Shauli Zacks
Published on: October 2, 2025
SafetyDetectives recently interviewed Kristen Costagliola, Chief Technology Officer at Syncro, to talk about her journey from growing up in a family of tech pioneers to leading innovation at one of the most forward-looking platforms for Managed Service Providers (MSPs). With a background that spans nearly a decade at Datto and a deep passion for the MSP community, Kristen brings both technical expertise and strategic vision to Syncro’s mission. In this interview, she shares insights on the company’s unified XMM approach, the operational challenges MSPs face today, and how automation and AI are shaping the future of IT management.
Can you walk us through your journey into tech and how that led you to your current role as CTO at Syncro?
I was lucky to grow up in a family of tech enthusiasts. My grandma was a COBOL programmer, and my mom and aunts all studied computer science or math. That early exposure sparked a lifelong interest in technology and problem-solving, which ultimately led me to software engineering.
I spent nearly a decade at Datto, where I fell in love with the MSP space. Starting as a senior software engineer, I worked my way up, gaining a deep understanding of its products and how they help MSPs succeed. After ten years, I was ready for a new chapter, but I knew I wanted to stay in the MSP community.
That’s when I reconnected with my former colleague, Emily Glass, who shared the incredible journey happening at Syncro. The company was at a perfect inflection point, with a chance to make significant improvements to its engineering and architecture. It was exactly the kind of meaningful impact I was looking for. Since then, I’ve been grateful to help shape Syncro’s future under Michael George and to share in his passion for the MSP space and vision for what’s ahead.
For readers who may not be familiar, what does Syncro focus on, and what makes its approach to MSP and IT management unique?
Syncro offers XMM (Extended Monitoring & Management), a unified IT management platform for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and internal IT teams. It combines the essential tools for running an IT business into a single solution. Its core functionality includes:
- Integrated RMM and PSA: This enables users to manage endpoints, robust remote access and monitoring capabilities, handle help desk tickets, automate billing, and streamline business operations from a single platform. The tight integration allows for powerful automations, such as automatically creating a billable ticket when a monitor detects an issue.
- Microsoft 365 Management: Syncro provides deep integration with Microsoft 365, allowing users to efficiently manage tenants, users, and licenses directly from the Syncro dashboard. This is a crucial feature for MSPs, as managing Microsoft environments is a core part of their service delivery.
Syncro’s XMM is unique because it is the first single, unified platform that has everything MSPs and IT teams need to run their businesses. Our goal is to help customers run their businesses more efficiently and profitably.
From your perspective, what major operational roadblocks do MSPs face today, and how is Syncro positioning itself to streamline those pain points?
MSPs today face significant operational roadblocks, from a lack of time and profitability challenges to managing an ever-growing tech stack and the relentless pace of security threats. At Syncro, we talk with thousands of IT professionals to make sure that we are solving the real pain points they encounter every day and providing strong solutions.
Many MSPs are stretched thin. Time is their most valuable resource, and it’s constantly being drained by inefficient processes and a complex tech stack. Profitability suffers when technicians spend their days switching between multiple, disconnected “point solutions” for remote monitoring, ticketing, billing, and reporting. This “tool sprawl” creates inefficiencies, increases costs, and raises the risk of human error. Our goal at Syncro is to combine as much as possible into a single-platform approach that saves technicians valuable time by centralizing workflows, which in turn boosts profitability.
The security landscape is more critical and complex than ever. MSPs are on the front lines, battling increasingly sophisticated attackers and the new challenges presented by AI-driven threats. Managing security for a growing client base requires a proactive, efficient approach that many traditional tech stacks can’t support. Syncro is positioning itself to help MSPs manage this complexity by integrating key security functionalities directly into its platform. This includes our Microsoft 365 management, which is a core part of the platform, allowing for streamlined administration and enhanced security of a widely-used environment. By consolidating security management within a single tool, Syncro helps MSPs reduce their security stack, automate security tasks, and respond to threats more effectively, allowing them to scale their security offerings without adding to the operational burden.
Automation and AI are front and center in the latest platform enhancements—how are these tech advances helping MSPs scale more efficiently and securely?
Automation has always been a critical part of how MSPs operate by handling repetitive and time consuming tasks. It is the main reason that RMMs were created: to automate required actions to manage the sprawl of endpoints for MSPs’ clients. AI has made incredible strides and is opening up a world of automation that many thought was years away, if possible at all. AI will provide MSPs with a critical advantage as they learn to leverage these capabilities.
AI can assist in troubleshooting and resolving many client issues while also enabling far deeper and intricate automations. Our goal at Syncro is to leverage AI in secure, productive ways and bring these AI improvements to our customers. We have a long way to go in harnessing all AI can do for IT professionals, so we expect to deliver many more capabilities within the Syncro platform.
How do you prioritize new feature development versus refining existing capabilities, especially given fast-changing customer needs?
This is an incredibly challenging balance for software solutions and that is always my goal, balance. MSPs and IT teams rely on Syncro daily, so refining and strengthening the core platform has to be a top priority. At the same time, we strive to identify what new features will save time, boost profitability, and reduce complexity.
We talk with thousands of customers and take their feedback on what is most important to them to build our roadmap around these different themes. Ensuring we have dual focus in both of these areas lets us innovate quickly without sacrificing the reliability that MSPs and IT teams count on. There is no one size fits all approach to this problem and different stages require different levels of focus in these workstreams but the most critical thing you can do is stay close to your customers to ensure you know what is most important for them and how you can solve those needs.
What emerging trends should MSPs be keeping an eye on, and how is Syncro planning to evolve its roadmap to support those shifts?
There are 3 big shifts we see shaping the MSP landscape.
- AI-driven automation– AI is no longer theoretical, it’s already changing how issues are troubleshooted, resolved and even prevented. MSPs should be looking at how to integrate AI responsibly into their workflows to reclaim time and provide better service. Syncro is embedding AI into the platform in secure, practical ways that go beyond surface-level automation.
- Identity Security– Integrated security has always been a pillar for MSPs but attacks are more sophisticated and client expectations are higher. MSPs need to shift focus from on-prem security to ensuring their SaaS applications and identity perimeters are secure. That’s why we’re integrating security functions like Microsoft 365 management directly into Syncro, so MSPs can streamline administration, reduce tool sprawl, and respond to threats more effectively.
- Continued pressure of profitability and efficiency– MSPs are stretched thin and tool sprawl eats away at both margins and technician productivity. Our roadmap is focused on expanding Syncro’s single-platform approach, so MSPs can centralize workflows, cut down on switching between disconnected point solutions, and scale profitably.
