'The tenant is the new server’ - Christian Nagele on Inforcer’s push to scale with MSPs

Fresh off a $35m Series B and a Microsoft Intune partnership, Inforcer wants MSPs with the tools to turn Microsoft’s enterprise-grade AI and security into a scalable service

When Christian Nagele first sat down with Inforcer’s founding team in BrewDog Waterloo, the start-up’s unofficial “office”, he recognised a familiar story.

“I was one of the founders of what became Datto RMM,” the former non-exec and current chief strategy officer tells CRN.

“RMM existed to give MSPs visibility and control over servers, desktops and laptops. With Microsoft today, the same need has shifted to tenants — a ‘tenant is the new server.’”

That idea now underpins one of the fastest-rising software names in the MSP stack. Since its 2021 founding, Inforcer has become a go-to multi-tenant management tool for partners standardising customers on Microsoft 365. Its value proposition is straightforward but, according to Nagele, timely: help MSPs bring Microsoft’s enterprise-grade security and AI capabilities to the SMB space.

Bridging the gap between MSPs and Microsoft

Inforcer’s platform allows partners to roll out, back up, restore and manage Microsoft 365 policies, users and alerts across multiple tenants. It’s a simple proposition, but near-impossible for MSPs with small teams and constricting budgets to manage.

“What I underestimated, having been out of the space for a couple of years, was just how much overhead it takes for MSPs to get visibility and management of Microsoft tenants,” Nagele says.

“The scale and complexity of Microsoft’s stack is off the charts.”

The company’s motto, ‘the tenant is the new server’, reflects a structural shift in managed services.

Traditional revenue streams around monitoring and server maintenance are giving way to cloud-first administration.

Inforcer’s play is to be in the right place at the right time and ride the cloud-first wave

Built and funded by veterans of the industry, Inforcer now counts over 800 MSP customers globally and a 100-strong team spread across the UK, US, Netherlands, Denmark and Australia, not to mention two PE-backed funding rounds in less than a year.

‘An inch wide and a mile deep’

The multi-tenant management space has grown crowded, with names such as Simeon Cloud, Nerdio and open-source projects like CIPP all vying for MSP attention.

Nagele argues that Inforcer’s edge lies in its depth and focus.

“We didn’t create the tenant-management genre, but we picked our starting point well: go an inch wide and a mile deep on security,” he says. “That’s the inch MSPs needed first.”

“Our differentiator is an intimate understanding of how MSPs operate and how to build true multi-tenant software around their use cases. That’s been our north star since the RMM days.”

It’s an approach that has resonated with Microsoft itself. In September 2025, the tech giant formally launched its Intune for MSPs programme, naming only two software partners: Inforcer and Nerdio.

Inside the Intune for MSPs partnership

For Microsoft, the move is about driving adoption of Intune and other high-value tools in the SMB market.

For Inforcer, it’s validation and direct access to Microsoft’s engineering teams.

“Microsoft’s Intune for MSPs is essentially about driving SMB adoption of high-value Microsoft products by solving multi-tenancy,” Nagele explains.

“The big win for partners is better code and better product because we’re working directly with Microsoft engineering.”

Under the collaboration, Intune combines with Inforcer’s automation and policy-management capabilities to give MSPs a unified dashboard across customers.

Success, Nagele adds, will be measured by one metric: “If an MSP runs Inforcer, does their customer’s Microsoft consumption grow faster than those who don’t?

“Business Premium, security add-ons and, of course, Copilot are the key markers.”

Fuel for the next phase

The integration comes hot on the heels of Inforcer’s $35m Series B, announced in July 2025 and led by Dawn Capital with continued backing from Meritech Capital.

The raise followed a $19m Meritech-led Series A just months earlier, a reflection, Nagele says, of both execution and market urgency.

“We raised because the opportunity is bigger and more condensed than RMM ever was,” he says.

“Every MSP is responsible for 365 tenants, security is foundational, and customers are literally asking, ‘Help me embrace AI.’ That doesn’t scale as pure consultancy.”

The fresh capital will accelerate product innovation, with AI-driven capabilities at the forefront.

Inforcer has already added AI-based policy analysis and impact assessments, giving MSPs contextual summaries and real-world examples of Microsoft policies.

The vendor is now developing full AI Readiness Assessments to help partners prepare environments for Copilot and other generative-AI tools.

Evgenia Plotnikova, general partner at Dawn Capital and new Inforcer board member, called the company “a generational business in the making,” adding:

“Inforcer has the potential to help MSPs capitalise on a tectonic technology platform shift by becoming true strategic AI partners to their end customers.”

People first, post-sales second to none

Unlike many software start-ups in 2025, Inforcer is using its funding to hire, not replace, people.

Nagele, who describes himself as “the Grinch on the board” thanks to his bootstrapped roots, says the investment priorities are deliberate.

“I’ve never felt we’re allocating capital inefficiently,” he says.

“We’re hiring carefully across dev, go-to-market and, crucially, post-sales to help MSPs go on the Microsoft journey.”

He attributes that stance to lessons learned during the Datto years.

“Be ruthless on ideal customer profile; don’t bring on poor-fit customers; and over-invest in post-sales.

“Rapid growth hurts if you can’t support it. Build capacity before you need it, choose the right investors, and deliver a world-class customer experience.”

That customer-first mindset runs through Inforcer’s global community work, including its Winning with Microsoft events held this year at Microsoft HQs in London, Sydney and Amsterdam.

A maturing ecosystem

To Nagele, Microsoft’s willingness to partner with companies like Inforcer signals a deeper shift in the channel relationship.

“This is Microsoft admitting there’s a better way,” he says.

“Multi-tenancy is a challenge that can be solved by working collectively. MSPs now have a formal programme that gives them a stronger voice back to Microsoft, not just technically, but commercially too.”

Inforcer’s message for partners is clear: the Microsoft tenant is where the next decade of managed services will be won or lost.

As Nagele puts it, “In the modern, cloud-first landscape, where all business data sits within Microsoft’s cloud or other SaaS apps, the Microsoft tenant is the new server for MSPs.”