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Rating The MSP Platforms
4:24 PM EDT Sun. Sep. 09, 2007
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AdventNet's latest pricing structure is certainly enticing. To attract solution providers that are just starting out, AdventNet is offering three killer deals under Silver, Gold and Platinum partner programs. However, the various network capabilities in its MSP platform cannot quite match the other three vendors in this review.
Nonetheless, AdventNet's new starter kits start at $399 per month for aspiring MSPs. There are additional fees of $299 for help desk, asset harvesting and security. The pricing is worth noting because AdventNet offers a comprehensive OpManager MSP solution at a relatively small flat fee for each probe.
Like Level Platforms, only one AdventNet probe needs to reside at a customer site. What's more, the MSP solution is certainly more than adequate to manage the majority of small enterprises.
Solution providers hosting multiple customers can benefit greatly by simply segmenting the dashboards to separate customers logically and at the same time using a single probe to monitor everyone. AdventNet does not care if solution providers create segmented networks as long as they pay for each probe.
Scorecard: Quick Click Comparisons of All 4 Managed Services Platforms
AdventNet's remote access tool uses a centralized gateway to access remote machines. The tool works like LogMeIn. No Windows RDP or VNC is required. The remote access tool also eliminates the need for opening firewall ports. From the MSP central server, solution providers can quickly install a remote agent on a machine and start a remote control session.
Like the other vendors in the review, the OpManager software provides SNMP-, event- and WMI-based monitoring. In addition, OpManager can collect CPU, memory and disk utilization, and various ports.
OpManager's dashboards have a clean design, yet they are able to present a lot of information on devices. By drilling down on an alert, technicians can view the active indicators associated with the device that caused the alert.
In addition to network assets, OpManager also collects information on packaged software and some middleware servers. Engineers feel that AdventNet might be trying to add too much unnecessary functionality in the product. For example, OpManager can monitor logs from WebLogic servers.
While the information presented to technicians on some software packages can be useful, multitier systems are extremely difficult to troubleshoot. Finding the cause based on a log alert is often not enough to resolve a problem.
AdventNet also offers many software packages designed for IT monitoring. Some of these packages are integrated into the MSP product. For instance, OpManager comes with a complete ticketing system, which is designed to streamline communication between MSPs and customers.
NEXT: Kaseya Server And Framework, Level Platforms Managed Workplace, N-able Momentum
