Introducing an enhanced Managed Workplace experience

If there was a major vulnerability exploited today, how confident would you be in your patch management process? Even if you are fairly confident, your customers still might be in trouble. A study conducted by the Ponemon Institute on behalf of ServiceNow found that 57 percent of organizations who suffered a breach did so because they failed to patch against that particular vulnerability.

Making sure your customers’ patches and software updates have been applied to the entire network can be a time-consuming process. So, as a managed service provider, what can you do? The answer is simple: it’s time to upgrade your patch management process.

This week, we are excited to announce our first major update to Managed Workplace. Managed Workplace 12 introduces Advanced Software Management, a new functionality that will enable you to take your software update and patch management process to the next level, among other enhancements. To give you an inside look into Managed Workplace 12 and Advanced Software Management, we spoke to Brian Babineau, the senior vice president and general manager for Barracuda MSP.

Q & A on Managed Workplace 12 and Advanced Software Management

What is Managed Workplace?

Managed Workplace is a security-centric remote monitoring and management (RMM) tool that helps managed service providers manage their customers’ IT environments all through a single web-based dashboard.

With Managed Workplace, MSPs can create comprehensive multi-layered security service offerings and deliver them profitably and efficiently. By using built-in features such as detailed reporting, and the site security assessment, managed service providers can easily demonstrate their value to customers and ensure that systems and patches are up to date.

What are the major improvements in Managed Workplace 12 and Advanced Software Management?

Advanced Software Management enables service providers to offer expanded software updates and patch management for thousands of different software versions from more than one hundred software vendors. This includes vendors like Apple, Adobe, Citrix, DropBox, Mozilla, VMware, and much more – all through a single portal.

We’ve made it easy. Service providers can automatically apply patches or updates to devices under management all with a single click. This helps managed service providers save time, all while increasing their customers’ security posture.

Managed Workplace 12 also addresses another critical security element in a multi-layered approach – data protection. Through the new policy-based monitoring capabilities, MSPs can also manage their customers’ Intronis Backup processes. Combined with Advanced Software Management, this increases efficiencies while providing multi-layered protection for SMB customers.

How can Managed Workplace’s Advanced Software Management enhance my patch management process?

One of the most beneficial things about Advanced Software Management is that it gives providers an extra layer of visibility into their customers’ systems. By being able to quickly and easily identify patches and software updates that are out of date in their customers’ networks, providers can deploy a patch to secure their system. Once patches or updates become available from software vendors, providers can test the patch or update, and schedule a time that works for both parties. Service providers can then scan their customers' environments to ensure that all patches and software updates have been applied successfully. If a patch or update is missing, providers are alerted so they can take additional measures.

What is the difference between the patch management feature that has been included in Managed Workplace until now and the new patching in Advanced Software Management?

Managed Workplace offers Microsoft patch and software updates, plus scripts to twelve other commonly used vendors for patch management. Partners can continue to add patch management scripts to Managed Workplace to support other third-party patches. However, with Advanced Software Management, providers can quickly and easily patch and update thousands of different software versions without any additional scripting work.

How does this play into Barracuda MSP’s commitment to the channel?

At Barracuda MSP, we provide our MSP partners with multi-layered data protection and security solutions that are easy to deploy and easy to manage — and Managed Workplace 12 and Advanced Software Management are no exception. With this enhancement, we can save managed service providers time and money – all while they enhance their customers’ security posture and safeguard them against today’s advanced threats.

Get more details on powerful, security-centric remote monitoring and management