Earlier this month, IT Nation Connect celebrated its 20th anniversary, bringing together MSPs, industry leaders, and experts for an amazing event packed with inspiration, innovation, and impactful announcements. The milestone gathering not only showcased the latest trends shaping the channel community but also unveiled exciting updates from SkyKick, Axcient & ConnectWise.
Whether you joined the celebrations in person or are looking to catch up, here’s a quick recap of the event’s standout moments and key takeaways.
What is IT Nation Connect?
IT Nation Connect is The IT Nation’s premier annual event that unites IT professionals, managed service providers (MSPs), IT communities, and technology vendors for an immersive experience of inspiration, collaboration, and learning. This year’s event welcomed over 7,000 attendees, both in person and virtually, in Orlando, Florida. Participants explored industry trends through more than 200 breakout sessions, five focused tracks, and a technology pavilion showcasing over 145 solution partners. Highlights included inspiring keynotes from Bob Burg, Josh Constine, and Tony Hawk, all aimed at helping attendees leverage community and innovation to enhance their personal and professional goals.
Key takeaways from the event
Over the course of three days, impactful sessions on cybersecurity, AI, sales, service delivery, leadership, and growth offered key takeaways, including:
Growing SMB Market Opportunity
The SMB market’s vast potential was a key focus, with SMBs now making up 44% of the total IT addressable market and 73% relying on the channel for their technology needs, as shared by Canalys—a statistic that continues to rise.
Delivering an MSP Platform
Partners continue to work through inefficiencies in managing 20–40 loosely integrated technology stacks to meet customers’ ever-evolving needs, with more technology on the horizon. ConnectWise addressed this challenge with major platform updates to ConnectWise Asio, including PSA+RMM integration, designed to enhance efficiency and unlock new opportunities for profit and growth.
Data Protection & Cybersecurity
The Product Innovation Keynote highlighted how Axcient and SkyKick data protection solutions are built for partners. ConnectWise Backup360, integrated within the Asio platform, was showcased for its advanced monitoring capabilities, allowing MSPs to easily view and track the health status of all protected customers. New SkyKick and Axcient integrations into Backup360 further streamlined data protection management under a single pane of glass. Similarly, exciting updates were shared for ConnectWise Security360, with SkyKick Cloud Security integration coming soon to enhance cybersecurity offerings.
SkyKick and Axcient: Shaping the future of data protection
A standout breakout session, The Future of Data Protection, cohosted by SkyKick and Axcient, showcased our shared vision for delivering next-gen data protection. The session highlighted key advancements from the past year and teased upcoming product enhancements designed to help partners deliver complete, powerful and flexible data protection.
One of the key moments featured Chris Amalfi, VP of Operations at ERGOS, a global SkyKick and Axcient partner, sharing real-world stories of critical data protection scenarios. From responding to natural disasters with Axcient to recovering regulatory data from malicious deletion using SkyKick Cloud Backup, ERGOS demonstrated how these data protection offerings not only safeguarded customers’ entire corporate data estate but also helped drive faster resolution times—ensuring their customers’ businesses were back up and running quickly.
Looking ahead to 2025
IT Nation Connect 2024 delivered an unforgettable experience, celebrating two decades of innovation, collaboration, and inspiration within the MSP community. From thought-provoking keynotes and actionable takeaways to exciting updates from SkyKick, Axcient, and ConnectWise, the event empowered attendees with the tools and insights to tackle 2025.
To watch some of the key moments, Partners can register for a virtual pass for IT Nation Connect here.
