Let’s review 4 MSP tools your in-house IT department will love.
Who doesn’t want happier employees? Saving money would also be a win.
Are you a financial type who favors practicality? If you’re interested in fitness, you’d probably rather spend $49.00 per month at the YMCA instead of constructing a $20,000.00 gym at home.
Unless you’re Sara Blakey or Bernie Marcus, buying an assortment of spin bikes, treadmills, free weights, and Cybex machines doesn’t make much sense.
In addition to taking up several hundred square feet, each exercise station requires maintenance and end-of-life replacement.
Here’s another possibility. If you overestimate your willpower to stay motivated, the machines will sit there gathering dust. Let’s face it. Without the guidance of a trainer, it’s challenging to maintain your commitment.
This analogy applies to staffing and building out an IT department. And allowing them to buy a portfolio of IT management tools. Conversely, you could partner with an MSP that already has several hundred IT specialists and a rich stack of applications.
The latter decision strengthens in-house IT. This partnership also allows IT to tap the MSP for assistance with IT strategy, cybersecurity, and compliance.
The following IT management tools are popular. While I mention four brand names to build familiarity, best-in-class MSPs will frequently evaluate and implement replacement alternatives.
MSP Tool #1 – ConnectWise
ConnectWise Professional Services Automation (PSA) is the leading MSP tool for managing client IT environments worldwide.
ConnectWise is the market leader in MSP ticketing, IT administration, and project management. This advanced platform integrates hundreds of complementary technologies enabling MSPs to monitor, manage, support, and secure client IT systems and users through a single pane of glass.
ConnectWise deploys agents to all client endpoints along with related services (and add-ons) that include but are not limited to:
- Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)
- Enterprise Anti-Virus (EAV)
- Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
- Security Information Event Management (SIEM)
- Data Loss Protection (DLP)
- Single Sign-On (SSO)
- Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Since each application in ConnectWise is available to your team, you don’t have to invest several hundred thousand dollars into multiple software platforms. Plus, it’s impossible to run various IT software programs 24/7 without advanced certifications and ongoing training.
Why? The average in-house IT person doesn’t know how to respond to thousands of system alerts from dozens of applications, nor do they have time to monitor a bottomless pit of event logs.
Learn More: ConnectWise for Internal IT
MSP Tool #2 – IT Glue
IT Glue is the ultimate MSP tool for capturing and documenting all client assets, applications, and services. Every detail of your digital estate goes into a secure vault:
- Contacts
- Locations
- Sites
- Facilities
- Configurations
- Vendors
- Local Area Networks
- Wide Area Networks
- Licensing
- Passwords
- Documents
- Active Directories
- Domain Trackers
- M365 Licenses
- SSL Trackers
- Backups,
- Applications
- Remote Access
- File Sharing
- Virtualization
- VM Hosts
- Checklists
Say goodbye to any single point of failure. And hello to a rich repository of indestructible system data that drives insights, recommendations, service excellence, innovation, and business continuity.
Determine what’s working and which areas need immediate attention. Most importantly, confidently respond with data anytime a stakeholder asks, “What have you done for me lately?”
IT Glue has all the source material. And it’s not going anywhere. Unlike disorganized employees who leave with institutional knowledge and no paper trail.
Learn More: IT Glue
MSP Tool #3 – ScalePad
Formerly known as Warranty Master, ScalePad is an automated MSP tool to manage the lifecycle of all client assets: hardware, software, and services.
It fits hand in glove with ConnectWise and IT Glue to improve:
- Quality of service
- Budgetary transparency
- Cost-control
- Compliance readiness
- Accountability
- The advancement of standards
Standards play a pivotal role in an organization’s ability to scale. When all of your technology is modular and interchangeable – reliability, efficiency, and effectiveness are amplified to support your business strategy.
Can your IT staff conduct meaningful assessments and benchmarking exercises to identify gaps and adopt the best practices to make this happen? They can if they partner with the right MSP.
Learn More: ScalePad
MSP Tool #4 – SentinelOne
SentinelOne has an innovative MSP tool to combat non-stop cyber warfare.
Their Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) monitors and responds to the latest threats in real-time. We’re talking about threats that popped up yesterday.
EDR is a significant improvement on a legacy solution known as Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP). While EPP solves the file-based malware threat, EDR takes a sophisticated step forward to address file-less malware, memory-based malware, and lateral movement attacks.
SentinelOne is a Gartner Group stand out with a unique AI-powered solution that prevents, detects, responds to, and hunts attacks (in real-time) across the cloud, IoT devices, containers, and endpoints.
EDR turns your entire network into a scanning device (harnessing machine learning and more) to detect threats at each stage of their lifecycle.
Learn More: SentinelOne Deeper Dive
What’s Next?
The solution provider landscape for IT tools is vast, quickly evolving, and somewhat confusing when figuring out precisely what you need.
Many larger enterprises have twelve different security tools, which leads to vendor clutter. There’s also a good chance several tools are redundant and improperly integrated.
Each business requires a layered solution incorporating many different vendors to maximize IT availability and minimize security risk.
Is your IT stack harmonized to optimize value and reduce tool spread, cost overruns, and system alert fatigue?
Does your in-house team have the right MSP partner? To learn more about ways to improve the effectiveness of internal IT, visit vCISO Consulting from Integris.
