The midmarket is a unique business niche. As one midmarket IT leader recently said when it comes to products and services for his organization: "I don't need a Rolls-Royce, but I can't drive a scooter."
Midmarket IT products and services must fit a sweet spot of affordability, scalability and plenty of service and support options, for often resource-strapped IT departments.
And it's up to technology vendors to prove why their products and services are a fit for this business segment.
These security and networking vendors told us why their solutions are ideal for midmarket organizations (all quotes are attributed to spokespeople from each company who MES Computing interviewed):
Vendor name: ESET
Product/service category: Security
"Clients in the midmarket space have an acute need for advanced technology at a price they can afford with an extensive support system behind it, because they have small teams, and they need a vendor or partner that can step in and support them where they don't have resources. We have an exact alignment ... all of those key markers to support this industry.
We are a powerhouse in the endpoint protection space. When it comes to prevention, if we're measured just on that we probably have 20 functions at the onset, where our closest competitor might have two on the prevention side, they are more focused on detection and response ... but prevention is more important."
Vendor name: Hyve Managed Hosting
Product/service category: Managed cloud service provider
"We are a managed provider cloud services provider. [A] great fit for [the] midmarket, if you want to offload a lot of on-prem equipment here and move to an off-x model instead of a capex model. That lowers costs, saves money. You don't have to invest in personnel, skills gaps ... we can fill all those gaps for you.
We'll host applications, replacing infrastructure. We'll take on the management of any rack servers or blade servers, we'll take on that and we host that in our data centers."
Vendor name: Buffalo Americas
Product/service category: Network-attached storage, backup and other networking solutions
"A lot of the things that a lot of folks are looking at now, especially in the midmarket on top of the security ... we've got a closed operating system, so we don't have any third-party applications running. There's no hidden avenues into your data. Nobody's going to get into that jurisdiction and encrypt your data with ... ransomware [for example]. Because we have that, if you can't install a program on it, you're not going to be able to install ransomware.
So that's one of the main things ... the security factor. Now, with our 7010 series [network storage], and one of the Product of the Year from CRN last year, you've now got enterprise product performance that is competing with the [Hewlett Packard Enterprise] product for about half the price. So, price point: We're fitting into the midmarket, security wise ... and then we've got flexible options for everybody's needs, any firm, anywhere from 16 to 200 terabytes of enterprise usable data."
Vendor: WRK
Product/service category: Automation
"We are an all-in-one automation platform ... Any business process that any business team is doing on a day-to-day basis can be automated using our platform, think of a workflow visualization on steroids.
The backend is powered by different technologies, OCR, API, AI and more.
If you have a process that is part AI, part API or an RPA – or even quite human based -- you can automate.
We're a good fit for midmarket businesses because there is no license cost, there's no subscription. We offer a local platform for organizations to build out their own processes.
We help them build their process and automate that process."
Vendor: Gradient Cyber
Product/service category: Security
"You cannot prevent attackers from getting into your network. You're going to have to detect them and respond to them. That's a difficult job. It takes a lot of data, a lot of analytics, a lot of human analysis, a lot of reporting.
Most midmarket companies just aren't set up with staff ... to run their own security operations center. We do that as a turnkey solution for them. And we are pretty much turnkey, everything you bring in: the data sources that they have, whichever kind of firewall they may have, endpoint detection response, whatever they're running from a security standpoint, and also from network stacks, we bring in that. We hook connectors to pretty much every brand that's out there. And then that comes into our platform, we run our analytics both human and AI-driven."
Vendor: Netgear
Product/service category: Networking hardware
"Over the last couple of years, Netgear has really tried to centralize around the midmarket business. We have switches up to 100 GB down to one. We have access points that are now running in the Wi-Fi segment near 20 GHz. We have Wi Fi 6 [devices].
If it's something that anybody is skeptical about, [we] will always send them a demo."
Vendor: Nomadix
Product/service category: Networking hardware
"Nomadix has been known for our gateways for 25 years, our solution integrates perfectly with other vendors, but we realized that it was important to have our own line of networking equipment, which is why now you see all the access points that we have.
If our solution starts from the gateway, it could be the EG1000, EG3000, or EG6000 and our cloud controller or our on-prem controller to manage all the access points that are in the network
But the most important part is that [these] integrate with our cloud telephony solution because it has PoE and ... everything comes in a box so you don't need to worry about ... spending more budget on accessories because all the accessories come with it.
We also have ... portals ... one of the most important parts of our solution. Also, the customer, the end user is able to monetize the portals.
Most of our solutions are cloud based, so you only need to have the gateway."
Vendor: Safetica
Product/service category: Security/DLP
"Safetica is an endpoint data loss prevention solution. We monitor the file activities on endpoints, laptops, desktops, things of that nature. We're understanding the flow of data in the environment, then we're creating data categories to classify your data, whether it's sensitive or not sensitive ... And on top of that, we build policies to log the actions, pop up some notifications, or to outright lock the transfer of data that you do not want to be transferred.
In terms of why we are a good fit for midmarket: We're a light solution and easy-to-use solution. You do not need a large IT staff to manage our solution. We can have it either hosted in our secure SAS environment, or it can be deployed on your premises. We have both options depending on how you'd like to have access."
Vendor: Techmate
Product/service category: Managed services
"Techmate is an on-demand tech support platform for remote and satellite offices. We are uniquely geared towards the midmarket space. As companies grow and expand oftentimes, they are geographically challenged, or resource challenged to support a lot of these satellite offices across the country. With locations in over 300 cities in the U.S., Canada, UK, and EU, we provide boots-on-the-ground smart hands, for our clients on a membership basis."
Vendor: Auvik
Product/service category: Networking
"[Auvik is] a network monitoring solution. It will automatically find all your devices ... One of the things that's really good for the midmarket is that we're multi-tenant. So if you have multiple locations, you can have a separate [network] map for each location.
We automatically use protocols like SNMP. But you don't need to give us the MIBs, we'll just figure out how to talk to the device[s] .. and then we'll automatically backup the config."
Vendor: Atera
Product/service category: IT management platform
"Atera's action AI IoT platform allows midmarket IT teams and IT teams of all sizes from all different verticals, to really scale up their operations and increase their efficiency, as it's an all-in-one platform: computing remote management ... help desk and including the AI infusion.
[Atera] allows midmarket IT professionals to really improve their productivity and increase the efficiency of the organization."
Vendor: ManageEngine
Product/service category: Networking
"[ManageEngine's] OpManager stands out with its commitment to providing a comprehensive yet cost-effective network monitoring solution tailored to the needs of midmarket organizations. Here's how we differentiate from competitors: transparent pricing, customer-centric development, cutting-edge capabilities that leverage AI-powered network observability, providing proactive network threat detection, deep packet inspection, path analysis, and overall intelligent insights for optimized network performance, with automated maintenance and remediation functionalities.
[We also offer] advanced topology mapping and configuration management database (CMDB) capabilities, providing clear insights into network infrastructure; seamless integrations [that allow customers to] easily integrate with other ManageEngine solutions for holistic IT management or use out-of-the-box and custom integration capabilities to ensure easy integration with existing IT infrastructure and third-party tools via WebHooks and REST API.
OpManager is ideal for midmarket companies due to its tailored features and commitment to addressing their specific needs: [budget], scalability, ease of use, comprehensive monitoring, security focus, reliability and support.
[Our Cloud solution: ManageEngine Site24x7 offers] the ability to perceive end-to-end traffic on an organization's network. While a regular network monitoring platform provides the health and performance metrics of the networks, Site24x7's SNMP-based network observability checks for its efficiency with an ability to auto discover and remediate network anomalies. The cloud solution draws a parallel with network efficiency, their underlying implications to the overall business objectives by pinpointing the issue identification type and orchestrating a shorter RCA all from a single pane of glass."
Vendor: NinjaOne
Product/service category: Networking
"NinjaOne's Network Management Solution (NMS) is well-suited for midmarket IT leaders today with key reasons being:
Scalability. Midmarket organizations often experience growth and expansion, and NinjaOne's cloud-based architecture allows for seamless scalability.
Efficiency and automation. With NinjaOne's automated workflows and remediation capabilities, midmarket IT leaders can streamline routine tasks and improve operational efficiency.
Immediate insights. Midmarket IT leaders benefit from NinjaOne's real-time visibility into network performance, device health, and security posture. This level of insight allows for quick decision-making, rapid issue resolution, and enhanced overall network reliability.
User-friendly interface. The platform's intuitive and user-friendly interface makes it accessible to IT teams with varying levels of expertise. Midmarket organizations may not always have dedicated network specialists, so having a tool that is easy to navigate and use efficiently is advantageous."
NinjaOne's NMS tool offers several key features that differentiate it from competitors including: integrated endpoint management, real-time visibility, automated remediation and cloud-based architecture.
These features collectively set NinjaOne apart from competitors by offering a holistic, real-time, and automated approach to network and endpoint management, enhancing operational efficiency and security for organizations of all sizes."
Vendor: Cisco
Product/service category: Networking
"Cisco ThousandEyes is a digital experience assurance solution. The ThousandEyes platform delivers visibility into Internet, cloud, and SaaS environments, as well as enterprise networks, applications, and end user environments, beyond what's possible through traditional monitoring approaches. Based on billions of daily measurements, leveraging the industry's largest and most diverse network of global vantage points, ThousandEyes' data set is unmatched, enabling users to see cloud and Internet networks like they own them.
ThousandEyes Internet Insight combines a massive data set with algorithmic outage detection to provide near real-time insights into the SaaS applications and networks that businesses rely on. The collectively powered global view of Internet health empowers businesses to identify, quickly troubleshoot, and mitigate outages to manage the impact of global network conditions on their services and understand the ability of their workforce to perform."
