ConnectWise RMM is built upon the Asio platform and combines out-of-the-box automation coupled with robust automation that IT solution providers can use to deliver customized services to
their customers. ConnectWise RMM aggregates both software and human elements,
covers the spectrum of do-it-yourself (DIY) and do-it-for-you (DFY) delivery
options, and integrates an intelligent automation engine. It’s a solution that
reinvents how IT solution providers adopt, interact with and manage their…
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N-able N-central
Score 7.2 out of 10
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MSPs
and IT professionals use N-able™ N-central® to monitor and manage devices and complex
networks remotely. N-central provides
visibility and efficiency as the user's needs scale. N-central can help users:
1. Proactively monitor everything on a customer network—not just servers
and workstations—and troubleshoot.
2. Stay on top of threats with features like MFA, antivirus, integrated endpoint
detection and response, data backup, disk encryption, email protection,…
N-able N-central was cheaper than ConnectWise RMM as the poor NOC monitoring inflated costs but was not useful. Kaseya VSA was terrible contracts and poor product all around.
ConnectWise RMM is well suited for my small IT business to keep track of my many clients that a company like mine with less than 5 employees to monitor in one interface. It is very easy to implement, monitor and setup alerts. The monitor of patching is one of the main reasons we went with ConnectWise RMM. We use their ScreenConnect software as wells.
In my opinion, N-able N-central is a good "learn your lesson and move onto something better" tool. I've used many RMM tools over the years and I feel that this one is slow, does a terrible job with reporting, alerting, monitoring, software deployments, etc. The ability to turn on services like AV, backup, etc easily is cute, but you're not going to be able to use your own tools with this easily. In my experience, if you do turn those tools on for testing during the trial, you'll be charged later (despite it being a trial). They also turn off your ability to monitor these increased costs or to turn them off yourself. As a company, I found that they were impossible to work with. The sales team is right there if you want to buy something - but if you need anything other than to buy something, in my experience, they take days or weeks to navigate. I found that they are not a terribly ethical company and are more concerned with making a few dollars than creating a partnerships with MSPs. I can see value is in the advertised price of $99 for a hundred endpoints. However, you need to remember to not trial any other tools (like AV, backup, etc).
Remote tasks - entry-level techs can run basic tasks without physically touching a piece of equipment.
Remote support - remote controlling user devices is easy and saves a lot of time with having to initiate a remote session.
Management of devices, particularly patch management and anti-virus management - you can automatically approve and deploy patches and schedule automatic AV scans.
Overall we have liked our solar winds experience, however, as our company has grown to support larger enterprises, this product does not have the functionality that our teams need in order to fully support them. The lack of granularity with backups and lack of ability to support nutanix environments is slowly drawing us into the use of other tools.
The user interface is fairly straight forward, with logic groupings for objects. I did not deploy this software, but am one of the daily administrators. Once you get the correct agent package (Which can be a challenge) the integration into AD is not bad. The UI could be more customized, but that may have been a design choice.
Every time we have reached out to SolarWinds they are quick to respond, even offering support chat 24/7. Their support team is great and works with you to find solutions to issues. They have taken items we had issues with before and used those to create updates so that the issue is handled better in the future.
Automate (LabTech) would be the aforementioned "heavy-duty" kind of RMM tool. It's big, it's complex, and very capable compared to Continuum Command. That said, the impetus is very much on the service provider to configure and maintain nearly 100% of the product, whereas in Continuum Command there is a lot that is maintained by their team for you. Even without paying for the premium NOC services, the cloud-first construction and other specific features (like the Windows patch testing and delaying, etc.) are clear wins over the more traditional RMMs like Automate. Automate certainly wins in the technical prowess department. Its scripting engine and level of customization are unrivaled across basically all of the rest of the tools out there. As such, it will be very interesting to see what happens now that these two products live under the same roof. Hopefully, someday, a powerful hybrid of the tool that ConnectWise can focus all development on that harness the positives of each. Keep your eyes peeled...
Our version of SolarWinds was old and running on old hardware, but it was way easier to setup and do things with. It did not do everything N-able does such as patch management, or at least we didn't have a module to do so if one existed. However it definitely seemed easier to use and possibly more stable.
