Atera is now providing MSPs with monitoring, management and automation capabilities for Apple Mac devices. Indeed, the cloud-based IT automation platform provider today added an agent that enables MSPs to manage customers' Apple Mac ecosystems.
The Atera Mac agent empowers MSPs with the following capabilities:
- IT automation.
- Patch management.
- Remote access.
- Reporting.
The Mac agent helps MSPs expand their remote monitoring services, according to Atera. It also provides MSPs with a "huge opportunity" to grow their businesses, Atera CEO Gil Pekelman said in a prepared statement.
Perhaps so. But most of the major RMM software companies also offer Mac-centric monitoring capabilities. For instance, SolarWinds MSP bolstered its Mac capabilities in January 2017, and Addigy -- a startup -- has bet its RMM business on MacOS support. What's driving all the Mac activity? Mac customers are willing to pay a premium for quality hardware, software and services, many MSPs believe.
Atera Unveils Automation Features and Upgrades
Mac support is one piece of the larger Atera strategy for MSP support. The company has rapidly expanded its MSP-centric platform over the past year or so.
In February 2017 the company a announced new platform automation features and upgrades to help MSPs boost their performance and efficiency.
The Atera platform enhancements included:
- Auto Healing Scripts: Trigger a script to run when a threshold level is exceeded.
- Detailed Invoice Creation: Empowers MSPs to create invoices based on contract type, ticket and time entry.
- Integrated Wake-on-LAN (WoL) Capabilities: Enable a computer to be turned on or awakened directly from the Atera console.
- User Activity Status Updates: Allow MSPs to see if an account is active, disconnected, idle or locked before they remotely connect to a workstation.
Ultimately, the Atera platform updates provide MSPs with the support they need to "gain a competitive advantage," Pekelman stated.
"The new features and enhancements are bringing us one step closer to our vision of being the only tool MSPs need to manage their customers' needs," Pekelman said in a prepared statement.
Atera: The Bigger Picture
Atera offers an IT automation platform that combines professional services automation (PSA), remote monitoring and management (RMM) and remote access capabilities.
The Atera platform is hosted in Microsoft Azure and offers a variety of features, including:
- Billing and invoicing capabilities.
- Custom scripting.
- Mobile view capabilities.
- Real-time alerts.
- Service desk support.
The Atera platform costs $59 to $149 per MSP technician per month. With this pricing model, MSP technicians can manage as many devices and/or Internet of Things (IoT) sensors as they want without paying each time an additional device or IoT sensor is added to the system, Atera told ChannelE2E.
In addition, Atera offers security solutions to protect its customers from ransomware and cyberattacks through Webroot mail filtering and online backup.
