Kaseya

Kaseya Limited
Company typePrivate
IndustryInformation technology
Founded2001; 24 years ago (2001)
FounderMark Sutherland
Paul Wong
HeadquartersMiami, Florida
Key people
  • Fred Voccola (CEO)
  • CJ Wimley (CCO/president)
  • Kathy Wagner (CFO)
ProductsNetwork monitoring
System monitoring
RevenueIncrease US$1.3 billion (2022)
OwnerInsight Partners (majority owner)
Websitewww.kaseya.com

Kaseya Limited (/kəˈseɪ.ə/ kə-SAY-ə) is a company headquartered in Miami that develops software for network monitoring, system monitoring, and other information technology applications. It is majority-owned by Insight Partners and owns the naming rights to the Kaseya Center. The name of the company comes from a word meaning "protect and defend" in the Sioux language.[1] The company was estimated to be valued at $12 billion in April 2023.[2]

History

Kaseya was founded in 2000 in California by Mark Sutherland and Paul Wong, who previously worked together on a project for the National Security Agency.[3]

In 2003, Gerald Blackie joined the company as its CEO.[4]

In June 2013, Insight Partners acquired control of the company and Yogesh Gupta became CEO.[5]

In July 2015, Fred Voccola was named CEO of the company.[6]

In 2018, the company moved its headquarters from Boston to Brickell, Miami.[7]

In April 2023, the company acquired the naming rights to the Kaseya Center in a 17-year, $117.4 million agreement.[8]

In 2024, the company laid off 150 employees, about 8% of its Miami workforce. The company stated that it was part of its normal performance-based reviews and that the jobs would not disappear.[9]

Security Issues

In 2015, Kaseya fixed a directory traversal vulnerability in their remote access tool.[10] The same bug was present in the company's support website for a further six years.[11]

In 2018, the company's remote tool was infiltrated and hackers were able to commandeer affected computers to mine cryptocurrency.[3]

In July 2021, the Kaseya VSA ransomware attack, perpetrated by REvil, led to downtime for 60 customers and over 1,500 downstream businesses.[3][12][13]

Acquisitions

# Year Company Notes Ref(s).
1 May 2011 Intellipool AB Network performance monitoring [14]
2 July 2013 Zyrion Cloud backup & disaster recovery [15]
3 July 2013 Rover Apps Work-related security for personal devices [16]
4 October 2013 365 Command Microsoft 365 administration [17]
5 June 2018 Unitrends Data protection technology [18]
6 October 2018 Spanning Cloud Apps Cloud backup & disaster recovery [19]
7 May 2019 ID Agent Threat intelligence and identity monitoring [20]
8 August 2020 Graphus Phishing defense [21]
9 February 2021 RocketCyber Security operations center [22]
10 June 2022 Datto Backup and disaster recovery; $6.2 billion price [23]
11 October 2022 ConnectBooster Account receivables automation [24]
12 April 2023 Vonahi Security Automated network penetration testing [25]
13 October 2024 SaaS Alerts Cloud security platform [26]

Client Issues & Complaints

Clients using Kaseya's software platforms have reported multiple issues, ranging from inconsistent or a complete lack of communication between Kaseya sales reps and their clients, aggressive sales tactics on the part of sales reps, inconsistent support for their products, as well as integration issues between various software suites that Kaseya had acquired. Clients also reported Kaseya implementing price increases without notifying them, especially for newly acquired software, which were frequently several times what clients were paying prior to Kaseya's acquisition of that software. Clients were also surprised to discover that Kaseya would update existing month-to-month or one-year contracts that clients already had with those newly-acquired companies to multi-year contracts under Kaseya without notifying them. Kaseya sales representatives also neglected to inform clients during sales calls that all contracts would automatically renew unless clients notified Kaseya in writing at least 90 days prior to the end of their existing contracts. Clients also complained that Kaseya would refuse to allow clients to opt out of existing contracts early unless they paid for the remainder of their contract in full, which would often run into the tens of thousands of dollars for smaller clients, and much more for larger clients. Clients also reported that sales reps would fail to return repeated calls and/or emails from clients that were asking to opt out early, or suddenly ended calls with clients once the client requested to get out of their contracts early. Kaseya also sent clients to collections for nonpayment of contracts for software that the clients no longer used and had since moved on to other, much less expensive options with other companies. [27] [28] [29]

References

  1. ^ Walker, Heather (April 10, 2023). "What Does Kaseya Mean? Heat Arena Officially Has a New Name". WTVJ.
  2. ^ "After FTX meltdown, county has $117 million solution in Kaseya Center as Heat's home". Miami Herald. April 4, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c O’BRIEN, MATT (July 13, 2021). "Firm hacked to spread ransomware had previous security flaws". Associated Press.
  4. ^ BURKE, STEVEN (May 21, 2013). "50 Cool Tools For Solution Providers". CRN.
  5. ^ Tontsi, Phumeza (June 27, 2013). "Insight Venture Partners makes investment in Kaseya". ITWeb.
  6. ^ "Kaseya Names New CEO, Fred Voccola to Drive Company's Rapid Growth Phase" (Press release). Marketwired. July 7, 2015.
  7. ^ Correa, Monica (February 28, 2023). "Brickell-based Kaseya gets incentive to add 3,400 IT jobs". Miami Today.
  8. ^ "Heat arena, formerly FTX, renamed Kaseya Center on 17-year deal". ESPN. April 4, 2023.
  9. ^ https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article287422165.html
  10. ^ "CERT/CC Vulnerability Note VU#919604". www.kb.cert.org. Retrieved 2024-10-12.
  11. ^ "Kaseya Left Customer Portal Vulnerable to 2015 Flaw in its Own Software – Krebs on Security". 2021-07-08. Retrieved 2024-10-12.
  12. ^ Wile, Rob; Wilner, Michael (July 6, 2021). "One of Miami's oldest tech firms is at the center of a global ransomware computer hack". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on October 6, 2021.
  13. ^ Osborne, Charlie (July 23, 2021). "Updated Kaseya ransomware attack FAQ: What we know now". ZDNet.
  14. ^ "Kaseya to Acquire Intellipool AB" (Press release). Business Wire. May 2, 2011.
  15. ^ Talbot, Chris (2013-07-10). "Kaseya Acquires Zyrion for Monitoring, Management Features". Channel Futures. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  16. ^ "Kaseya Acquires Rover Apps" (Press release). GlobeNewswire. July 16, 2013.
  17. ^ "Insight Venture-Backed Kaseya Buys 365 Command". The Wall Street Journal. October 24, 2013.
  18. ^ KOVAR, JOSEPH F. (May 3, 2018). "Kaseya Acquires Unitrends, Integrates Data Protection To IT Management Platform". CRN.
  19. ^ Panettieri, Joe (2018-10-01). "Kaseya Acquires Spanning: Microsoft Office 365 Cloud Backup". ChannelE2E. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  20. ^ Francis, Allison (2019-05-08). "Kaseya's ID Agent Buy Strengthens IT Complete Security Suite". Channel Futures. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  21. ^ NOVINSON, MICHAEL (August 24, 2020). "Kaseya Buys Graphus To Make Phishing Defense Easy For MSPs". CRN.
  22. ^ "Kaseya Supercharges IT Complete Security Suite with the Acquisition of RocketCyber" (Press release). GlobeNewswire. February 23, 2021.
  23. ^ FAIRFIELD, C.J. (June 23, 2022). "It's Official: Kaseya Completes Datto Acquisition". CRN.
  24. ^ "Kaseya Makes Billing Painless for its MSP Customers Through ConnectBooster Integration" (Press release). PRWeb. October 5, 2022.
  25. ^ "Kaseya Acquires Vonahi Security to Revolutionize Cybersecurity with Automated Network Penetration Testing" (Press release). WXIN. April 25, 2023.
  26. ^ Davis, Jessica C. (2024-10-30). "MSSP Market Update: Kaseya Acquires SaaS Alerts, Disrupts Pricing Again". MSSP Alert. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  27. ^ "Kaseya TrustPilot Reviews". Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  28. ^ "Kaseya admits customer complaints expose a serious communication problem". Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  29. ^ "Kaseya, Responding to Partner Complaints, Changes Auto-Renewal Terms". Retrieved 2024-12-14.