Chief Heavy Duty Dual Stud Wall Mount Accessory - Silver
$260.00
$208.00
Mfg # WMA2S
CDW # 2293394
Quick tech specs
- Wall mount accessory
- Dual stud
- 150 lbs. weight capacity
- Micro-adjustable
- Wall mount
- Heavy duty accessory
- For projectors and flat panel displays
- Silver
Know your gear
The WMA2S is a heavy-duty wall mount accessory for mounting projectors or flat panels in dual stud or concrete applications. Great for when ceiling mounting is not an option.
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Chief WMA2S Wall Mount Arm Accessory with Lateral Shift - wall mount is rated
4.80 out of
5 by
13.
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1264113 from
Combines endpoint management with a user-friendly interface
What is our primary use case?
We use Atera as endpoint management for multiple companies that I service. Basically, they don't have a domain, each one is an individual. It allows me to manage them as if it was on an active directory, but it's not. I can push out commands through the agent that's on each endpoint.
What is most valuable?
The PowerShell command capabilities are excellent. I can send them out without having to remote in. That feature saves us time.
It also features an easy-to-use interface.
What needs improvement?
Since I'm moving more towards the security side, having more freedom to perform identity access management would be great — It's one of the things that are necessary for a lot of companies they secured. So, I'm having to use another party to do so.
In the next release, I would like to see the ability to send out a vulnerability scan packet to the network, to discover vulnerabilities, and send back a report. That would be nice.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Atera for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very versatile and stable. I hadn't had any glitches or anything.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
You can add it to other things through API application interfacing as well as to other kinds of individuals. let's say you use Kaspersky; you can API it into the dashboard and it will keep up tabs with it — the same thing with your backup solutions —; it's very versatile on that part.
How are customer service and technical support?
I would give their technical support a rating of 9.5. I had to use them only one time and they were pretty much right on it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We switched to Atera mostly for pricing reasons. Atera happened to have the best pricing model.
Right now, they've got three different types of ranges. I'm in the mid-range, about $130 dollars per month. There is also an unlimited endpoint model. I have used a few others beforehand. One of them was Pulseway. Pulseway is very good but it's pricey, especially now since they've merged with Kaseya. I used Kaseya before and it was kind of pricey — roughly two to five dollars per endpoint, according to what it is that you want it to do. Atera doesn't do that. If I wanted to add Webroot to Atera, which they have done, it's only roughly one dollar per month for each endpoint that I use.
Other solutions aren't like that; often, you have to sign up for a 12-month agreement, etc.
What other advice do I have?
All corporations that have an IT department should look into and utilize this solution. It has a very user-friendly interface. It's easy to adapt and control locally or globally, according to how you want to use it. I would say it's the number one tool for all ITMS.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give Atera a rating of nine.
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2020-10-28T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Danny Merkenhof from
Automatically solves issues, saves me a day per month, and scales to unlimited endpoints
What is our primary use case?
I use Atera for managing and supporting our customers' computer environments. The use case is for remote support, monitoring, and management of their IT systems.
I am the only technician working with Atera and I manage 150 endpoints, with plans to increase this number going forward.
How has it helped my organization?
In terms of the solution reducing or eliminating frustrations we experienced before we started using it, that’s not the case in my current company because we did not have a previous solution. We started directly with Atera. But if I compare how Atera helped in the companies I worked for before, Atera was able to do a lot of easy tasks automatically. A lot of frustration associated with easy requests is taken away by Atera.
We really benefit from the automation tasks. If something happens on an endpoint, the RMM platform generates an alert and you can put a script into action automatically. A lot of issues are resolved automatically through scripting and patch automation.
I definitely save time by using Atera. By taking away all the small issues and automatically remedying them I save a few hours to a full day every month.
What is most valuable?
There is nothing complicated about it. The interface is very clear, simplistic, and modern. It's intuitive.
I really like the
* Shared Script Library
* automation tasks
* remote software installation
* Chocolatey and Homebrew integrated APIs
* new Shared SNMP Template Library
If you have a good SNMP template then you can share it with the community.
What needs improvement?
The billing module has a standard layout which is too limited for my needs. I look forward to being able to customize the billing layout. They're working on that already.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Atera for around a year now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable. Once in a while I read some comments in the Facebook community about minor stability issues, but I haven't experienced any of them.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's very scalable in the number of endpoints. There's no limit to the number of devices you can manage. When it comes to features, they have a few different plans that allow for scaling functionality.
We definitely plan to increase our usage of Atera.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have used their technical support and it's pretty decent. I haven't had any big issues, the technical difficulties were limited in scope. But their tech support is very reachable and understanding and response time is also pretty quick. It can differ from time to time, but I have never had to wait very long. They have chat support as well, and if they are available you will get a response very quickly. Contacting them via email, the response time is also acceptable.
How was the initial setup?
In the beginning, for our own setup, there was a bit of configuration as to how we wanted to set up everything, but setup was very easy and straightforward. With all the customization and changing of settings, the initial setup was done within an hour, and I was still new at it.
And when we create a new customer in Atera, we attach some automation profiles to the customer and everything runs automatically. Monitoring is set up automatically, and software is installed automatically through Chocolatey or Homebrew. Basic configuration of the endpoints is also automatic. The only thing that is semi-manual is installing the agent itself on the customer’s computer. If you're in a Windows domain, you can automatically enroll the agents through group policies. If they're in a workgroup, then they have to do it manually.
The ease of use and user interface definitely help. The automatic deployment is very straightforward and very easy. I didn't hear any complaints from the users without the domain that manual setup was an issue. It's "Next, Next, Finish."
What was our ROI?
Atera saves me money on a monthly basis because my cost is a fixed price per month per technician. It doesn't matter how many computers I manage. Every computer that is added saves me money compared to other RMM solutions.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Atera is competitively priced compared to other RMM solutions. There are some integrations, like antivirus and online backup, that will increase your monthly fee. There's also a Network Discovery add-on which carries an additional fee.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Prior to Atera, I evaluated SolarWinds MSP. They have three different portals for three different functions and with Atera it's all integrated in one portal. Also, the price per endpoint was higher with SolarWinds because each additional endpoint costs the same. With Atera, the more you add, the cheaper the cost of the additional endpoints will be.
What other advice do I have?
Make use of the community. There are a lot of people ready to help with any questions that fellow Atera users may have.
The remote monitoring is good, it's not perfect, but I don't know of any solution which is perfect. And they are really busy with constantly improving it and expanding the functionality. The remote monitoring helps me be aware of issues or malfunctions before they start to be real issues. I can take action before something becomes a real problem. For example, if a hard disk is starting to degrade, I can already replace it before it completely crashes.
Disclaimer: IT Central Station contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2021-04-28T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
JL Carrillo from
Helps to provide more durability and more understanding within a specific report
What is our primary use case?
Our use cases depend on the customer's requests. We need to provide an automation script. We check for feature availability in terms of the two print automation scripts that they offer. If they don't have it then we create customized scripts.
It provides remote automation.
How has it helped my organization?
Atera has helped me to provide more accurate solutions based on a given problem. For example, we base our solutions on event scenarios, like the alerts. We identify that there's a series of problems occurring in a particular area from the information provided by the alerts.
What is most valuable?
The ability to connect a remote via Splashtop is the most valuable feature. Implementing updated automation and the alerts are valuable as well. Those are the different valuable features that help me troubleshoot customers' problems or requests.
What needs improvement?
The chat solutions need improvement because we first need to connect to the customer. This needs to improve so that there is a particular feature in which we can provide support to customers even if they are not connected to a computer.
If I need to chat with a customer I first need to connect to a computer. I haven't tried to create a chat without connecting to a computer.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Atera for almost two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is great. The majority of the users are now are using email. I haven't experienced any downtime.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate scalability as a nine out of 10. I would take away a point for improvements. In the future, it should do more. I would like to improve the ticketing system. I used a different ticketing system before, and I think that there needs to be more detail. But I do think that it can scale with the growth of a company.
The amount of people needed for maintenance will vary depending on the instructions given to the customer but on average it takes around two to four people. One provides backup. Backup is a critical aspect for me. Another provides remote support. The remote support are the ones who provide the ability to troubleshoot a device or the customer's laptop or computer connected to Atera. They handle the tickets. And there needs to be one person who transfers or assists particular tickets.
How are customer service and technical support?
I usually work with technical support every time I experience a problem with the Atera setup. There might be different types of people handling the support side of the Atera, so it's still a mixed rating for me. Their support depends on the issue because support will respond after several minutes. Their support can answer your query in a matter of seconds or minutes, something like that. I can usually get support within the hour.
Pricing is good for me. Atera can support everything that they need. You just have to maximize the ability of the support or the one who handles the queries.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. It takes around two minutes.
The deployment only requires the customer and a representative from the Atera side. For example, if I am the customer, I get the link that I need to install on my computer so that they can have particular access.
In terms of the implementation strategy, we added a particular agent installer into an email setup. I use that before sending an email to a specific customer, and then the customer will just follow the instructions via email. Once they click, it will automatically download the agent installer.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I think there are additional costs. You need to add the backup, they don't have a specific integrated backup unless you use the customer's personal backup.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Atera a nine out of ten.
Atera helps to manage a computer within the organization. Managing different kinds of computers in a specific organization will give you a mess or headaches. Atera can help you to provide more durability and more understanding within a specific report.
When they provide a particular solution, I always double-check the existing knowledge base, if it's accurate for the current scenario.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner.
Date published: 2020-11-05T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Avi Vaserman from
We can do configurations remotely instead of going to the client's office, saving us time and money
What is our primary use case?
We are using Atera as a managing solution. I am an MSP. We provide our clients support services and protection. We are using Atera to get control on a machine, results, information, license keys, serial number information, performance on the machine, and rates of the hard drive, e.g., if it is SSD or HDD. Everything is possible to do. As well, we are running the background scripts without interrupting users. We are running the command line and PowerShell, if we require it. It seems like an easy, light tool to use.
How has it helped my organization?
In the past, people have usually locked the local administrator account. Sometimes, I have students work for me after they have done some IT college for a couple of months or a year, and they're looking for a job. I take them on as a student in the beginning to see how they perform and help them out. Once in a while, we hear of situations where a person tried to join a machine from domain and forgot to enable the local administrator or some local credentials so it can be easy to unlock the account. When people forget, you join the machine's domain, then use third-party software to unlock the password or user. In Atera, if your agent is there and the machine has been joined, you can use the command line or PowerShell to enable/disabled an account or machine. This saves me a lot of time.
Sometimes, you have to do things in front of a person. For example, some key information might need to be sent to them, which I usually send by email. If the person doesn't understand it, then you have to drive to the person and be in front of them. We do that only in extreme situations, if something really doesn't work and we need to do something. With Atera, it's much easier. You just show them what you are doing and what they have to do. If you want to transfer the file from your machine to theirs, then you can transfer in an easy, convenient way. It is pretty quick and simple.
Atera has saved us a lot of time. Our medium client is approximately 10 machines. We need to go and make sure every single agent is installed on a machine is up-to-date as well as that Chrome is up-to-date. On a weekly basis, this sometimes takes between three to five hours per machine. However, with Atera, we cut this down to 30 minutes to an hour. There is an Automated patch system, where you identify if everything is fine in event logs and working great. After that, it runs a couple of reports, gets them, reviews them, going one by one, and then goes from there. It is great.
What is most valuable?
All features are valuable because we use them on a daily basis, like remote control, file transfer, Registry configuration, delete and editing, the command line, PowerShell, the graphic of the memory in the CPU, the Patch Management system, and ticketing system. Even chat is very convenient, e.g., if you would like to connect to somebody, then you can go to the chat option, activate the chat, and start chatting with someone.
I use the IT automation for our clients, but not very often. I'm using it because:
* It is easy and convenient.
* You can add scripts and do patches.
If you are using a third-party SOC application, something like EDR advanced, etc., then you need to implement some scripts on some agents. Whereas, with IT automation, it is very easy because you are just adding scripts automatically to profiles. Then, in a second, it is working.
What needs improvement?
It will be interesting if Atera can integrate all kinds of products. In North America, there are a lot of resellers, like Ingram Micro, Tech Data, Arrow Electronics, etc. It would be amazing if Atera could integrate with these products. If they could integrate with these products for MSPs, it would be much easier. Then, if you are buying something, and need to add something, you don't need to jump from place to place because this is a very quick sales instrument for use on a daily basis.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Atera for approximately three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Every single machine works for me as a consultant. What is important is that it is installed and working.
The stability is pretty amazing. For some reason, the solution has always worked for me without any issues or problems. Maybe during maintenance something doesn't work, but usually 24/7, it is working fine.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is great.
My company is small. There are three users: an FTE engineer, a part-time engineer, and myself (the CEO).
We are monitoring 300 endpoints.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before Atera, I was trying to use TeamViewer, and it was completely frustrating. The main difference is functionality. TeamViewer doesn't have the functionality. TeamViewer is not a complete RMM solution, but a portion of one. It didn't have all the functionality nor was it always stable.
How was the initial setup?
It is a very light product to install and configure. It gives us perfect results for what we want as an MSP and IT production company.
The initial setup is very straightforward. While I like this process, this is an area for improvement. They had tools where you could insert the username and credentials as well as find older agents in the network, then you could just push the agent to everybody. It would be awesome if this tool could come back.
The deployment is usually very quick if someone has Active Directory. However, if I am coming to somebody's place, then doing an investigation/assessment. Sometimes, I am unable to get my hands on Active Directory servers, so I am unable to implement this rule from group policy to all agents. I need to go one by one on each machine. This is why I would really like to use the tool from the past, because then it would be very quick. Usually, if a client has approved me, then we need to make sure the client is working well. For example, if the client says, "Okay, we want you guys onboard. We need the staff to implement the Atera with all scripts and IT automation." Then, that takes about 10 to 15 minutes, not more.
What about the implementation team?
It is usually just me deploying Atera. If we have a new client that needs some help, I have a tech who helps me out as well to deploy it.
What was our ROI?
Instead of driving all the way down to the client, we can make them configurations from the office. It is very easy and convenient.
Atera saves money. A trip to the customer costs between $20 to $30. Then, you need to charge the customer $20 to $30 for the travel. However, if you are doing this work remotely, then you are not driving. This makes the process easier and saves money for you and the customer. For example, if it is just one machine, then the savings comes out to $50 to $60. If we are talking about a huge client, who has hundreds of machines and is changing their infrastructure, that is a lot of money.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The value of the product is perfect, neither cheap nor expensive. I think it is the right rate. It would be awesome if it continued to be the same price because it is a great solution that I like. I like it because I'm not paying per device. I have some customers on monthly contracts and some of them are on break'n fix. If I have a client who is on break'n fix, and they need to pay per agent, then I am losing money. If they were ever to change structures, going to pay-per-device model, then I would need to think about changing to something else.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I tried NinjaRMM, Datto RMM, SolarWinds, and ConnectWise. I found these solutions complex and unstable as well as more costly.
I also found that one time I called support for another solution, and I said like, "I don't understand something. Can you please explain it?" When I told them exactly what I am looking for, she's like, "Hold on. I have to ask my manager because I have no idea how to do that." Then, the manager comes back, saying, "You know what? We don't know this portion. Usually, people do not use it like this. People use it by developing some advanced feature or RMM." Then, I waited for a day or two before they came back to me, saying, "Oh, this is something for the future." They had no idea how to answer my question. There are more complex RMMs than Atera. However, when making their applications more complex, they need a knowledgeable enough team to get you answers.
What other advice do I have?
If you will not try it, you have no idea. If you have two green apples, and people say, "This apple will be sweet and a bit sour." You have to try to understand it. What exactly is sweet? What exactly is sour? It is exactly the same with RMM: You have to try it before you make a decision.
There are tons of different RMMs on the market: NinjaRMM, ConnectWise, Autotask, Datto, etc. All of them are good, but you always need to take a look where someone is using it and who likes it. You have to think, "What will be easy?" and, "How can you serve the client?" So, try, look, and see. There are people using the more expensive RMMs, paying per device, which is so expensive. It's crazy. They have no idea what they're talking about, because they have never used something like Atera. They should take a look at Atera and understand it.
It is a 10 out of 10 because ...
Disclaimer: IT Central Station contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2021-03-16T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1688097 from
Reasonably priced, simple to install, and performs well
What is our primary use case?
We use Atera for endpoint support and updates.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of this solution are automatic batch matching and unattended support access.
What needs improvement?
I also use Apple Zoho, which does not require you to download anything. You can get help from Zoho. Atera, on the other hand, requires you to download an applet.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Atera for approximately six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Atera seems to be stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In my opinion, Atera appears to be a scalable solution.
How are customer service and support?
I have not contacted technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is fine. It's straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is reasonable for what we require.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Atera an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-05-18T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Chris Bashlor from
Pay just one price for unlimited devices and remote features enable easy access to all end points regardless of their location
What is our primary use case?
I'm a managed service provider so I use Atera for all my clients. I manage their machines for all types of alerts relating to all kinds of hardware issues, from memory to hard drive space. Whenever a client needs help remotely, I definitely make use of Atera.
I also use Webroot, which is integrated into Atera, for clients searching for viruses. For a number of my clients, I employ Atera Work from Home. This way, if they are working from home, they can remotely connect back to their office machines and make use of patch management. This covers my clients' needs for computer maintenance, running their patch management, and other day-to-day maintenance that is needed for both Macs and PCs.
How has it helped my organization?
When it comes to ease of use and the user interface I would give Atera a nine out of 10. The platform responsiveness to everything is solid. The updates Atera has put out have been second to none. Moreover, I find that if it wasn't for Atera, I wouldn't be gaining the number of clients I have and growing my business as I do.
Atera provides ease of access to all devices no matter where they're located. It makes no difference if the client is in a work group or if he is on a certain domain. Atera enables me to access our clients' devices with ease and to provide them with feedback across the board. It benefits both me and my clients. When it comes to pushing out anything, such as antivirus features, it's second to none.
As I'm more of a hands-on person, I visit many of my clients. Often, while visiting a client site, another client will call. With Atera, I am able to remotely handle whatever needs to be done to his machine, be it installing a printer or helping with a password.
When a client calls and needs something handled quickly, Atera is a big help. On a daily basis, it saves me time and approximately seven to 10 hours per week. Were I not always going around to all my clients, it would save me even more time.
What is most valuable?
Atera's RMM capabilities are excellent. We have definitely found the remote features of Atera to be valuable. Nowadays, this is key and it ranks among our top three with patch management. We value the alerts that come with the product which allow me to reach out to my clients. Overall, Atera generates additional revenue streams for work done on their machines.
What needs improvement?
Atera could probably add a few more features. Its mobile features could be more robust, though I am aware of the progress being made in this area in light of the additional release.
The mobility of Atera is also a feature which needs to be addressed so that it can be used on iPads, iPhones and things of this nature. I would also like to see an agent included on these devices so that I can monitor, maintain and manage them.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Atera for around three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is outstanding. I've only run into one issue involving a maintenance window I needed and it was just a matter of bad timing. This was late in the evening while trying to do some work. For the most part, there is no downtime. Perhaps this would be the only issue worth mentioning, but again it was during a maintenance window, so it wasn't even attributable to an outage or anything else.
To me, all of the releases and updates are key. It seems that every quarter Atera is putting out new releases and updates to its platform that make it more stable and enables me to do more with the product. Again, I have not seen any stability issues.
If Atera was only releasing updates once a year or once every six months, then it would be failing to demonstrate what it is trying to do. Since Atera is releasing something every quarter, I know that it's making excellent progress and is definitely trying to be a leader among other RMM platforms.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We are currently managing around 170 end points with the product and we have plans to increase its usage on a weekly basis. I feel the scalability works for single device clients and for those who have a thousand machines. As for the scaling from small to large companies, I would have no issue placing Atera in the latter category.
How are customer service and technical support?
I've used Atera's technical support eight to 10 times even for general questions that can be found on their portal. There has never been a situation in which I have chatted with support and not had my issue resolved. They've always been very timely.
How was the initial setup?
Atera worked me through the initial setup and it was straightforward. It was very easy to navigate. It's not like with some other companies that have so many different bells and whistles that you're bouncing from page to page because it's too complex. I can compare it to how Robinhood brought raw investing to retail investors with such an easy to navigate app. I don't have to be a certified engineer to navigate the product. It allows me to feel comfortable about bringing in an intern and letting him use the console within a day or two, because I feel the product to be that user friendly.
Setting up the product took 30 minutes and the deployment varies according to the size of the client. All I need to do is to get the agent on, meaning I can send him an email, then install the product via USB or whatever the case may be. Mostly, we are talking about less than 15 minutes per device. I say this because once the agent gets installed I may ask him to reboot. Overall, the longest length of time transpires when a person remotes in for the first time. It involves installing Splashtop software in the background. Usually, this will take about three to five minutes for the first connection and that's it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing and licensing of Atera is the best part. I looked at a couple of other options, but I feel very fortunate that I came across Atera. If not for the product, it would have taken me a couple more years to be where I'm at today.
One of the biggest issues I face is the need to pay per technician. I've dealt with other platforms that you need to have 250-500 devices. Even though the cost declines as the number of devices a person has increases, they still require you to pay for 250 or 500, respectively. With Atera, the number doesn't matter as you always pay the same amount. I approximate that Atera saves me $100 per week.
Atera charges per technician, with the option to add unlimited devices to be monitored. Being able to do this per technician is Atera's best selling point. With other platforms, a person may only need 300 end points, but have to start at 350. I would get charged an outrageous amount for these devices. Only as you add more does the price go down. This is key to getting started.
In other words, I am paying the same price whether we are talking about one machine or a million.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
When evaluating how Atera stacks up against competitors and other vendors, an advantage is that the console is super easy to use and navigate, with nothing being too complex. More often than not one is dealing with a platform that already has been established, with many bells and whistles that cause you to bounce from page to page as the result of undue complexity. While in comparison, Atera just keeps putting out update after update, making the platform very easy to navigate and use.
As I had researched multiple vendors prior to using Atera, the need to reduce frustrations associated with the use of other products was not an issue for me. In the process of my research, I came across Atera and decided to give it a chance. I haven't looked back. I've had other companies reach out to me. I believe Ninja was one of these and there was also ConnectWise and SolarWinds. With the way Atera keeps doing releases and updates, there's been no need for change whatsoever
What other advice do I have?
My advice is not to waste any time. When it comes to the pricing, the sooner a person can demo Atera's platform, the sooner he'll save money.
I deploy Atera to all my clients whether or not they are covered by a plan. I do so in a USB method. It makes no difference if we are talking about a client who pays a monthly fee or one that chooses not to do a plan. In a sense, even though it appears I do charge for a plan, I really don't, because even if a client doesn't have a plan with me, I will still install Atera in case he needs it and calls me.
Disclaimer: IT Central Station contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2021-06-06T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Dave Long from
Enabled us to get a better picture of what is happening across all our clients
What is our primary use case?
We are a managed IT support company. We use Atera for ticketing, keeping track of work with our clients, and monitoring our clients' computers and devices.
How has it helped my organization?
Atera has reduced or eliminated frustrations that we experienced before we started using it. As one of the heads of the company, one of my biggest frustrations is when a client calls us about a system crashing. It hurts my reputation that I don't know about it before a client does. Atera has drastically reduced that, giving us higher insight into what is going on. It has also simplified the difficult process of managing multiple clients, jumping through a lot of different systems. We have worked very hard with Atera to make it a starting place or central point of access into a lot of different places for us.
What is most valuable?
The features that have had the most impact on our business have been their monitoring and automation tools, which are built into the product. When we first started working with Atera and rolling out their monitoring and automation tools, it enabled us to get a better picture of what is actually happening across all our clients. Before that, unless we were individually looking at computers, we really didn't know what was going on. Now, we can see issues coming up before our clients report them to us. Oftentimes, we resolve them before anybody actually notices. As an MSP, another important piece is how it increases the number of computers and devices each of our technicians can manage and support before we have to look at hiring more technicians. The automation has become another employee for us, managing a lot of stuff that now we don't have to manage individually.
It has a very good automation platform. While there are some things that I still wish it could do, it has been a solid platform overall in terms of automating updates on computers, rolling out software for customers, monitoring critical business services, and automating recovery of those services when they fail.
What needs improvement?
They are working on an update, and I would like to see more stuff outside of just computers and servers. Increasingly, we need to be able to monitor and manage network devices. Atera is improving on that already, which is one place that it is currently lacking.
We are getting more into cloud services now. Therefore, I would like to be able to see and monitor cloud services for customers in stuff, like Microsoft 365.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for about three years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It has been very stable for us. I can probably count on one hand the amount of times in three years that it was down for whatever reason. Most often, those have been related to Microsoft Azure outages that everybody has been dealing with.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We are managing 600 computers in Atera as well as a number of other devices. I haven't noticed an issue with scalability at all. We have close to 8,000 tickets in the system, and I have not noticed any issues with it at this point.
We are a very small MSP with three employees, all technical-focused, who use Atera daily for all our work.
In Atera, we have 45 clients and about 700 devices that we are supporting in Atera.
How are customer service and technical support?
Their technical support is very good. I have only had the rare occasions where I have needed to use it. Usually, it has been the case, if I have needed to use it, that the technicians who I speak to are very familiar with what is going on and how to solve the issue that is going on. So, it has been a good experience.
Atera has been super gracious. They have been willing to work with other community members and me to make Atera a product that is community-driven. I have had a number of calls with the CEO and the product development teams, where they asked, "What does Atera need to do to better support our business?"
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use an RMM solution previously.
We evaluated a number of solutions before deciding on Atera. We did use a different PSA for ticketing, Jira Service Desk, and Atera definitely is a more intuitive platform than that.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very straightforward. They provide a wizard to walk us through setting up the basics of the account. They have made a lot of improvements to the platform since I set up my accounts. For example, when I started, I had to build out my own script library and monitoring library. Now, Atera has added those pieces and I can draw on what the community has built for it. So, it was very simple to set up when I started it, and it has only become easier since then.
The ease of use and user interface most certainly played a part in making our deployment of the solution quicker and helped with adoption. One of the big tasks at the time, which we had to be able to deliver on quickly, was being able to set up time sheets so we could bill out what time we spend with customers. Atera made it incredibly simple to track our time, then bill that back to the customers. That gave us a lot of options for how we set up contracts, track time, etc. Their RMM agents to install were super easy to deploy through GPO, or however we wanted to deploy them.
In total, we spent about six months rolling it out to customers. However, the initial onboarding, where we were using it as our primary platform daily, was probably within a month.
We initially focused on implementing it for managing tickets and tracking work for customers. We then rolled it out to monitor and automate customers, starting with a handful of customers. On the RMM side, we rolled it out with a couple of test customers before rolling it out across the board.
What about the implementation team?
We did all the work ourselves on it, so we were able to do that as well as keep our day-to-day operations running.
What was our ROI?
Our clients are happier. When our clients are happier, they are more willing to invest more in what we are providing.
Atera has saved our organization money. We look at Atera as an extra employee that we only pay about $300 a month. This is incredible savings over having to hire somebody to do all the tasks that Atera performs for us.
We used to spend hours patching and updating client servers. That work always would have to happen after hours, and we don't have to do that work anymore. Atera does that piece for us. That is probably the biggest time savings: The hours that we would spend going through every single server that we manage and having to update them. The automation stuff that we have built on top of Atera has saved us even more hours by being able to see when users are getting locked out of computers and recover that without having to actually go to the server. We are saving tens to twenties of hours.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Atera's pricing stays fixed and predictable, enabling us to add more customers and unlimited monitored devices. We still have a number of clients who fit a break/fix IT model. This is something where clients are complaining more about having to pay extra month-by-month for technology services. With Atera's model, we don't have to be going out and asking for more from clients each month. Right now, with where we are at in terms of scale, this is very important to us.
Understand that there are pieces that have to be built onto it, such as add-on licenses. I used to work in a software startup, so I am okay if they say that they are putting out new features and some of those features are going to have add-on licensing, e.g., where it adds on an extra $50 a month for this feature. I understand that there is a cost to having new features sometimes.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Syncro, ConnectWise, and Autotask.
The ease of use and user interface are what really initially brought us to Atera. We looked at a number of RMM platforms and PSAs. At the end of the day, they were all really complex to use. Whereas, Atera is extremely intuitive for me. It is easy to navigate through tickets and what alerts are coming up. I give Atera very high marks as far as ease of use.
With ConnectWise and Autotask, you have to pay a pretty high setup fee. At the time, Syncro was a pay per technician model versus ConnectWise and Autotask, which are both pay per device. When we looked at all of that, there was no justification. They were going to be far more expensive than Atera or Syncro, and Syncro wasn't as intuitive to use for what we needed.
In terms of available customization, ConnectWise seemed like it had the most. However, it felt like to use them that we would need to have someone dedicated to maintaining our setup, which we were not prepared to do.
What other advice do I have?
It is a very intuitive product to get in and just start pushing buttons. I would advise anybody looking to sign up with Atera to check out some of their past webinars that they have run on various topics and engage in the Atera community. One of the most valuable things from Atera is they are committed to building a community of IT professionals. There have been many times that I have relied on the expertise of that community. So, ...
Disclaimer: IT Central Station contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2021-05-09T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Kimberly Bassett from
Helps us illustrate issues and justify suggestions we make to fix them, giving us transparency vis-a-vis our clients
What is our primary use case?
In the beginning, we were using Atera to go into companies and get them onto a remote management system. Many of the companies that we worked with didn't have any type of remote management.
We also utilize it for invoicing services, when we have to go out to a customer and help fix different things, and that has been very helpful.
How has it helped my organization?
During these past couple of years, Atera has brought out so many extra integrations which have been very helpful in improving antivirus work, such as Bitdefender.
The solution enables us to be very transparent with our customers, which they find very comforting. In our business, we're normally hired by companies that can't quite afford an IT department. We help them with that aspect and with their tech debt analysis, helping to make sure that their equipment is productive for them and that they have less downtime. That increases their productivity and makes them more profitable. That's one reason why we really love Atera.
In addition, if you end up having a lot of tickets about one particular machine, it helps us justify suggestions we make. "Hey, you have this one desktop that for some reason keeps having a fan overheat" or "this machine ends up having ghost files that keep filling up the hard drive no matter how many times you wipe it." We can say to them, "Why don't we go ahead and upgrade the fan?" Or, "Why not change the hard drive?" It helps explain to customers what is going on with the machine. We can tell them, "We've been monitoring it for a few months," and give them something tangible that they can see and understand, whether or not they understand technology.
Using Atera has eliminated quite a bit of frustration, especially in our experience with everyone having to go remote as a response to COVID. A few of our clients had never done that before. It really provided a lot of comfort because they would have support whenever they needed it on various wireless networks. I've had clients that were so happy that they were able to utilize us, their remote IT support company, remotely. If they asked us, "Hey, do you know when this computer might have gone offline?" we could show those trends. We could tell them, "Here's the last user who logged in on this machine."
With COVID, one of our very large clients was able to leave their office and pick up the very next day, without hiccups. There was a lot of anxiety, especially for companies that run a call center or a customer service center. They don't want to have downtime because that reflects badly on their customer service. The fact that we were able to help this large company go fully remote, which is something they had never done, without any downtime, was amazing. We know that was successful because we had Atera.
I've worked with tools before that are locked into domains and if they aren't logged in through a VPN you can't connect. Atera is probably one of the first RMMs that I've used seamlessly on different wireless networks. For example, in my household alone I have two separate wireless networks. If one dropped, I was able to get on the other one and, once it connected, the monitoring would pop back up. That was a very new feature for me, and I've used much larger RMMs. For some of those other solutions, that situation would be a hindrance, and you would have to restart the whole machine. With this one, you end up with less downtime, which I have found to be very helpful.
Using Atera is saving me at least three hours a day, easily, because I'm not having to spend so much time on things like, "How can I access your machine? Can you log in to this one site?" and then having to talk that client through the connection process. Now, it's just, "Hey, do you have time available? Can I remote into your machine so I can show you where this is located or show you how to fix this one setting?" We like to educate our clients a little bit so they don't have to ask the same question a lot. A popular one is clearing the cookies and cache. You can send them a how-to, but sometimes they just need to see you do it. I'll jump on the remote. I love that it announces to the client, "Hey, Kim Basset is connected to your computer." I like that transparency, because I never want our clients to feel like we're spying on them. And then we walk through whatever we're we're trying to fix. And then it lets them know, "Kim Basset has disconnected from your machine." That's been very helpful in saving time. It also keeps us transparent as a company, while showing our clients that they are supported, no matter what day or time it is. It is very easy to connect. Something that might have taken 30 minutes to an hour in the past, might be an under a five-minute fix now.
It has also saved us money because of the way it scales. We had one company that went through M&A and went from about 20 machines to 150, overnight. If we were having to pay per device, even if it was $3 to $4 per device, that would add up to a lot of cost for us. We want to give our clients the best tool, but we also want to make sure that we're not having to charge them so much because they're scaling. You don't want to penalize a company for growing. That was very important for me and was the main reason I really liked Atera when I tried it two years ago. As my business has grown, my cost has stayed the same.
What is most valuable?
Recently, we've been using their Shared Script Library, which has been great for patch updates and other tips to help make transitions smoother.
One of my favorite things that I can use Atera for is giving our customers an end-of-life-cycle tech inventory for their machines that might be getting out of date or might have had a hard drive failure. If they are out of date on a Windows update, we can give them a heads-up: "Hey, FYI, you have four or five machines that aren't responding as far as updates go." Maybe it's because they've been offline. They may say, "Oh yeah, we had some that went down."
It's also great because it's a cross-platform solution. Some companies we go into are very Windows-based and we have others that are very Apple-based. It is a great cross-platform solution for us and our clients.
When they added the Terminal addition on the Mac—because the Mac has a lot of different hurdles when you're trying to add software to many machines—that really made things so much simpler.
Other valuable features include:
* The device lists they have, meaning Atera is pulling data right away, is amazing.
* I love that I can scope it by client. That keeps things very organized and makes it easy to use.
* In terms of the interface, you can white-label things. That is pretty great.
Another aspect is that Atera has visuals, and I'm a very visual person. I love the visual illustrations, even for each device. It shows us that its peak usage is at this time. Is there something that this specific user is doing? Does it justify them getting a more powerful machine? That is a really great example of the ease of use and of being able to take the data that it collects and translate it for our customer.
What needs improvement?
One caveat is that it's network-dependent. If our customer is having a hard time connecting to the internet, that's the only limiting factor. But that's true with any remote management system, for the most part.
I would like to see more mobile device management. iPad is a big one. I know they've been working on some of that. For me, it would be amazing if I could do tablet devices and even expand it to POS systems or the like. I know that a lot goes into that but I've seen it is an area they're looking at.
In the education area, being able to scope a classroom full of iPads, instead of using Apple Configurator, would be great. Back in the day, when I worked in education, Configurator was my initial jump into remote management with the ability to scope iPads for a classroom. I would love to see that type of functionality in Atera. I would even pay a little bit more for it.
Other RMM solutions are more customizable or have more integrations. I would really love to see the tablet management and iOS management in it. I've worked with a very large RMM that is very popular. I'm even certified with them. While it isn't very cost-effective for what we needed as a company, their integrations included that iOS control and scoping. That is the next area that I would love Atera to jump into.
Also, if they had a Chromebook integration, it could help. We don't have that many clients using Chromebooks, but that is a market that would be very helpful to get into. It would help Atera expand out as well.
Another area for improvement would be the ability to have a one-screen monitoring of actual logged-in devices. If we had a client that has a classroom, being able to see all those devices in real time, like Apple Remote Desktop has, would be a cool integration.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Atera for about two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We haven't had any downtime with it due to Atera. We've had downtime either due to our network or a machine not responding. I have no complaints about it.
How are customer service and technical support?
Before I became a champion of Atera, I spoke with them about a couple of things when I was first learning it, and they were super-helpful. If they didn't have an answer, they got back to me very quickly, which was great. You don't necessarily get that with other SaaS companies.
I like their documentation and their Knowledge Base. It has good breadth to it. If you were to have a hard time finding support, their Knowledge Base gives ...
Disclaimer: IT Central Station contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2021-05-09T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Annie Zuniga from
I can troubleshoot problems before my client picks up the phone
What is our primary use case?
I provide managed IT services for a bunch of doctors. I mostly work for healthcare providers. I use it for pretty much everything IT: server management, control management, and desktop management.
How has it helped my organization?
I have better access when I go to look for something regarding either a specific user or software. It is easier to locate. When I am troubleshooting with my clients on the phone, I am not fiddling around looking through a bunch of ticket notes trying to locate something. It makes me a lot more efficient.
I have automated a lot of my tickets and things that pop up. For example, if the Internet goes down, right away it will send us a text or email so we can jump on it really quick. That has been really nice.
The automation of IT processes helps us a lot with preventative maintenance. This way, we are not getting an influx of phone calls when something goes down. That is the biggest plus.
What is most valuable?
* Remote Access
* The ticketing system
The user interface is very easy to get used to. It was pretty seamless to install the agents. We could install it off the server through GPO. It was pretty self-explanatory and easy.
I can monitor everything from alerts to computers running slowly. I can troubleshoot problems before my client has to pick up the phone and tell me, "Hey, my computer is running slow." That is a big benefit. This way, we are not bombarded with stuff. If a printer goes down, I know it before the client does. If the Internet goes down, I get an alert right away. So, it helps me head off a lot of issues.
What needs improvement?
There is definitely room for improvement with its automation capabilities. However, if you know how to write the script or create the workflows yourself, then it is excellent.
The ticket automation kind of all runs together. With the ticket automation, there are not really very many options to customize it. Because of the way that the agents are set up, there isn't a lot of customization. For instance, if you want to customize your list of statuses when you're working on tickets and have third-party people that you have to deal with, you have dispatches. We're not allowed to add any of that. It has a set amount of things and no customization. When you're automating things, you have to work around that to try and figure it out because those options just aren't there.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Atera for a little over three and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have never had any issues with it. It has never gone down. The Remote Access server has never gone down. I personally have never had issues with it.
How are customer service and technical support?
I haven't had to deal with technical support too often. When I have had a question about a feature or something, I have multiple ways of getting ahold of them. If it's something really fast, I email. I can call them and somebody will jump on it. It has never been troublesome or a burden.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used AnyDesk, which only really offers remote access where you can install an agent on a computer. AnyDesk doesn't offer the monitoring side. So, I can't see when a computer needs updates or has high CPU usage.
I also used Pulseway, but the cost shot up when COVID-19 happened because a lot of people were working from home. Pulseway had a lot of very convenient features on it, but the cost was just getting too ridiculous.
The cheapest solution before I found Atera was a good $600 a month. When COVID happened and everybody needed remote access, it jumped up more. It was like $15 per person, so I ate that cost. People needed it, and I had to provide it and that was a lot.
With Atera, I pay $5 for my clients' remote access. If they want to remote into their computers, it is easier to keep track of and I can put that cost back to my clients. It has been very helpful.
I have used a lot of different software. While I wouldn't say it eases anything, it is definitely easier on me with the overhead.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward and easy. Unlike other places, where you have to be onsite and install every agent, they actually offer you a free option to download the MSI. So, you can download that as well as GPO, which has been awesome because you can hit every computer without having to go and touch every single one.
The ease of use and user interface definitely played a part in making our deployment of the solution quicker as well as helping with adoption. We save time by not sending a technician or having to go onsite. All that overhead cost is eliminated. It needs one person to do setup on GPO, then it just runs.
A single deployment would take an hour or two just to make sure you have populated all the agents or devices onsite.
They offer you a variety of ways to install an agent. So, I can send a link to customers who aren't on our domain. They run it, and it runs. It really doesn't take very much time. There is no customization. The agent is installed in less than a minute.
What about the implementation team?
Deployment and maintenance are done by me.
I send a GPO to hit every computer on the network. Most of them are on the domain, so it is very easy.
What was our ROI?
I have most definitely seen ROI. Because I am not paying so much for it, that puts more profit back in my pocket.
You are not paying much for it, and it has the remote agent with it. It comes with monitoring, preventative maintenance, and all that built-in so you're not using multiple types of software. Everything is all-in-one.
Atera has definitely saved us money. Per month, I am probably saving $500 to $800. For example,I was paying for TeamViewer, which is extra for monitoring and maintenance. For just TeamViewer, we were paying close to $2,000 a month. Now, I am paying $150, which is okay.
The costs have been far much better with Atera than having all those easy popping features with Pulseway, where I can just click here and a report pops up. It was a no-brainer because I can make the report myself. It is not that hard.
It saves me time with preventative maintenance. That way, I can head things off and don't have to deal with five people. I can fix the problem right away before they even call. We are saving maybe 20 hours a month because we don't have an intake of all those calls.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We pay per user. I am the only user. It is $150 per user. If I need to add one, it is not as costly as expanding with other providers.
The pricing hasn't changed since I have used it. I can add/remove as many customers, clients, or agents as I want. There is no price change. This is very important because I am not paying for agents. Therefore, I don't have to eat the cost upfront for a customer who has 50 computers.
The pricing and licensing are always improving. Atera is open to suggestions. If you have a feature that you use in another type of software that you don't see in Atera, try it. However, the costs of this product far outweighs features that you might not have available.
Features, like antivirus, cost extra. They also offer backup solutions for an extra cost.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I also looked at TeamViewer, but that would have been too costly for just me as a user. The price was just ridiculously high.
Remote Access is valuable because other providers, like TeamViewer or AnyDesk, charge a lot per agent to be able to remote into it. With TeamViewer, I would end up paying probably $2,000 a month just to use it for the amount of clients and agents that I have.
I find myself doing small tasks, like scripts. I am trying to do that myself, where you don't need to do that with more of the big providers. However, I'm paying $150 a month, so I will do the extra work.
What other advice do I have?
Definitely try it. Give it at least a good one to two weeks. Work with the Help Desk if there is something that you aren't seeing. Chances are it is there and you are just not looking for it in the right place.
The biggest lesson learnt: Just because it is low cost doesn't mean it is low quality. I tried them out before, and I was like, "Oh, no. This isn't going to work for me." Then, I came back and tried them again. They had added so much.
I would rate this solution as 10 out of 10.
Disclaimer: IT Central Station contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2021-06-23T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
James Clowes from
Having fewer hardware replacements saves us in annual costs
What is our primary use case?
They are providing our RMM and PSA tools, as an all-in-one solution tool for MSPs. I am internal IT, but the same concept applies.
I am an internal IT manager for a company which has about 250 staff between Australia and India. I came from an MSP, so I knew the way an MSP can help us run, e.g., how you can use different monitoring tools to cut down on management of endpoints and having to go through all those processes manually when you can just use tools to automate them.
How has it helped my organization?
There is a lack of a need for hiring additional staff because Atera does all the leg work, where you would have traditionally employed something like a Level 1 technician.
As internal IT, I only use remote monitoring management (RMM) because I have no use for contract billing tickets. A lot of our staff, being the primary points of contact, just come to me directly. They all have my mobile number and email address. I did try to have them use the help desk through Atera, but they used to just CC me on the email. I gave up on that idea. So, it is purely remote monitoring management for me, which cuts down a bit on the management of the platform for me, so I don't need to worry about the other side of it. Within the RMM set, I use pretty much everything, either on a daily basis or on an as-needed basis.
There are a lot fewer hardware replacements. Once people migrated from old style hard disks over to SSDs, you have things like hard disks filling up faster. So, I run a script to clear out all the waste, e.g., all the temporary files and downloads. A lot of our business runs through a custom web application that we built. This involves people downloading a lot of PDFs and Excel files, and not just having them sitting in folders. With Atera, I can just go through and clean the temporary files out.
I manage our entire operations. I have one staff member overseas on the ground who is a Level 1 technician in India. However, I know of other companies similar size to ours where they have IT teams in Australia with four to five staff. If you are paying everyone $80,000 dollars a year AUD and subtract four of those, that is a straight away quarter of a million dollars a year in savings from not having those extra bodies.
Patching has hands down saved us time. We do not have to worry about patching computers constantly. Any that miss their patch schedule, I can do with three clicks from the management pane in the portal. The biggest time savings is getting computers patched and keeping them up-to-date. It is one of those things that can fly under the radar in internal IT setups, where you just let Windows look after itself, but it doesn't unfortunately work that way. Going off my previous experience, I would have spent three to four hours a week patching a business of our size. Currently, I spend about 10 minutes a week.
What is most valuable?
* Automated Patchings
* Remote Access
I use TeamViewer on Atera, which integrates with Atera, but it also comes with another remote access tool named Splashtop that is included in your monthly fee. Sometimes, TeamViewer doesn't start up with a PC or something like that. As long as the Atera agent started, I have never found Splashtop to be inaccessible. I wouldn't need more than one hand to count how many times Atera hasn't started with the PC in the last five years. I always have remote access to a PC if I'm out and about, like I am now. I can jump in on my phone. Normally, I carry an iPad with me if I am going out on weekends.
The main features that I use in terms of remote access and management of endpoints are mainly updates, scripting, and cleaning up disks. I will just run a script in the background and let it do its thing.
Scripting is something that I am setting aside more time to familiarize myself with. One example this week, I was asked by management to just see when a staff member is logging in and out of their PC, because these are remote workers and the global pandemic sent a lot of people home. The belief is that 97% to 98% of staff will perform equal to whatever they will do in the office, but there are a few who will sometimes fall a bit short. So, this is a query, "Are they actually there working?" I had a script loaded into Atera and ran it against that PC within about 30 minutes, then it just outputted all the time that they had logged in and out.
That sort of capability as an IT manager is great. Obviously, a lot of people will say, "Don't use technology to manage performance. You should be using KPIs and whatnot." But, we have found throughout COVID-19, everyone having to work from home, and repeated lockdowns here in Australia that we actually do need tools. Measuring performance is just not as simple when you're in an office, and that is why I am starting to investigate additional options within Atera to provide feedback to management.
Atera is very simple to use. The current interface is fine and usable. I have no issues with it. It is responsive, fast, and snappy. I am not left twiddling my thumbs waiting for a device just to load.
What needs improvement?
There is a new version of the interface coming out. I have been asking for a new version for a while. While the interface is nice, I guess the developer thinks one way and the user thinks another. So, I think the interface is getting a big overhaul. This is what they have mentioned in their webinars and stuff. It is in beta, but I'm not on the beta program, so I haven't seen it. I can't really complain about the old interface, but now that I have heard there is a new one coming, all I want is the new one.
The one thing that could do with improvement is the reporting. This is from someone who worked in an MSP, where I would want to run a report and be able to just present that to a client. Reports are fine for internal use, where they never leave your company. However, if I was an MSP, I would probably want a little bit more information or the ability to customize some of it without having to edit PDFs.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Atera for just over five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability has been fine. I have only had one bad experience with it. That was solved in less than 24 hours by Atera. There was a bug, where it would just keep expanding log files. The bug had occurred a month earlier, and the log files just took that long to grow before I noticed them. Fixing it was as simple as installing the latest version of the agent over the top of it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I don't know how far you could take it as an MSP. For internal IT, you can break it out into many subcomponents or subcompanies. I use regions to manage mine, so I have an Australia region and India region. All the Australian PCs are in the Australian one and all the PCs overseas are in the India one. That is how you manage it internally. You could very easily scale up to thousands of endpoints. There will be a point where it might become harder to manage.
We do have about 250 staff in the field on iOS devices who don't realistically need an Atera agent.
We are looking at about 370 endpoints total. We have another company overseas who also uses Atera, and they have about 50 endpoints. So across three companies, I have three Atera instances, where I manage two and assist with the third. I set it all up for them, and said, "It is now your baby." They are actually a company full of developers, so endpoint management is not their thing. They look after themselves. I very rarely have to assist with anything there. In terms of ease of use, that is how good it is. You can give it to people who are not good with IT.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support is great. They are pretty responsive. Being in Australia, the time zones are very off. For example, it is 4PM here. I have no idea what time it would be in the United States or Israel. While I have no idea what time it is there, I can generally get support. Normally, if I am having a problem, it's early in the morning, then I might have to wait for about 5 to 10 minutes before I can get someone on chat. I really only need to use chat support.
Occasionally, I will see something on the community groups, and I can tag their staff. This is really a great aspect of their company. They're having to own up to their shortcomings. If anyone points something out, they will say, "Yep, we're going to work to fix this." Atera's support is very professional from a technical point of view as well as for overall management of the business.
Atera has definitely reduced frustrations that we experienced before we started using it. Originally. the product was not as polished, going back five years. A lot of the years, we were crying out for certain features to get delivered or there wasn't a lot of transparency. Over the last two years, or maybe a little bit before that, they went to this rapid release model, where you get a new feature and bug fixes every three to four weeks. That responsiveness alone has kept me with the product.
There was one other aspect of their responsiveness where a lot of other vendors were really slow to the party. There was a large-scale hack in the US, where an MSP was compromised. I don't know all the details, but a junior technician had their login credentials stolen by a hacking group who logged in and encrypted a lot of governmental departments. That alone prompted Atera to enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) on all logins. It wasn't something where you opted in; it was mandatory. A lo...
Disclaimer: IT Central Station contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2021-06-23T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1772733 from
Pricing is definitely my favorite part of it, and it is extremely easy to use and set up
What is our primary use case?
We are using it for ticket tracking and importing projects, but we're moving away from it.
What is most valuable?
Pricing is definitely my favorite part of it. It is also extremely easy to use.
What needs improvement?
Customization could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for a couple of months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
How are customer service and support?
I never had to reach out to them. It is extremely easy to use.
How was the initial setup?
Its setup was extremely easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing is my favorite part of it. It was per user, not per client.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate it an eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-02-03T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Edgqrd Chognika from
An AI-powered IT management platform that force multiplies IT teams’ brainpower & enables relentless operational excellence for customers
What is our primary use case?
We use Atera primarily to create tickets, monitor our network, and track the performance of our equipment. It helps us see all parameters and ensure everything is functioning well. Atera is crucial for managing our clients' issues efficiently and closing cases quickly. It maximizes our network capacity without additional costs, which is important for our operations.
What is most valuable?
Atera's Remote Access feature has been invaluable for our monitoring needs. It allows us to use FlashOps in Azure to control equipment remotely and supervise real-time details like server and computer statuses for our clients. This access is crucial as it enables us to handle network issues and manage server administration efficiently.
Regarding automation, Atera's tools have significantly boosted our service efficiency. They streamline tasks like installing tools and provide quick insights into critical issues with our servers. This saves us time and enhances our ability to deliver valuable services, especially for large-scale projects requiring precise and swift actions.
What needs improvement?
There should be enhancements in network monitoring capabilities beyond just physical devices like computers and servers. It would be beneficial to include better tools for monitoring networking infrastructure such as routers. Additionally, while Atera excels in ticket management, I believe there's room for improvement in user authentication and security features, especially when accessing and managing remote equipment. These updates would contribute to a more robust and secure user experience overall.
Atera should include a monitoring tool integrated with Azure or similar cloud platforms. It would be beneficial to have capabilities for monitoring network growth and automatically generating statistics based on system stability and performance metrics. This feature would help us better manage and optimize our equipment and network resources, especially for strategic customer planning and resource allocation.
For how long have I used the solution?
I had experience with Atera for the last ten months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I'd rate its stability similarly, around eight or nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Atera is quite robust, and I would rate it around eight or nine out of ten. It's adaptable and meets our needs well, especially when we consider expanding our services and upgrading functionalities.
How are customer service and support?
The support team is proactive and provides valuable guidance whenever we need assistance, strong reliability and support for our operations. Regarding Atera's training resources, I didn't personally use them extensively, but the platform was intuitive enough for me to quickly adapt and start using them effectively without much need for formal training.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before using Atera, I primarily worked with telecommunications monitoring tools like Huawei and Arcadia. These solutions were specific to network monitoring and access control, limited to their respective platforms. Atera, on the other hand, is more versatile and open-ended. It allows us to manage IT services comprehensively, not just limited to network monitoring but also including endpoint management and customer support functionalities. This flexibility and broader scope are what drew us to Atera, as it meets our needs across various IT management tasks in a more integrated manner compared to the more specialized solutions we used before.
How was the initial setup?
Setting up Atera was very straightforward. It was very easy to deploy across our network. For deployment, you simply need to install an agent on the computers you want to monitor. Once connected to your account, you can add all your customers and manage their equipment easily.
What was our ROI?
Atera has been highly beneficial for our operations. It simplifies equipment management and helps us make informed decisions based on preventive alarms and performance insights. The platform's ease of use and comprehensive features have made a significant difference in our efficiency and ability to maintain customer satisfaction.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Atera to others, especially for its straightforward setup, effective network management tools, and mobile accessibility. It's been reliable in daily operations, providing good control over our network and IT systems.
Overall, I rate Atera an eight out of ten for its usability, effectiveness, and overall value it brings to our organization.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2024-07-30T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Avi Vaserman from
A reliable product for RMM which enhances the automation process in patch management
What is our primary use case?
Atera is integral to our daily operations. We use it for RMM, PSA, our ticket system, and contact with people. We also integrate it with different products.
What is most valuable?
It is reliable, and when it is working, it works without issues.
What needs improvement?
It should improve its processes.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Atera for over a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. There are almost no outages.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
You can scale to for whatever you want. It is very scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Support is very good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very easy and takes five minutes to complete. We'll create a group policy and then deploy it to everybody.
I rate the initial setup a ten out of ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing is low. It costs around 149 bucks per month.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
The previous version lacked functionality. Currently, all the features I have access to are based on my tariff plan, and they provide everything I need.
What other advice do I have?
Atera enhances the automation process in patch management. It provides comprehensive capabilities to manage and improve various tasks, allowing organization by folder and structure. For example, it enables the creation of imaging batches and specific key packages tailored for individual clients, including installing specific software, among other functionalities.
Atera is significantly impacting operators by making the IT MSP's life much easier and more convenient.
I will recommend the solution to other people.
Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2024-07-31T00:00:00-04:00