Pax8 & NinjaOne form global MSP referral partnership

Pax8 has formed a global partnership with NinjaOne, expanding a referral arrangement for managed service providers and managed intelligence providers.

Under the deal, Pax8 will introduce partners to NinjaOne when they are looking for unified IT operations tools, including remote monitoring and management. NinjaOne will work directly with referred partners and handle the customer lifecycle, while Pax8 focuses on identifying opportunities and providing strategic guidance.

The arrangement covers North America, EMEA and APAC. It is aimed at managed service providers, or MSPs, and managed intelligence providers, or MIPs, serving small and medium-sized businesses.

The partnership builds on an existing relationship linked to Dropsuite, the software backup and archiving provider NinjaOne acquired last year. That connection has now widened into a direct global alliance between the two companies.

Market demand

The companies are targeting a market in which cybersecurity and IT management are becoming more closely linked for smaller businesses. Small businesses are targeted by cyber attacks four times as often as larger enterprises, according to Pax8, as service providers take on a bigger role in helping customers manage risk and technology change.

Research cited by Pax8 also points to a broader advisory role for channel partners. According to Pax8 Pulse research, 84% of small businesses said they would trust an external technology adviser to help implement artificial intelligence.

That creates an opening for providers that can combine day-to-day IT oversight with security tools and advice. For many MSPs, remote monitoring, device management, backup, archiving and security products are increasingly being bought together as customers seek fewer suppliers and more joined-up support.

Pax8, which runs a marketplace for cloud software and related services, works with more than 47,000 IT partners and 800,000 small and medium-sized business customers. The referral model is designed to simplify introductions and connect partners with NinjaOne when they are actively assessing their next tools.

Vendor growth

NinjaOne has been one of the faster-growing vendors in the remote monitoring and management market, according to Canalys, as competition in the segment has intensified. Vendors have been expanding beyond endpoint oversight into adjacent areas such as backup, patching, automation and security as MSPs look to reduce tool sprawl.

The partnership stops short of making NinjaOne a standard marketplace listing under the terms described by the companies. Instead, it creates a strategic referral process in which Pax8 identifies demand and NinjaOne takes over the commercial and operational relationship with the partner.

Executive views

Oguo Atuanya, Corporate Vice President of Vendor Experience, Pax8, said, "The collaboration reflects the company's commitment to meeting partners where they are and connecting them with proven solutions that align with their business goals."

He said, "Working with NinjaOne expands the options available to partners while maintaining a flexible, partner-first approach."

NinjaOne positioned the partnership as a way to simplify adoption for service providers reviewing their software stack and trying to streamline operations while meeting customer expectations around reliability and security.

Erzan Uygur, Vice President of Strategy and Operations, NinjaOne, said, "Customer success means making it as easy as possible for MSPs to find and adopt tools that work and help build their businesses."

He said, "The global partnership with Pax8 will allow NinjaOne to engage with partners that are actively exploring solutions and receive trusted guidance throughout that process."