Why Alpha NetSolutions Always Has An On-Deck Vendor Ready To Roll

Timothy Shea, CEO of Alpha NetSolutions, one of the top MSPs in the country, has some best-of-breed advice in light of all the market-shaking deals reshaping the partner landscape: always have an on-deck vendor alternative to avoid the disruption that can come with acquisitions or changes in strategy and management.

"We have an on-deck vendor for everything we do," said Shea commenting on the spate of technology deals rippling through the market. "We always know who we are  going to replace key vendors with if something goes south. You never know what is going happen in this business. That is the nature of the business. It is constant change."

The $1.7 million Milbury, Mass. based Alpha NetSolutions, for example, moved off Zenith InfoTech as a backup provider well before the company closed up shop earlier this year, said Shea. "I was working on other vendors for backup before that happened," he said.

Shea said he likes having a strong mix of large established vendors and startups. "There are some areas where I really need stability and that is why I do Lenovo for PCs," he said. "But I have other areas where innovation is more important."

One bet on an upstart that paid off for Alpha NetSolutions: Cyberroam Technologies, which was acquired by Sophos earlier this year. The Cyberroam unified threat management product was a better deal than the offerings from larger rivals. "It is so much better than anything that is out there," said Shea, who switched from Cisco to Cyberroam. "We are talking about cost, how quickly to train a tech to know it, how quickly can I get it deployed. It is all so much easier."

In the case of the Cyberroam acquisition, Shea said Sophos has turned out to be a good steward of the breakthrough Cyberroam technology. Sophos recently announced that it was keeping the Cyberroam brand and has provided continual updates for the technology, said Shea.

Alpha NetSolutions generally makes vendor commitments for three years and then reevaluates the partnership. "We go through a lifecycle with technology and if we are happy with the way that lifecycle ran we will probably stay with them," he said. "On the other hand, you never know what is going to happen. Anyone looking more than three years down the road on technology is dreaming."