From Navy Technician to Networking Titan: Cambium Data’s MSP Success Story
Overview
Cambium Data’s IT journey is a compelling tale of passion and perseverance. Founder and owner Tony Underwood carved an almost-accidental path for himself from junior Navy technician to owner of one of the most successful MSPs in the U.S. Midwest. After graduating high school back in the early 90s, Tony enlisted in the Navy where he first encountered personal computers, igniting his life-long love for tech. Network infrastructure was a relatively new concept at the time, so he raised his hand to help build a network on his ship despite not having any formal training. Little did he know this on-the-job experience would shape a very successful career ahead for him.
Upon leaving the Navy in 1997, Tony struggled to secure a civilian role due to a lack of formal qualifications, so he started at the ground level with a desktop support role while pursuing a Cisco certification on the side. This gave Tony the formal qualifications he needed to let his passion shine and he quickly rose to prominence as a top networking engineer in the U.S. Midwest.
About
Cambium was founded in 2009 as an official Cisco partner, tapping into the high demand and scarce supply of networking and VOIP expertise. This new venture quickly proved to be a huge win-win, earning Cambium the title of Cisco’s 2010 Small Business Partner of the Year, just a year after its inception.
The company’s success in networking laid the groundwork for expansion into managed services, encompassing PCs, servers and database administration. By 2011, Cambium had seamlessly transitioned into the MSP space without any specific marketing or sales efforts.
“The integrations within the IT Complete platform are an absolute breath of fresh air. Kaseya has provided us with the golden ticket of a true go-to-market strategy, which has allowed us to finally fuel our growth potential." Tony UnderwoodPresident Cambium Data
Challenges
As Cambium grew, the company’s potential was stifled by a lack of a structured sales process due to the team’s expertise being all technical and no sales. Underwood hired numerous salespeople in hopes of resolving this challenge, but without a well-defined sales framework in place, the company couldn’t get the lift-off they needed for achieving their full potential.
As the team continued to chug along without a winning sales framework, it became clear to Underwood that optimizing the company’s IT tool set with a modern, integrated stack was the only way they could get out of the mud to focus. At the time, their core MSP Operations were driven by ConnectWise tools that he felt were seriously lacking in innovation and support, so he sought out alternatives for achieving greater efficiency, functionality and, most importantly, scalability for increasing profit.
“Kaseya truly cares about us and our success, and this is evident in every aspect of our MSP business. There is simply no comparison to what other vendors can offer. I have literally switched from a member of the Kaseya-hater club to the leader of the Kaseya fan club” Tony UnderwoodPresident Cambium Data
Solutions
Underwood was initially skeptical about Datto and Kaseya. While he knew he needed an integrated stack, he was hesitant to go all in with any one vendor, that is until a very determined and supportive account manager named Alex Kleppe changed his mind. Alex not only listened to Underwood’s concerns with patience but also provided honest and supportive guidance, facilitating connections with Kaseya executives who attentively addressed Cambium’s needs. This engagement marked a significant turning point for Cambium, leading to the creation of the most efficient IT and security management toolset they’d ever experienced with Kaseya’s IT Complete platform. The cherry on top for Underwood was leveraging Kaseya’s sales and marketing resources through its Powered Services pro solution to finally develop the winning sales framework Cambium had been seeking for years.
Results
Adopting IT Complete was transformational for Cambium. The company has achieved both substantial efficiencies and cost savings, most notably a 60% reduction in email security expenses by switching from Proofpoint to Graphus and a monthly savings of $700 – $800 in Managed SOC by replacing SentinelOne with RocketCyber.
It was a game-changer for Underwood, stating “I couldn’t be happier with the toolset we’ve built with Datto and Kaseya for rock-solid IT operations and security management.” Cambium now has over a dozen Kaseya and Datto solutions integrated across the company’s IT stack, including Datto RMM, Autotask, IT Glue and ConnectBooster on the operations side and Dark Web ID, BullPhish ID, Datto EDR, RocketCyber, Graphus, VulScan, vPenTest, Datto BCDR and Datto SaaS Protection on the security side. In addition to fueling rapid growth and significant cost savings for Cambium, Underwood noted, “Servicing our clients with IT Complete has been equally transformative for them as our IT ecosystem delivers lightning fast, accurate and top value-for-their-money service.”
Cambium’s investment in the Datto + Kaseya security suite also allowed the company to extend Cyber Liability Insurance to their clients through Kaseya’s Cyber Insurance Fast Track offering. This innovative program not only eliminates the need for cumbersome paperwork, but guarantees pre-approval of comprehensive Cyber Liability insurance at a fraction of the market rate, making it a win-win for both Cambium and their clients.
So what’s next for Cambium? While Cisco has been and will continue to be a major part of Cambium’s technology stack, Underwood feels the Datto Networking solution is a perfect fit for some of their smaller clients, where integrations and affordability trump the need for enterprise-grade bells and whistles. Underwood sums it up beautifully by stating “We plan to combine our history with our future, by adding Datto Networking to our IT Complete service offering to enable our smaller, high potential clients to grow further, faster.”
