging, application activity monitoring, web site traffic audits and more.

This is not an RMM. There are tons of great ones you can buy if you want to automate an IT response.

This is a business monitoring solution. In my experience, business owners care a lot more about what their employees are doing at work than what Microsoft background services and virus definition updates are doing. Maybe I’m an idiot – but I’ll give it away for free.

Without our partners we don’t exist. The end.

For our partners to grow, something has to give. You either gotta market and sell more or cut the costs. With Unicorn you’ve got both – reduce your bills right now. Next, promote free monitoring (heck it’s not like it’s gonna cost you anything) and let the business owners now what’s going on – then offer to fix it. Then offer to continue fixing it for a low monthly fee.

While everyone else is racing to find more shit to sell you, I am investing in making my partners more successful.

That’s what I do here. I no longer write code, I no longer touch servers, I no longer answer support phone calls and for the most part I am not dealing with anything day-to-day. My job is making sure our partners thrive in 2015, not that you sell $X in 2012-Q4.

So by all means, go ahead and ignore this.

I don’t have to get every one of you. I just have to get one that’s near you – and give them a chance.

The synergy of the cloud, infrastructure, consulting and business management is here. Between ExchangeDefender, Shockey Monkey, Unicorn and all our partners – I’ve got a shot at a baby IBM. And I’m a modest guy, I only need one Ferrari in each color of the rainbow. You can’t drive two red Ferrari’s at once.

My partners got us to this point… and I’m going to repay that favor. Some haven’t been that kind – from bashing us in the forums, blogs, peer groups – that’s your call and as you may know, I have no interest in fighting with you in public and I’ve asked my partners to do the same. Because you know what, screw you – my job here is not to address disrespectful whiners who don’t want to work together, my job here is to take the crap we’re dealt and make the best out of it. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, I keep on coming back to work because ultimately it’s my responsibility.

Felt good to get that out. The choice is yours – our ExchangeDefender Partner Program as it is today will be closed Dec 31, 2012. If you want to work with us, call me, visit me, stop by let’s help build up each others business. Otherwise, thanks for reading this blog and sorry about any hurt feelings.

Love,

-Vlad