We use the solution as a remote monitoring and management tool, we use NijaOne for patch management, software deployment, and remotely deploying software to most of our devices. We use NinjaOne to patch, and run rollout patches, that's OS patching and also software patching. We also use NinjaOne for scripting in terms of managing resources on the device, for example, if we want to kill a process or we want to start a process, run an application, or install one.
We initially deployed NinjaOne to monitor our devices. The solution really helped us during the COVID lockdown. At that point, all our users were forced to work from home, and as a result of that, it was difficult to have physical visibility of those devices compared to having devices that we were already managing in the office. NinjaOne helped us address our user complaints regarding the system as well as providing us the ability to push software updates directly from NinjaOne to the user's device. The solution was very effective during the COVID lockdown.
NinjaOne is a SaaS application. Most of the updates are done on the agent.
NinjaOne has a feature where we can create custom scripts that we can run on devices remotely. We use the feature for managing devices without having to be in front of those machines.
Device management is a valuable feature. The patch management requires some configurations that are out-of-the-box. We may not achieve what we want to achieve unless we modify and make some changes to the default configuration. In terms of out-of-the-box configuration, the solution works fine. NinjaOne is a device monitoring solution that allows us to see the status of the devices in terms of RAM usage, and CP usage, and we can get a few processes that work very well. The software deployments are scripted, which also works very well.
We usually give the developer feedback through our account manager and also the technical person that we reach out to once in a while and most of the time, they take the feedback and within a couple of months, they implement and roll out an audit. The one feature that I believe needs improvement is the software patching. NinjaOne still lacks the ability to patch third-party software that is not already added to its list of managed applications. For those applications, we have to deploy Chocolatey, which is another third-party application that we use to patch third-party software not listed on NinjaOne's portal.
The NinjaOne distribution server is highly dependent on an active directory. So for a cloud-only environment like ours, it's impossible to implement because we don't have a long-range server.
I have been using the solution for around three years.
NinjaOne is very stable. The agents are updated every three months. The agent is the instance that gets installed on the device that we are monitoring. Most times, the solution will update a piece or change the upgrade version of the agents. Some updates are done based on recommendations or feedback.
The solution is very scalable. We started with about 300 devices and right now, we scaled up to 700 and we're looking at going as high as 1000. The more we scale the solution the more cost-effective it becomes. We are also expanding into different regions across the world and we require NinjaOne to help manage all the devices because it is impossible to manage most of the devices we currently have in our organization without the solution.
The technical support is good but sometimes we are told that a feature is not available and that they are looking into having it deployed in the future.
Positive
Previously we used TeamViewer and AnyDesk but we switched to NinjaOne which allows the user to continue using their device while we troubleshoot any issues.
The initial setup is straightforward if we are using an in-house IT person. If a person is using the solution for the first time there are multiple modifications and policies required. The solution is user-friendly as long as we know exactly what our requirements are.
The implementation was completed in-house.
We have seen a return on investment with the solution. Before we deployed NinjaOne, if we wanted to connect to a device remotely, we would either use TeamViewer or AnyDesk and the user would not be able to use the device. If a user complained about the system being slow or having an issue with the device, we would tell the user to leave the device while we work on resolving the issue. With NinjaOne, the user does not need to stop working while we access the device. The user can continue to work while we roll out a script to fix the issue or kill the particular process causing the problem. The increased productivity of our users directly correlates to savings for the organization.
The higher we scale NinjaOne the more we can negotiate the cost per device.
NinjaOne allows for negotiable Pricing and can be highly discounted.
Bender Benedict:
Before choosing NinjaOne we evaluated Evancy, ManageEngine, and Casier. NinjaOne has proved to be very good, although, ManageEngine has a particular feature that NinjaOne currently lacks in terms of patching devices in locations where they have very poor connectivity. NinjaOne would require us to extend the patching period. For example, if we have three days' worth of patches to install, we have to extend it to a week for a device that has a weak signal. Whereas what we observed with Evancy was that you could actually have a distribution server within that bubble where the devices are. Those devices get patched via a closed device that's already patched so we don't have to wait for that device to download all the patches from the internet.
I give the solution an eight out of ten.
Bender Benedict:
Any new user should know that NinjaOne is cloud-hosted, meaning our PCs would require an internet connection to a LAN internet, unlike a server that is an on-prem solution where a device in this environment can receive updates, patches, or get connected to other RMM tools. There are internet costs per device associated with any cloud-hosted solution.
