KACE On the Go: Introducing KACE Cloud Companion Edition

Welcome. This is KACE On the Go, a vlog series on trending topics and KACE solutions. Are you struggling to keep track of your IT assets and make sure they're updated and secure, even when they're remote? Are you ready for the next cybersecurity attack? Are you leaving your data center behind and moving to the cloud? You're not alone. Welcome to the KACE on the Go vlog. Hi, welcome back to another episode of KACE on the Go. My name is James Rico. I'm a sales engineer with Quest Software, specializing in the case product line. Today, I've got with me is Jackson Osborn. Jackson, you want to introduce yourself? Yeah, appreciate it, James. My name is Jackson Osborn, account executive for all things KACE over here on the Quest Software and KACE team. Thank you, James. Yeah, awesome. Hey, today, we're going to talk about KACE Cloud Companion Edition. For those that don't know, that's a new offering from Quest Software. Basically what it is an offering where we can-- inventory, Windows, Mac, devices can be Windows Server or desktop, we can push software. But the main thing is patching those endpoints for applications and the operating system. So we can patch both of them. It's 100% cloud, standalone product. Doesn't require enrollment. So you can put an agent on there and patch-- patch your systems very easily. So Jackson, where do you think this will be important? Or who do you think it'd be good for? Well, James, like you mentioned, we are calling this the Companion Edition. I think this would be perfect for customers with Windows devices, Mac devices enrolled in Intune, or Workspace 1, or any other similar products that do need some patching for their Windows, Mac devices, or even servers. I think that's really the ideal spot for potential customers out there. Yeah, and the third party application catalog, we've been managing that for many years in our traditional product at the KACE Systems Management Appliance. So we ported that to the cloud. And we definitely have seen a lot of customers going to Intune or Workspace 1 for their device management. Being that's an enrollment solution, you can only enroll your device on one thing. So we're kind of filling that gap with that application patch catalog, which we've-- again, we have a lot of experience in and do it really well. And allowing it to run as a companion or side by side to those two products. Can you think of any-- I mean, those are two kind of obvious ones. Are there any other places where you think KACE Companion would be a good fit? I think KACE Companion could be a fit for customers that just need patching. You don't need the core MDM side of the house involved with the Companion Edition. We do offer it, like James said, it is agent based. So if anyone out there that just needs application patching, operating system patching, KACE Cloud Companion Edition would be perfect. And James, back to you for any additional thoughts there. Yeah, I was kind of thinking that some people might be enticed with Microsoft offers auto patch, which is really pretty, pretty rigid solution, where you kind of set it. And you have to take what they do. But it doesn't offer any application patching. One of the things to do with our product is one is you can very selectively determine the kind of patches that get pushed out when our patch filters or patch labels, however you'd like to call them, and we give you control kind of over the user experience also. So if you want it to run silently, we can do that. Or you can give the user a pop-up, say, hey, we want to patch your machine. And you can also select kind of when that happens. So if you want it to be kind of always on, so as soon as patches are available, we're pushing them out, we can do that. Or it could just be hey, I have my maintenance windows that's after hours or on the weekend, we give you control over that. And also we-- through our policy-based management, you can set up different groups of users, put them in a group and then have a policy just for them. So if you have say your traveling salespeople or people are out on the road, you can treat that group differently than either servers or workstations that are in your environment. So that's pretty handy also. Yeah, I don't know. Any other thoughts around KACE Cloud Companion? Yeah, speaking to KACE as a whole, of course, we offer the Companion Edition on top of maybe a mobile device management piece you've already got in place. Of course, we do offer the full KACE Cloud core piece in addition to the Companion. I would say if there are some struggles with your current mobile device management solution, we can certainly expand just upon the Companion, going full policy-based, enrollment-based mobile device management next to that Companion piece. So really, we've got you covered for multiple routes. If you did want to rip and replace or add onto your existing solution, I think it's important to note there's a couple different options to go from a management perspective, whether you have a solution in place you want to remove or tack onto for additional patching inventory or software distribution capabilities. Yeah, that's a great call. And we definitely can do it. So if you have some Android-based device, iOS-based, or even a subset of Windows that aren't enrolled in anything and you want to enroll those devices and do full MDM management, we can do that. And then if you have some-- so you can mix and match in the same cloud-based platform with KACE. You can either enroll a device or put an agent on the device and management, really give you that flexibility to manage it how you want to how you need to. So that's great. Well, hey, that's all I had for today. Do you have any parting thoughts before we get out of here? James, I would just be kind of curious what you see as the perfect use case, perfect customer for the Companion Edition, where we could really help out this customer. Could you maybe just describe somebody and their environment, their situation where the Companion Edition can come in and help them out tremendously here? Yeah, so say you got somebody that's enrolled, say they're an Intune customer. A lot of times, what we'll see is maybe they have just a subset of devices there, maybe their Windows machines, and they're not managing their phones or tablets. And then also they got the issue of hey, I got applications I need to keep updated. So that's a great use case for that. Or maybe you're a small shop, you're really just getting your head wrapped around managing your endpoints. And you want to make sure things are secure from ransomware and various other things that are out there. You don't have anything in place. Take a look at KACE Cloud. It's simple to use, easy to set up. I work with a lot of customers for trials and stuff. And within 30 minutes, we can be patching machines or less. And that's with me talking, us joking around, and getting it set up at the same time. So it's really quick and easy to set up and get going. Understood. And one thing I did want to add, James, obviously, we've mentioned several different types of devices. I just wanted to reiterate, iOS, Windows, Android, server, Mac can all be managed under one hood. Of course, we do have the Companion Edition for those Windows, Mac, server devices. But again, just wanted to reiterate whatever device type you got, KACE Cloud is there to help. Hey, appreciate you guys checking in with us today. Jackson, appreciate you hopping on here and having a conversation with me. Of course. See you, everybody. Talk to you next time. Talk to you. [MUSIC PLAYING]