Automox vs. BeyondTrust Network Security Scanner, powered by Retina (Legacy)

The reason I would score it a nine is because of the inability to “run as.” Since it only runs as a system, this makes some tasks impossible. It would be beneficial to have an encrypted set of credentials in the UI that we can use to “run as,” and also the ability to run as the current user with elevated permissions would be nice. In terms of patching, Automox does a good job, and being able to use Automox to run PowerShell on a computer without needing to open up ports for WinRM is a great feature.

Incentivized

Retina Network Security Scanner is well suited for any environment and infrastructure that would like to expose security deficiencies across their network as well as visualize vulnerabilities as they pertain to assets in their environment. I cannot think of any scenario that would not be appropriate for this product. Since the product carries over to pretty much all assets in your environment, I don't know off the top of y head what it wouldn't be appropriate for.

Incentivized

• Shows applications installed on a specific asset
• Able to push policies and updates remotely , creating policies is easy.
• Keep track of compliant devices and when is the last time they have connected to the servers
• All the great information provided within one single device

Incentivized

• Besides the fact that Retina NSS performs the fundamental task of scanning all my network devices, one of the main strengths is the speed at which it scans. Time is money and I know people tent to wear that cliché out a bit, but when you are as small as we are of a team, every minute counts.
• We have utilized other network security scanners over the past 21 years and Retina NSS seems to have the smallest footprint with no evidence of scanning degrading performance of the devices scanned.
• They seem to update their database frequently enough that we notice a correlation of threats to discovery.
• There is a small learning curve, but overall, a seasoned IT professional can quickly get up and running in a few hours and get usable results quickly. This falls back on the speed at which Retina NSS scans. My previous network security scanners would sometimes take hours to complete a full vulnerability scan of between 250 - 400 devices, now it only takes a fraction of that time.

Incentivized

• I would like to see more detailed error messages when a patch fails. Perhaps at which step it failed at, downloading, installing, etc.
• It would be helpful if we could see what stage of installing or downloading a patch is at through a percentage or status bar instead of a vague "Installing..." message
• It would also be helpful to have a way to kill or end scripts that are stuck instead of waiting 24 hours for them to automatically end. Something like an "End all actions" button for endpoints on our side would be extremely helpful when testing a script that had a bad line or action in it.

Incentivized

• I do not have any obvious cons to report at this time.

Incentivized

It's been a great tool for me. It has helped me become more efficient in my job and securing our network and machine footprint.

Incentivized

Automox has excellent dashboards that help to identify key performance indicators of where your patching program stands, what to prioritize, and what issues you have. Where Automox struggles is easily identifying what issues are preventing successful patching, seeing what manual patches are successfully installing/not installing, and easily remediating issues with installation issues.

Incentivized

In my experience, they were responsive but the fixes were more like bandaids than a fix for the underlying problems which they admitted were on their end.

Incentivized

i was able to implement automox with the help from their support to push it out via our MDM of maas360

Incentivized

Automox is able to scale better than PDQ Deploy. We were happier with the 3rd party software patching since we have a lot of different software we use across departments. PDQ deploy required a lot more manual intervention to stay on top of deployments. Automox just ended up being a timesaver for us in the end.

Incentivized

Retina Network Security Scanner is the only product we have used in our enterprise. I have used a product in the past called GFI LanGuard Network Security Scanner and while it did perform the functions of vulnerability testing, etc...it just wasn't nearly as refined as Retina NSS. It was slow and was not as lightweight as Retina as far as end-user detection.

Incentivized

• We used to use a different patching solution and since switching to Automox, I have been able to cut the amount of time I spend on vulnerability management by 50% or more. I love how "set it and forget it" some of the policies can be. I love how simple it is to keep an eye on things.

Incentivized

• The product is extremely easy to deploy, extremely positive.
• If you take full advantage of this product as I did, you will maximize your ROI quickly as we did.
• We were able to visualize our vulnerabilities efficiently and effectively and maintain scheduled scans that allowed us to maintain a continuous improvement atmosphere while securing our investments.
• The ability provide reporting allows our IT department to prioritize issues and remediate as required without chasing down low risk issues over high risk issues that need immediate attention.

Incentivized