Automox Reviews

I mainly use Automox to manage updates and automate tasks on company devices. In my day-to-day uses, I primarily use it for updating devices and reviewing patch management. I focus on keeping Windows and macOS devices up to date manually. Another daily example is using Automox to automatically check for devices that need updating, such as installing security patches without manual intervention. Every morning, I check Automox and it shows which device got updated overnight, and I review and approve anything that is pending.

If I want to add more about my daily workflow, first of all, I would say it saves a lot of time. It reduces manual work for updates and patching. I don't have to go device by device myself because Automox does it automatically for me. It improves security as well, keeping the devices secure with the latest patches. It's much easier for me to monitor which devices need attention.

One of the best features I appreciate about Automox is automated patching. It automatically updates computers and servers without manual intervention. It supports many platforms. For example, in our organization, we use Windows, macOS, and Linux. The good thing is it supports all of them. I can patch laptops and servers of different types at the same place and at the same time. It's much easier to control because I can see all the devices in one online portal. No VPN or local server is needed. Automox helps me update applications like Chrome, Adobe, Java, and other third-party tools, not just operating systems. It's much easier to remotely control. It also shows me pre-built reports, giving me the ability to view and download reports to show management that the updates are complete.

Out of all these features, if I had to pick one which I'm relying on the most, I would say the automatic patching. The reason is because it saves a lot of time and ensures all devices are updated. I don't have to manually update each Windows, Mac, or Linux device; Automox does it automatically. It's very important because it keeps all devices secure and current. I can quickly see in the dashboard which devices were updated successfully and which ones need updating. Everything can be viewed in the dashboard, which stands out greatly to me and is my favorite feature.

Automox allows me to do custom automation beyond updates. For example, I can use it to update third-party applications and customize things in my dashboard. I can build my own report and see which devices and patch status I want to see on my dashboard based on each role. Different levels of access for team members require different types of access. The customization I can do in my dashboard means I can see and change the report style and design of my own choice.

While Automox has very good features, I think there's still room for improvement. I want the custom reports to be even more detailed, specifically where I can add more details. It would be nice to have more filters in reports based on location and department more easily. Secondly, the notifications could be more customizable. Many times notifications come, but we don't have control over which notification is urgent and which is not. For example, if there's an alert of a critical update or pending approval, it can help me focus better. An alert of a security threat could be another type of notification that tells me something is important. Customized notifications would be much better.

I would say the user interface could be improved as well. Some parts of the dashboard are a bit hard to understand. If they could be improved to be more intuitive, for example, if it could be easy to navigate between devices and reports, that would be great. I would say if Automox could also provide automation templates, that would help. I know there are templates, but I want more templates. Having ready-made worklets for common tasks can save a lot of time. Lastly, it should also support the interface for mobile screens.

I've been using Automox for more than one year, approximately one year and six months.

Automox is very stable in my experience because it saves a lot of time and has reduced many errors. It's not crashing or experiencing any downtime. It patches and updates correctly across all devices, so it is stable.

Automox's scalability is good because we can always scale it based on the number of devices we want to use. We started with about 150 devices and now we manage about 100 devices without any issues. It's pretty easy to scale because it's SaaS, and adding more devices doesn't require any extra server or anything similar.

Customer support is usually good. Whenever we have something to ask or requirements we need, we can send them emails and they are very helpful. For example, we had an issue and the team responded within a few hours. They're very knowledgeable and have given us many channels for support, including email, chat, and documentation.

Negative

The team used to struggle a lot. We were using manual patching with some basic scripts to update devices, but that was not a good solution. We switched because manual updates were time-consuming and there were more chances of errors. We switched to Automox because it updates automatically across Windows, Mac, and Linux devices. The benefit of switching is it saves a lot of time, improves security, and gives us control and monitoring in more real-time.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was good. Pricing was very straightforward through a subscription process via AWS Marketplace. We pay clear monthly and yearly fees, so billing is simple. The setup cost was minimal because it's SaaS, so there was no hardware to buy. Licensing was also flexible per device licensing.

Automox saves time because it does the automatic updates and reduces manual work. Our team used to spend 10 hours per week just to update these things, and now we're doing it automatically. It's saving about 70% to 80% of time. The security has improved a lot. If I compare our issues to one and a half years ago, there used to be many more, and now it has gone very low. Another metric is that not many devices are left behind as we ensure all devices are up to date with the new patches and updates.

We evaluated other options while choosing Automox. Some of the options we looked at were ManageEngine, Ivanti, and Microsoft Endpoint. We chose Automox because it was easier to use, cloud-based, and supports multiple platforms, which obviously saves us time and reduces manual errors.

I would tell others to identify your needs, whatever you're looking for. If you want to save your time, take advantage of automation, go for Automox. If you want to start small and scale later on, Automox is good. If you want nice reports and want to leverage your support across all your devices at the same time, go for Automox. I would rate this product an 8 overall.

My main use case for Automox is automated patch management for our whole organization, managing and patching our endpoints. Automox has helped us reduce security vulnerabilities with automated patching being deployed with minimal manual intervention. This has helped us reduce the number of vulnerabilities that are susceptible for an attacker to exploit. Automox has also been easy to deploy with a large scope of endpoints across many operating companies in our organization.

A specific example of how Automox helped me with automated patch management is that it was easy to create and configure policies and schedule patching that is done automatically.

The best features Automox offers include automated patch management, ease of deployment, visibility, and reporting.

The visibility and reporting features of Automox help me with great oversight of current patching status on our infrastructure.

I would add that the ease of deployment across a large number of endpoints is commendable. Additionally, the user interface is very intuitive and user-friendly.

Automox has positively impacted my organization with significant time-saving. Automated patching has saved countless hours on manual patching and updating endpoints, approximately three to four hours. It has also improved our security posture since automated patching has allowed vulnerabilities to be patched automatically. Automox is easy to manage and deploy and offers Automox University, which is a great resource to use for learning the platform.

I believe some expansion on deployment status for troubleshooting would be beneficial.

I would add that remote support for iOS could be better, and remote support of Linux is also lacking.

I have been using Automox for the past six years.

According to my experience, Automox is very stable.

Automox is very scalable because it has continued to handle my organization's growth and it caters to all our organizational growth.

The customer support for Automox is very responsive and proactive.

I previously used Microsoft 365 as a different solution.

I switched from Microsoft 365 to Automox because we wanted a tool that would automatically patch our devices, thereby saving a lot of time and cost. It was also very cost-effective compared to Microsoft 365, which is why we made the switch. Automox also gave us the capability to automate patch deployment for operating systems and support third-party software to allow for consistent patching and quantifiable reduction in security vulnerabilities.

I have seen a return on investment since we save a lot of hours for management. We are able to focus on critical areas and devote our work time to the areas that need more of our attention. It has also been a great tool because we are able to reduce both manual labor and operational expenses by automating patching of roughly 200 Windows servers. Automox being a cloud-native platform has removed our need for on-premises patching infrastructure, saving expenses and overhead for management, improved visibility, and consolidated control of our endpoints, thus reinforcing our ability to quickly respond to vulnerabilities.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that Automox's price is very cost-effective and affordable.

Before choosing Automox, I evaluated other options such as FortiClient and Freshservice.

My advice for others looking into using Automox is that it is well-suited for centralized patch management within a remote or distributed environment because it is cloud-native. However, it is not suitable for legacy or overly customized systems that need unusual update processing. I would rate this product a 9 out of 10.

Since we have a remote culture, Automox helps in policy enforcement, software deployment, scripting, and remediation without requiring VPN connectivity or corporate LAN presence. It also handles third-party application patching, such as Chrome, Zoom, Adobe, Java, and Slack, ensuring that all these tools are properly patched. It provides patch compliance visibility, endpoint reporting, and vulnerability reporting, which helps during audits, customer security reviews, and SOC 2 compliance assessments.

Automox has helped us in automated patch management, specifically for Windows patches, third-party software patching, and remote endpoint remediation. Since we follow a remote culture, it is very important that our systems are safe. Automox has been a good tool and helps us in managing all those security capabilities.

I think the cost factor is a concern across the industry, as Automox is costlier than its competitors.

Automox has eased our operations. It is very simple to use and does not have heavy workflows. The security teams regularly use it. It has a triangle-like icon which ensures that the system is patched and proof.

Since we have a remote workforce, Automox provides VPN-less patching. We have distributed operations, so it provides cloud-native management. It provides different kinds of patch automation and helps us in reducing infrastructure overhead. It is suitable for cross-platforms including Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, and it is easier than any other SCCM solution.

Automox is a strong tool for managing the remote workforce. It ensures that our systems are not vulnerable and issue-proof, with all systems properly patched on a timely basis without needing VPN connectivity.

Automox is used in a centralized cloud-native approach across our globally distributed employee devices.

I believe Automox is moving in the right direction. If it can contain the cost, I think its demand will rise and it will consolidate a major market share.

I gave this product a rating of eight out of ten.

We use Automox to maintain the software on all our computers. We were using Qualys before and we're still using it, but we found Qualys to be a little bit lacking since it wasn't really eliminating all the vulnerabilities. We have been using it for years and it's almost as if we still have the same vulnerability count. We wanted to try something new with Automox in that most of the vulnerabilities are taken care of just by updating the applications that we use on our computers.

We have not used Automox's scripting capabilities for automating routine tasks such as software deployment and configuration changes yet, but we're probably not going to see a massive need for that since we don't have many in-house applications or a development team.

Some of the better features with Automox include its nice GUI, which looks intuitive, and it doesn't have a huge learning curve.

Automox's real-time visibility and control through its intuitive dashboard is important for our response to emerging threats because it tells us which applications need to be updated on a real-time basis.

I wouldn't be able to tell you how Automox can be improved; it seems to work very nicely already.

I have experience with Automox for four months, as we just started using it recently.

I would rate Automox's customer service and technical support as excellent. They are really good because they don't take five days to get back to me; they respond within 24 hours with really good information. The initial reply is great, providing advanced information if I want to handle it on my own, or I can just wait for the tech to interact with me.

Positive

We were using Qualys before and we're still using it, but we found Qualys to be a little bit lacking since it wasn't really eliminating all the vulnerabilities. We have been using it for years and it's almost as if we still have the same vulnerability count.

The initial setup was not complex at all, but I understand it could get complex depending on what you want to do, and we're still at the stages where I need to be able to do that.

We were not evaluating other options when we chose Automox. My IT director gave me the task of trialing it and using it, and eventually, we purchased it.

We did not perform any other evaluations.

Since switching over from Qualys, we have seen no positive impacts for our organization other than being able to update the applications on an endpoint.

We haven't used Automox's reporting capabilities.

My experience with the pricing and licensing for Automox is good, and I think we got a pretty good deal. On a scale of 1 to 10 for how pricey Automox is, I would place it at a six.

Overall, I would rate Automox as 10 out of 10.

We are just clients of Automox, not partners or resellers.

We are a municipality, so we are not a traditional business. We've got it deployed throughout the city. We've got it on roughly 120 servers. We've also got about 1,400 other endpoints. So, there are roughly 1,300 computers, and those computers are also police vehicles, EMS vehicles, and fire vehicles. We are continuously monitoring them and patching them to make sure that they stay up to date and meet all the criteria for compliance. Obviously, EMS has to worry about HIPAA, and police have to worry about CJIS. So essentially, we're making sure that we stay within the guidelines of compliance.

It is web-based, so we are using the version that they're currently on.

Our previous solution of patching simply did not work. Even though it said machines were getting patched, we turned back and discovered that patches hadn't been deployed. Automox just works. We used to spend time running and circling back to see if machines were getting patched. We no longer have to do that. If Automox says they're patched, they're patched. It saves a tremendous amount of time. I don't really have anything in the way of metrics. Being in the Government world, we're not in the business of making money. We're in the business of spending money, so very rarely, we track those kinds of metrics.

It is fantastic that Automox is a cloud-native platform. Obviously, we don't have to worry about updates. We also don't have to worry about carving out any physical space. The one thing that is unique to us is that we're on the Gulf coast. We are in a hurricane-prone area, and in the event of a storm or anything else, we may lose power or internet at certain sites. So, having to be reliant on physical servers is sometimes a downfall. With Automox being a SaaS solution, it can monitor our devices no matter where they are in the country, which is a huge plus.

It provides 100% visibility for any laptop, desktop, or server in our environment, regardless of whether they're on-prem, in the cloud, or on the move. It doesn't matter where they're located. We're a municipality, and we are restrained to a pretty small geographic area. We do have a lot of machines that are not in traditional office spaces, such as police cars and vehicles. They are constantly on the move with unreliable internet and with being power cycled quite often. They're being touched no matter where they are or the kind of environment they're in, which is important for us. These police devices may not necessarily be in the office, but they have to be up-to-date by law. Being able to have a solution that's reliable enough and being able to make sure that everything happens in a timely and reliable manner is invaluable. 

It provides patch management from a single console across Windows, macOS, and Linux. We don't use the Linux side of it. We have very few Linux devices in our network, but we do have macOS, and obviously, Windows devices. This cross-platform patch management is not as important to us as it is for a lot of other places because we don't allow people to bring their own devices, but we do have a lot of macOS devices in our libraries, and we obviously want to keep those updated. Them not being up-to-date obviously still puts us at a security risk. It is obviously important to any IT environment. 

Its console is fantastic. It can be accessed from anywhere, such as from your cell phone, tablet, or PC. From that single and very nice UI window, you can deploy patches across your entire environment. It has a great UI, and it is easy to look at and easy to navigate. We've enrolled the rest of our IT department, and we've not had a single training class. It is easy to figure out and intuitive. For the most part, it is dumb proof.

We use it for the automation of patching. It is very hands-off. We have it set on a schedule. We've got a number of different schedules based on the type of device and geographic location. We do have different sites within the city. For instance, we've got around 10 buildings downtown that belong to the city and that have devices on them. While they are different sites, they're all on the same fiber. So, we space them out time-wise and day-wise to make sure that we're not essentially blowing our pipe and using too much bandwidth. Everything is scheduled and automated, and we don't touch it. We get a weekly report that tells us about the devices that need attention, if there are any, and whether they require a follow-up. 

Patch automation has affected our operations. Previously, we used to rely on our guys to follow back up and continuously check our servers to make sure they're patched. We no longer have to do that. So, we've freed up a lot of manhours to actually do the work that we're supposed to be doing, not just chasing a bad product. It has given us a lot more time and a lot more freedom to do the work that we're supposed to do.

We have started to use Automox Worklets to create and automate customized tasks across endpoints. They've introduced community Worklets directly into Automox, where you can very quickly see Worklets that have already been built by other users and deploy them. We've started using them a lot more recently. We've mainly used the ones that are available for the community. Worklets make it convenient to enforce tasks across any managed endpoints. There are a lot of smart people using Automox, and there are so many Worklets. In fact, the last time I looked, there were a little over a hundred. So, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. There are already solutions out there to uninstall software, install software, or change software without you having to know PowerShell or figure it out. You can simply click on it, run it, and it is done. So, it is very convenient. We use PDQ deploy a lot as well.

It has saved us an untold amount of time. I wish I could put a figure on it, but I know that I used to spend hours a week making sure that everything is being patched, and everything is being updated. That number is virtually zero these days. I simply look at the report, and I know I can trust it.

The fact that it is pretty much hands-off is most valuable. Basically, you set up your policies and give it free rein, and it just does its thing. 

They've been adding some new features lately, which I'm not nearly as familiar with, but the ability to just deploy patches and exempt certain machines from certain patches is helpful. For instance, for our servers, we may not want to roll out zero-day patches. We are able to exempt those and make sure that they don't get those policies. We've got certain servers that have to run a particular version of Java, and being able to exempt those servers from receiving Java updates is pretty fantastic.

Its patch management abilities are perfect. We've gone through probably five different solutions in the past 10 years. Automox is the only one that we've found that we can just set and then forget. It simply works. It is the best.

Its speed in carrying out functions is good. We've never experienced any performance issues. We've never noticed any delays. If we have to do a manual update, when we click update, within moments, we can tell that our computers are being updated. The actual UI is quick. Navigating between menus is seamless, and the actual communication between the console and the clients is seemingly instant as well. So, everything is as fast and quick as it can be.

It doesn't require much brainpower to navigate the UI and to figure out how to update. Building schedules and different groups is very intuitive. It is just a matter of a few checkboxes, and they've got great examples already in the software when you first get hold of it. Their support staff is fantastic in helping you get those configured if you do have any questions, but the likelihood of you needing that is pretty minimal. It is built to make sense.

It is very simple to set up policies using Automox. They've got several sample policies that are actually out there when you get access to the portal. The process is very simple. They've already got the samples out there, and it is so easy to duplicate them and modify them the way you want. It is just a matter of clicking a few checkboxes. It does not take much at all.

The only thing that we've ever truly wanted is an onsite repository. Currently, all updates are provided directly from the internet. So, if you have 1,000 devices, all 1,000 devices go directly out to the internet. We would love the option of being able to put the updates on local storage so that we're not consuming as much bandwidth. That is literally the only thing that we've ever wanted.

My company and I've been using it for about a year. We signed it about a year ago.

I have never noticed it go down for anything, and I have never been made aware of a maintenance window. Every time I've tried to access it, it is online and working. It is pretty stable.

We have a little over 1,400 devices, and we've not noticed any slowness or any issues. I know there are much larger environments out there, but for us, it is pretty scalable. We've had no concerns about deploying it even further, and we've had no qualms about adding more devices.

We have about 18 people in the console. They range from our network admins and server admins to our help desk technicians, and then, of course, there is our actual IT admin as well.

It is on every single device in the city with the exception of devices it can't be installed on, such as iOS devices like iPads or phones. We've got around 600 phones in our environment and a couple of hundred iPads. Obviously, we can't patch those, but they're being managed through another solution. 

It is as extensive as it could get. The client is on every single PC in the city. There are no intentions of expanding its usage unless we just buy new PCs because it is already on everything.

Every time I've dealt with them, they respond almost instantly. They've always been a breeze to work with. I would rate them a 10 out of 10.

We've been trying to use SysAid's patch management, and the reason we switched from it is that it simply did not work. Genuinely, we were never able to get it to actually patch. It would tell us that the machines are patched, and when we looked at the machines, it had failed to do so.

Before that, we used a combination of WSUS and a lot of the stuff that Microsoft provides natively. While it actually worked, it was just very time-consuming. It took hours upon hours to manage it, and it just simply wasn't the right solution for us. It also struggled with a lot of our remote machines such as the computers in the police vehicles and so forth and so on. Those are the two main reasons that I can recall. There are probably a few more.

SysAid is technically on-prem, and so is WSUS. WSUS is kind of cheating because Microsoft provides a lot of those tools for free. Outside of just the cost there, we were spending an incredible amount of manhour time, which obviously adds up. With Automox, we pay the fee, and we don't have any in-house bare metal costs. We are just paying their annual fee, and we are spending almost no manpower on it. In the end, even if it were to cost a little more than Microsoft's native solution, the time-saving ability to potentially recover almost an entire person's salary is a pretty big deal.

I could have slept through it. It was very simple. It took minutes when we first set it up. The console was already configured. We installed a couple of agents, and within minutes, they showed me how to use it. There were very few questions after that. They give you kind of a rundown of standard practice about how they recommend setting up servers versus just traditional clients. It was painless and very easy. It was the least time-consuming thing I've ever done.

Deployment took a long time just from our side because we had other things going on. It took no time at all in terms of Automox giving us full reigns over the software. The day after signing the contract, we were on the phone with their engineers. We already had the environment set up, and everything was kosher. So, it took just a day. They had offered to help us with the deployment to all of our clients, but we just politely declined because we knew we wouldn't be able to focus on it.

In terms of the implementation strategy, because we are a government organization and we have a lot of projects going on, our main focus was ensuring that our whole critical infrastructure has the clients so that we can make sure all critical systems are getting patched and are up to date. So, our main focus was getting our servers updated to the front line, and then from there, we started updating all the core infrastructure that is actually attached to our network. We have a lot of satellite sites and places like landfills and water reclamation that aren't directly connected to us. They're just connected via VPN. So, our main focus was getting all of our core infrastructure updated, which was a pretty quick process.

We made use of Automox's free trial before deciding to go with it. It was very important in our decision to go with Automox. Being able to put your hands on it and actually use it in a live environment has a huge benefit. During our trial, we probably got about a hundred devices on it and made sure it worked. We were able to show it off to the other folks in IT and let them drive in it for a little bit to see if they saw any big red flags as to why we shouldn't purchase it. Once we made sure everybody was on board, we pulled the trigger, but it was a great experience. The free trial was very important.

For deployment, we had three people involved, but they really weren't required. We had our two network admins and me. Essentially, that was just so that we could get familiarity with the product and how it worked, and then from there, we began deploying the clients automatically, and they automatically enroll in Automox. So, when you're doing the install, you have silent install options that allow you to put them in groups and assign them to different policies and things of that nature. So, literally, you can do it hands-off and never even touch it. It doesn't require any maintenance.

We didn't take Automox's help for deployment. We ended up signing directly with Automox. We didn't go through a reseller at all. So, everything was directly through Automox.

We have not calculated ROI. We're happy with it. It works, and there is no reason to try to justify it.

We're doing it annually directly through Automox. It is per endpoint. It is $2 and some change per endpoint, but I believe the cost is right around $28,000. Everything is covered in this fee.

We looked at Tanium and one more solution. With Tanium, we didn't have any problems with the patching itself, but patching is a second thought to them. It is not their product. It is just an add-on to their product. Their portal was very cluttered and convoluted, and it had a lot more stuff that we would never have needed. The other one was strictly cost. Automox was very affordable for us, and for the options it gave us and for its reliability, it just made sense.

I would advise others to just try it. The demo is free. There is no risk. They don't ask for any information. You can just install the clients on some of your endpoints, and you'll be able to see very quickly that Automox works. Given the pricing, it is just a no-brainer to go with. The biggest lesson that I have learned from using Automox is that there is actually a patch manager that works. We had started to doubt that there was anything out there.

I would rate Automox a 10 out of 10. It has been a very pleasant experience.

We primarily use it on the endpoint management and on the server.

It is very simple and straightforward to use. 

Technical support is helpful.

They can scale well.

It's easy to deploy agents to endpoints. 

They need to improve the automation features. 

It could be more stable. 

I've been using the solution for one year. 

The solution is not very stable. Some of the features we tested or used would not work as expected. I'd rate the stability six out of ten. 

The solution can scale and is straightforward to extend. You can place it on as many endpoints as you like. I'd rate the scalability seven out of ten. We have around 4,000 end users. 

I do not have plans to increase usage. I stopped using it recently.

Support is very helpful if you run into issues. It's quite good. They are fast, knowledgeable, and responsive.

Neutral

I've never used a different solution.

We just need to deploy the agent to the endpoints. We don't need to set up anything. For a single agent, it takes one or two minutes. However, we deployed globally, and you need to take into consideration the time it will take to deploy across each endpoint. It's very simple to deploy. 

We had three or four engineers take care of the implementation. 

We deployed the solution ourselves. 

We have not witnessed any ROI.

We do pay a monthly licensing fee. 

I'd rate the pricing as average. It's not cheap yet not too expensive. 

You can also pay for more support if you require them to provide consultancy services. 

This is a cloud-based version that updates by itself automatically. 

I'd recommend the solution to others. 

I would rate the solution seven out of ten overall. 

It's good for endpoints. However, it's not as good on the server end. There is overhead for you when you deploy on the server. 

We use it to patch distributed networks for offices that have different locations, such as home users and the like. Especially with COVID, people are working from home and computers are not all on-premises. We have customers that have over 1,000 nodes.

It saves about 50 percent of the time that used to be put into patch management.

Among the most valuable features are its ease of use and the Worklets. Both of them are time-savers. Worklets enable us to customize things for a given environment. It's something like when Apple lets other people create applications. Other peoples' Worklets can be used in our environment and in our customers' environments. That saves a lot of time, and it's really cool.

It's also extremely important that the solution is a cloud-native platform because of the distribution of networks and where the things that are being patched are located. They're not all in one place, and neither are the people doing the patching. When you have people patching from different locations—and a lot of this is due to COVID, with people not being in the office—a cloud-native platform is what you need.

Automox also provides visibility for any laptop, desktop, or server in an environment, regardless of whether they are on-prem, in the cloud, or on the move. Visibility is key to security; you can't protect what you can't see. That's the biggest reason that the visibility it provides is important. There is also an ease-of-use aspect. No one has time to track down people and continually remind them that they have to patch. And you can't count on the security of an unpatched computer coming into your network, or on a situation where a person thinks they have patched it but it hasn't been patched. The ability to see what's on an endpoint before it connects to anything is key to the security picture.

In addition, the patch management it provides, from a single console, across Windows, macOS, and Linux endpoints is excellent because of the completeness of the platforms it supports and the things that get patched. WSUS only patches Windows, but nobody has just Windows. With Automox you can patch multiple platforms and multiple vendors' software in the same place. You don't have to patch using WSUS and then remember to manually patch anything with Adobe or Java. You can do it all from Automox. The cross-platform feature is extremely important. If I could just use WSUS and call it good, I would do that, but I can't.

The patching automation is also excellent. It makes things much easier, again, saving us time. There is also the level of confidence it creates, meaning that I'm not wondering if everything got done.

And the speed of Automox speed in carrying out its functions is great. We haven't seen any problems in that area.

I've been using Automox for about three years.

The stability has come a long way from what it was like when it started and now it's really good. Automox wasn't unstable software when it first came out, but like any new software, it was more a case of things getting developed as they were going along. It's really awesome now.

The scalability of the solution is really good. It's really easy to scale. We've deployed it for our small environment and all the way up to 1,500 users. We have one company right now that is growing, and they're about to add another 300 users.

We plan to increase the use of Automox for our customers.

I have not talked to their technical support personally, but I always hear from my customers if something's not right, and I have not heard from them about Automox's support.

Positive

Two of my customers used Kaspersky and that was actually part of our motivation, as a partner, for getting on the train. Automox was one of the only solutions dedicated to patching. All the endpoint security products had patching as an add-on and it was extremely cumbersome, inconsistent, didn't work well, and would sometimes hang. With those solutions, I got a lot of complaints, especially from one of our customers that has over 1,000 nodes. It was an absolute nightmare. I have not heard a thing since we switched to Automox.

Before using Automox we did the free trial and it went well. We always like to trial stuff and back out if needed. It was very helpful knowing they have the free trial.

The initial setup is straightforward.

I walked through it with one of our customers that has 1,200 or 1,500 endpoints, and I was extremely impressed with the Automox customer success team. They were great on the calls that we had and how they walked through things. We were scheduled for four or five calls but when we got to the end of the third call, the customer said, "You know what? We're good. This was so easy. We're all set up and rocking and rolling." We didn't have to do the rest of the calls. That almost never happens in our world and was really great.

Setting up of policies is really easy.

For that client I just mentioned, they had it rolled out in eight to 10 hours, and that was a fairly large deployment. I know that they were very surprised at how fast it went. When we set up Automox for ourselves, internally, it took less than an hour because we only have about 20 nodes.

The cost is very reasonable compared to the competition.

We went straight to Automox, because we were selling it.

I am a strong proponent of Automox. It's a huge time-saver, it's accurate, it's easier to use, and it's way more stable than any endpoint security add-on. I don't know every product out there, but I have not heard of any other solutions that are just as good or better.

We have two customers with over 1,000 nodes, and one of them, after using Automox for a year, did a three-year renewal. I have heard nothing negative from the other one and I can promise you I would hear if they weren't happy.

We use Automox for patch management, software distribution, and to implement security controls. Any time we have to connect to a machine and run an automated process, we use Automox. The solution gives us complete visibility for any laptop, desktop, or server in our environment regardless of where they are located. Automox gives us the tools for writing scripts to see even more if we need to.

We use the Automox worklets to create and automate customized tasks across endpoints all the time. We love going in and using the worklets to find solutions for common day to day stuff. Sometimes it's a worklet that we run on one machine, and sometimes it's a worklet that needs to be run on every machine in the environment. We use them all the time.

One example is when we had an old antivirus that was on all our machines and we had a new antivirus that we needed to apply to the machines. So we created a worklet script that in one step removed the old antivirus. It was complicated because it had to check many buttons to guarantee that the old antivirus was removed and install the new antivirus, and then give us a report at the end that it was installed securely and effectively. So it was a complicated and long worklet, but it was very effective.

Automox has improved our organization in the security sense. We created a worklet that allows us to harden a machine after an employee leaves. So the scenario is, for example, that we terminate an employee in the middle of a workday, maybe on a Wednesday at noon. We don't want that employee to log back into his machine or to extract data or to do anything dangerous. Automox gives us the ability to create tools so that we can make some changes inside that laptop. This way the person cannot log in as usual. And just by virtue of having an agent on the machine from Automox, with creativity from us or the user base, we can get some great things done.

Automox has saved us on multiple tasks at least 10 to 15 hours a week. There are times when I don't even know how we would have done some of the things that we do today without Automox. I can't even put that into time, but just having Automox at our fingertips has enabled us to do stuff so much quicker, so much easier.

The flexibility in creating tools to make changes on remote machines is most valuable to me. The reporting feature is also fantastic because on any given day I can bring up a list of machines that don't have patches, for example. Or I can bring up a list of machines that are in my environment on a certain day. The solution helps me with not only my own role, and what I look for internally myself, but it also helps during audits. I can go in and look at the number of machines in there, and their owners and timelines. It certainly helps tell a story for anything that IT requires.

Being a cloud-native platform was one of the features and reasons we went with Automox. Having machines that are hosted in a particular facility is limited in a lot of cases to VPNs and subject to slowness and outages.

Automated patching has helped us to a great degree to know that patches will happen regardless of whether we jump in or not. And it's a positive feature.

I'm not sure about areas of room for improvement. Basically, just improving the product or building more features into the product will help us. For example, asset management would be a great feature to add to Automox. We would run easier scripts or more out of the box scripts that would help us in audits. It's not a defect in the product. It's just that the product is so strong that I think Automox could add even greater functionality. They're doing it every day and they're adding features all the time. It's just that you start dreaming about all the things you could do with Automox and asset management is one of the things that really resonates with us.

We've been using Automox for a little over two years now.

Scalability works fine, and all the scalability is in the cloud with Automox. They make it easy to do this. As they've grown, it's become obvious that it's easier to do it. Initially, when we bought the product, it was a little challenging as they were growing while we were growing. Yet they provided the tools to be able to scale, as needed, very effectively.

I can't give you exact numbers, because it changes on a daily basis, but we are monitoring thousands of endpoints. We have end-user endpoints that are probably in the 1500 and above position. And we have server nodes that are probably close to thousands.

At this stage, we've 100% adopted the solution so we don't have plans to increase our usage. There's not a computer server of ours that hasn't gotten the agent and is not fully implemented into the Automox way of thinking. As we bring clients online for new hires, they have the Automox agent ready to be deployed in the scripts. The minute the person has his machine and is using it, he's Automox ready.

I would rate Automox technical support as really excellent. There were times when we needed them. We haven't always gotten the answer back immediately because they've misunderstood what we said or something has happened. Yet the quality of the people answering our questions, and the attentiveness to our business, is way beyond what we get with comparable tools and products from much bigger companies. We're really, really happy with the support we get from Automox.

Before Automox, we used a home grown solution. It's something that we put together ourselves that wasn't ideal for a growing company.

It takes a little bit of time to ramp up and understand how the Automox tool works and how effective it can be. So once you put a few days of moving through the system and understanding it, the solution becomes very easy to use.

The solution setup is straightforward. We have some intelligent people who were involved in the patching process, who understand Active Directory, who understand the patching process and understand internally our users and how they work. All along the way, AutoMox was excellent in providing us with all the help and resources we needed to understand how to do stuff. They were there for our questions and suggestions as we hit roadblocks, and to try and figure out different ways of doing things. They were instrumental in getting us up and running very quickly.

I think it took us two or three weeks to get comfortable with how we had set it up and to start not only pushing out the first patches, but also to try and run different software packages and do different things with it. We didn't exclusively dedicate time to AutoMox. We jumped in and out for a period of two weeks while emailing support at AutoMox on maybe one or two questions. We were up and running very, very quickly.

Being a small company, we realized that we needed a product that would do the work. Our implementation was essentially just to look at what we had existing in our patch rollout tool prior to AutoMox, and to get AutoMox side-by-side with this tool and copy over dates, times, groups. This way we could get the patches rolled out whilst at the same time, we're looking at our software management tool. The team had no trouble setting up policies with Automox.

We have seen a return on our investment. Number one, fewer man hours are spent trying to understand how to roll out patches. Number two is reporting. You can go inside Automox and get reports to see exactly what you have. 

The visibility, far beyond patching, allows us to see which machines have what sort of software installed, or which users are using old hardware. The old hardware is all available inside so you can go in and say, "Show me everybody who's using this particular model of a laptop, which is four to five years old." You can plan to reach out to these people in good time and get them swapped out with newer hardware. So the list of things is endless. It's just really up to the user to be creative in how they use it.

Automox just charges us a set amount per user, per month, for using the product. That is very important to us. Because it's a cloud-native solution, you're saving on the cost of hosting an on-premises solution on your servers.

We looked at some solutions that were similar yet they were hosted on site. Being a cloud native platform was a reason we ultimately chose Automox. Not having an appliance in our environment was very positive. Not having to pay for the bandwidth and the power of that appliance in our environment was positive.

We did a brief proof of concept with Automox and it worked well, so we were already sold by the time we had seen the demo. We understood the pricing and we understood all the other features that they'd shown us. The demo was important, but our minds were already made up. We liked what we saw.

We looked at an IBM solution, but I can't remember the name of the solution. We also looked at another third party solution that I can't remember the name of either. The IBM solution was extremely costly. It required $250,000 in upfront money, and a lot of learning. It even required that we had onsite hardware. The other solution that we looked at was semi-cloud-based and it also required a lot of capital investment into the product. The beauty of Automox is that there is no upfront money. There is no server that needs to be installed in your environment. The pricing is all based upon what you use and everything is in the cloud. It works much better than the other solutions that we evaluated.

Cross-platform patch management is very important because we have a diverse environment and need the flexibility of one tool that can do everything. We automate our patching via Automox and also manage it manually. We have automation set up that runs once a month on a certain date. Then we go in and discuss elements of the business that would stop us giving certain patches to people on a certain day. So automation is in place, but we do sit down and have a hard think every month about whether the date that we're planning to roll out the patches works or if there are any changes that we need to make prior to the patch roll out.

The solution provides patch management from a single console across Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. It gives us the ability to manage all our endpoints for patching in a single pane of glass with advanced features that enable us to turn on, turn off, change days, and change the criteria for how patches are delivered to certain groups of machines. The patch management console requires an owner, a person who will be dedicated to managing patching going forward. Once that person is trained, they become a master in how to do it. So it's not the most simple thing if you want to use advanced features, but it's very effective in helping you see everything that you need to patch at your fingertips and to edit it easier.

Automox works quickly to do its job and it will try to find machines that are turned on to implement workloads or patches. Sometimes if you want something done you're at the mercy of people having their machines turned on. The beauty is that even if a machine is not on and it only comes online later in the day or a week later, Automox realizes that this machine is missing worklets, patches, tools, or software, and installs them after the fact.

Automox has downtime when they provide maintenance, but they keep it to off-business hours. So it rarely impacts businesses who are using it. There were times in the past, when they realized that they were close to capacity, and they asked for feedback on how things were working. Then they made changes with some downtime to facilitate being a better product and this is completely understandable. Being in the software business ourselves, and hosting solutions for customers, we realize that sometimes you can do 95% of your maintenance off-hours, as we do. But sometimes, you need to impact the business day in the event that there are large changes that need to be made.

I would say go try and buy. You don't have to make a huge capital investment to try out the solution and see if it fits your environment. They're a great company to work with on multiple levels because their product works. It's efficient, easy to implement and consistently delivers. Don't be afraid to reach out to them with any questions. They work like a company in 2021 should. They're very attentive to their customers for everything from billing to technical support, to all sorts of interactions. Automox has very modern day thinking.

As an IT company which is a managed security provider and managed services provider, we use Automox primarily for our own internal patching and policy management and, also, for reselling it to our client base. We are talking about the same product for the same solution set. We simply resell it.

Automox has improved our organization when it comes to the more traditional use we were making of RMM or remote monitoring and management solutions. Admittedly, some of the stories in the news over the last few years of managed service providers being hacked or compromised and of the hackers managing to obtain access to the RMM solution and to push out ransomware frightened us. While a person who was really intent on this could do the same with Automox, it would be more difficult as the solution has a lighter-touch. 

This makes it more lightweight than some of the RMM solutions. As it's a bit more complicated, a person would need a good grasp of what he's doing with scripting. In contrast, with some of the traditional RMM solutions, all a person needs to do is state his desire to run a given file and he will receive the help he needs. As such, we think it's a bit more secure than a standard RMM solution. Owing to its lightweight nature, it doesn't consume many system resources. This allows users to have a better overall experience, as their computer's are not getting bogged down by another agent that is consuming its resources.

Furthermore, Automox provides complete visibility for any laptop, desktop or server in our environment, regardless of whether the person is on the train, in the cloud or on the move. This is a very important feature for us, the reason being that these capabilities traditionally only exist on machines when they're in the office or in a defined place. Yet, there has been a general trend over the past three to five years, and particularly during the last year with the Covid-19 pandemic, towards working remotely, with people commuting to the office only several days each week. As such, it is a valuable feature to be capable of insights and machines regardless of their location and to be sure of our abilities to patch and manage them.

Additionally, the solution's speed in carrying out its functions is quite good. There are a couple of different use cases for patching. We have, indeed, set patch schedules and we have found that if we state our desire to patch a group of machines at 10:00 AM, they will all be patched at this time. There's no delay or staggering when those machines get patched. Also, from the scripting side, we can send out commands and they're often received by the end point within 30 seconds. Things are so nice and responsive, whether we're just performing a scheduled task or going into the console and doing something manually. Things just happen, which is nice.

Also, we make use of Automox's API functionality, although just for monthly reporting and we do so to make sure that we're getting accurate agent counts. I can slice up the reporting however I wish via the API, but I know there's much functionality involved in running through it such things as commands and patching. While we don't use it for that, I do utilize the API functionality.

Overall, the solution has definitely saved us lots of time, although an exact figure would be difficult to calculate. I would put the conservative figure at 20 hours each month. In the past we utilized a person whose job it would be to go in and manage patching, review everything and reach out to make sure that things are getting patched. In the past we could not even be certain that what we were using was actually patching the machines. The savings in time is incalculable to me.

The most valuable feature is the patching. The fact that it's just one product that can patch multiple operating systems is really great. We've been utilizing a feature called Worklets, which basically allows one to script, simply to run code on the machines on which it's installed. This we've been using to manage certain endpoint policies for some of our smaller clients who lack an alternate solution for doing this. 

Moreover, we value the patching capability of this solution and the fact that it's a single console across Windows, Mac OS, Linux and Points. Our impression of the solution's console for patch management, in particular, is that it's quite good. We have seen many improvement made since we started using the product over the last six months or so. A really big push has been made to consolidate numerous features within the console and to make it a little more accessible... Every month it seems like some updates to the console are being released which makes things easier. I trust that, over time, the product will be as efficient as it could possibly be.

We use solutions worklets to create and automate customized tasks across endpoints and we consider it very important that they enable us to enforce tasks across all managed endpoints.

Some of our clients in, say, just a five person office, do not have a traditional, single central server which can manage policies that are then pushed out to various end points. So, we can use Automox to enforce policies locally on each machine, in addition to running one-off tasks and performing some basic management functions. For some of these clients this a really big sell. If we could only offer patching capabilities, maybe these clients would be more on the fence about purchasing. Yet, since we can help manage their end points, in addition to doing the patching and getting some of the other visibility that we get, it helps us to make the sale.

When it comes to policies, it is relatively easy to do setup via Automox. It is true that there are some complex use cases, especially as a person starts getting into work, at which point things can get a little more confusing. However, the general process of setting up a policy is quite easy.

Furthermore, we felt it to be very important to make use of Automox's free trial before going with this solution. We also took into account its availability. We are talking about an investment. One should not buy a product if he can't first try it out. This is standard procedure in the IT world. We considered this to be huge. We felt it important to get in there, deploy and play around with it, to break it a couple times and figure out how we can use it.

Overall, the ease of use is very good. However, in respect of the patching concepts, there's a bit of a learning curve in terms of understanding how Automox wants you to work within the console, not only splitting up everything into groups, but then having the various policies assigned, which is the point at which they all kick off. I admit that if we were a single organization or simply managing one, it would work a little better. Since we have so many different clients as a reseller, it makes it really complicated. As I know this is something the company is striving to improve in development, I can say that the product is great for the management of only a single environment. Only because of the issue with our specific use case would I knock it down a mark.

Furthermore, as we are managing multiple customers within a single portal, there needs to be a procedure in place for adding a new organization for each new client. The problem concerning the patch policies and all the workloads is that what is set up in one organization is not transferable when creating a new organization. This means that we have fifteen or twenty policies defined within a given organization. As such , it is a pain to make a new organization. It takes a lot of time.

Moreover, we have to recreate everything. While I know this issue is actively being addressed in development, I am left without a solution for the moment. This is definitely a sore point. While access control for users does allow me to grant user-specific access to a particular group within an organization, I must provide access to the organization as a whole. This is a pain, as it sometimes requires us to set up new organizations.

So too, patches and policies, when applied to a parent group, do not trickle down to any of the groups that are nested under the parent group. Consequently, if we have a group of Windows machines, and beneath each one of that parent group there appears each possible client, then every time that I wish to create a new client and put it under Windows Workstations I must apply new patch policies, or the same existing policies to that new group. It would be a lot easier if policies were just inherited from a parent group. Then, we could simply manage them in one place. It is true that all these issues can be surmounted, yet, as we scale as an organization, we are certainly looking to hire more junior members of staff to manage these things.

This complicates things for someone who is coming in with no experience. Certain features are typically included in a system, policies that are inherited from a parent group, so it's strange that in this instance this is not the case. These are some of the big things that come to mind. 

From the user's perspective, the product does allow notifications to be shown on his workstation when the patching is about to happen or when a machine needs to be rebooted. While updating the user about an impending patch to his machine is certainly useful, there is no status provided of the patching. 

I am always giving thought to the significant updates to the Windows features. A user who requests that a patch be made at a given moment cannot truly know what's getting patched. Also, this process can take an inordinate amount of time. There are times when a user will simply put a machine to sleep in the middle of a patch or do something to cause it to fail. A user lacks visibility into what's happening. He is aware only that his machine is about to patch and is left with the question of the best way to manage it. A large Enterprise company with an IT team may have a systems administrator who's only managing patching, perhaps sending out notifications to their users at all times.

Moreover, the process of keeping the user in the loop should be made easier. A company such as ours, which has several small clients, or one which is a small client itself, will remain in the dark and have to satisfy itself with the knowledge that the machine is getting patched. Consequently, I wish there would be more insight on the front end. It is here that problems and complaints arise. 

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate this product an eight. I say this only because of the issue that presents itself in our use case concerning the multi-tenancy set up. If more organizations were being contemplated, Automox would meet all of our criteria, be deemed by us to be a great product and would merit a 10 for sure. However, I feel Automox's present quirks in its ability to manage multiple clients to constitute its weakest point. This said, I know the company is actively working on this issue and am confident that it will be successful in addressing it. 

We have been using Automox for around 18 months. 

Being cloud-based, the availability of this solution and stability of our agents is very good. We haven't had any outages that I recall, so we trust that the agents are reporting in.
We don't tend to lose agents. We have not encountered computers that simply stop reporting in for no reason. Moreover, we've always been able to get into the console to do work, so I've been very happy with the availability.

The scalability of the solution is quite good. We have a couple of issues in terms of our multi-tenant environment, but in terms of scalability, as an individual organization, I see none. A minor point I would mention is that there are occasionally some load time issues in the console when trying to load a page in the realm of 500 devices.

Automox's technical support for their product is very good. They're responsive, they're knowledgeable and they help out when needed. I have encountered no issues in which a support case has dragged on or where concerns have been brushed off. The technical support always answers things directly and quickly.

Prior to using Automox we made use of the EMM solution Continuum RMM for patching and for numerous other tasks.

We switched to Automox because we wanted something that has a bit of a lighter touch. It is pretty incredible to think of the the number of agents that get put on people's machines nowadays. As a consequence, we were looking for something that would consume fewer system resources. We wanted something that wasn't so completely hooked into the system at every level. Automox really is a very lightweight agent. All it does is relay PowerShell or Bash commands. It's not really running processes that are hooked so deeply into the system that we would have another administrator account on the computer.

This is not its default function, although I suppose it can be utilized in this manner. What I mentioned was really appealing to us. So was the reliability and the ease with which we can simply go into the console and see what is going on. Our primary focus is to continue with patching and this was the big thing for us. Not only was it very difficult to see what was getting patched, but, while this was being undertaken, to trust that the reporting was accurate and that the machines were actually getting patched and reporting in. We switched because this was becoming cumbersome.

The initial setup was straightforward and it's gotten more so. Improvements are being made to this.

The deployment may be accomplished in a couple of different ways. Broadly speaking, for the majority of our machines, which are Windows-based, we can customize an installer so that it can then be supplied to the client. All one would need do is double click and run the installer. That is all. This marks an improvement in the product from a year-and-a-half ago, which is when we first started utilizing the process. Yet, even at its most complex, we are really only talking about one installer that the client runs and then copies and pastes into a site token. Because we're managing the policies, it's all set up in the back end and all the user has to do is install an agent. There's no other configuration to be done on the user's computer, which is great. So, really, it can be easily deployed by anyone, as long as he knows how to run an installer. At this point, he will be good to go.

We have seen a return on our investment with Automox, although it is difficult for me to quantify. I do know that our consultants who utilize the product have had a good response. Also, I know that, simply from a management perspective, it makes things super easy to accomplish.

I feel that Automox is reasonably priced. If a person only wishes to patch Windows machines, there are probably cheaper solutions available, but this would be applicable to no more than a small percentage of organizations. As most organizations have a mix of MACs and Windows, it is certainly of great value to have one product that can handle both operating systems and Linux, as well.

This definitely increases the product's value. To be honest, I think we're on a bit of a different pricing model, because we resell. While I know that we get volume discounts the more that we sell, I have no idea if this would apply to a single organization that bought directly from Automox. I don't know how that works. However, I do believe that a person should investigate volume pricing. It is likely this would be relevant, or, alternately, that it would be advisable to purchase from a reseller, such as Williams Cybersecurity.

Moreover, we can get you a good deal. The product is a great value. It can provide a bunch of different types of functionality all in one place, it's easy to manage and it scales well, whether a company has five people or 50,000.

Ivanti Patch management was another solution we evaluated. We didn't go with this solution because it was only for on-premise Windows machines. Straight off the bat, we considered this a no-go.

There was, yet, another solution we considered, but its primary use was only for the patching of Windows machines. As such, even though it patched Windows machines anywhere they were connected to the internet, it would do so for these only. The main deciding factors in favor of Automox was the fact that it could patch multiple operating systems, that it could do so from anywhere that they had an internet connection, and that the agent is lightweight.

So too, when evaluating other solutions, we took into account the cost difference between those that are on-premise and the cloud-based feature of Automox. I recall that Ivanti is really expensive and on-premise only. We took this into account, as well. Of course, if it was something that we had to host or which had to be deployed at a client site, we would have done so. It wouldn't have been a deal breaker for us, but it certainly makes it easier when you don't have this to manage.

A nice feature about Automox is that it allows us to tell a customer "we're rebooting the computer in 15 minutes. You have no choice." So, depending on the environment, that can either be a pro or a con. This requires an understanding of the workload and the fact that  software can be fairly easily deployed through Automox. The advantage is that when a person is in the process of undertaking a series of manual installations or managements, he can have an understanding of what can be accomplished with Automox. This way, he may try to include this in his setup workflows as quickly as possible and to assess the potential benefit.

Of primary importance is acquiring an understanding of what the default experience is straight out of the box. The solution tries to patch by default. It does not satisfy itself with merely trying to reboot and sending out a slew of automatic notifications. Mostly, a person could simply set the default patch policy to "patch everything" and this wouldn't always work, especially on Windows machines. Therefore, it is important to learn how to stagger patches week by week or day by day, even if one needs a patch quickly, rather than simply accepting the defaults as being good. While the solution is easy to set up, there are still some configurations involved to ensure that everything happens cleanly. That can take some time to figure out.

The present size of the environment that we are managing with Automox is around 1,500 agents and we have four IT consultants who work with the product. 

My advice to others who have not already purchased the product or are in the process of considering its implementation or use would be to take advantage of the free trial.

Automox facilitates an understanding of how to set up one's groups, the manner in which the notifications are employed, and how there are reboots referrals and patching deferrals. It enables the person to properly understand the product's capabilities and affords him the opportunity to match this up with the tolerance for patching in the organization. I think that, by default, Automox is really aggressive, especially in terms of forcing patching reboots. This will result in unhappy users if one is not careful and immediately proceeds with its deployment. As such, it is really important to properly understand what those defaults are and the default user experience.

I work for B/Net Systems. We are a managed services provider, which is outsourced IT. We have a lot of clients, mostly in the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan area. We do as much or as little of their tech work as needed. A lot of the work that we do, really the bread and butter, is what we call monthly maintenance. That is making sure that all the computers are healthy each month. This involves a lot of software patching, making sure there is free disk space, ensuring there isn't anything in the error logs, etc. Automox helps us manage the software update part. It is really great because it manages software updates for every piece of software on the computer. 

It has been a huge time saver and efficiency improvement tool. It goes down on a very deep level. It is checking stuff that we weren't even checking. While we were just checking the top line application software, we weren't really getting into the subsystem level. The tool does all that. It is all logged, and it is a big help.

We use their automation for patching. We let them do it. We have discovered all sorts of things, and a lot of it has to do with user behavior. For any type of software, you sometimes can update it in place and sometimes it requires a restart. That is because the application needs to shut down so you can install the patch, then it has to restart. Sometimes you can shut down the application, whereas other times it requires a machine to restart. We found that Automox would pop up, and say, "Hey, I am going to restart your machine. Is that okay?" and people would say, "No, I am busy. I am working on something right now." They would consistently defer it, and it never happened. Then, guess what? A month later, they are still not up to date. 

The biggest reason for doing software updates these days is the security aspect. Some developers found some sort of hole and put out a patch, so it's a security thing and you just want to make sure that you are as secure as possible. If you are in my position where we are taking the responsibility for our clients' technology, we absolutely have a responsibility to make sure that it is as secure as possible. Therefore, this is a real problem. We had to talk to our clients, and say, "You need a human policy where we all agree, for example, Friday at six o'clock that your machine will be restarted. You will get one opportunity to defer it. However, the next time it turns on, it will ask you again, and if you don't do it, then the next time it tells you, it will restart." We can customize all that. Some clients will give us two times and others give us three times to defer it, or make it on a Saturday. It is little things like that which make the tool great. 

It is important to us that this solution is a cloud-native platform. That is kind of how our business is set up. The whole world has been moving to the cloud over the past few years, but we have always tried to be cloud-centric. We don't have a physical office because no one comes to visit us, so we try to push as much as we can to the cloud for all the usual reasons: It is more scalable and robust as well as the security will generally be better. Features can get added on the back-end, and we will wake up one day, and say, "Oh cool. You can now do this in AutoMax and we couldn't do this last week." So, it is great.

For our Windows clients, it has been a huge help because we can now just go to the Automox dashboard and look at literally every single piece of software on that computer, even subsystems stuff that isn't an application that you would recognize, e.g., driver updates. It is great because we can see on the dashboard when something is up to date, and when it is not.

The interface is great. It is easy to use. It is really easy to see and drill down into systems that are compliant and also see where they are not compliant. You can push out updates. So, if for some reason that the Chrome update didn't take, then you can push out the updates from Automox, and say, "Hey, try it again." If it doesn't work after a couple of tries, then we can always remote into the user's computer and do it manually. This has been a huge time saver and convenience for our clients and us because we do almost everything remotely. We have been set up like that from the beginning. 

It was a different ball game when I started this back in the 90s, because everyone had a desktop computer. If you had to remote in, assuming they left it on, you could just get into it after hours because no one was taking their desktop computer home. Right now, everybody is on laptops and taking the laptops with them everywhere. As soon as they close the lid, it is in sleep mode and we can't get in. Having a tool like Automox means we do not have to chase around our clients, and say, "We need to install this thing. It didn't work. Can we pick a time on Friday afternoon?" They reply, "Friday afternoon at three o'clock is okay." and we set a calendar appointment. Then, we try to get in and can't. When we talk to the person. "Oh, something came up at work. I'm sorry, but can we do this next week?" We wind up chasing them around for days before we get a time to do it. Automox cuts through all of that. We just go to Automox, and say, "Push out a new update and apply it." We can tell if it took or not from the dashboard. It has made our workflow very efficient. Instead of chasing around people, trying to line up remote sessions and schedule them, we can actually work on other stuff. It has been a great tool for this.

A challenging thing, which isn't really Automox's fault, is updating hardware drivers. The software part is great, but a driver is a piece of software that lets the hardware interface with the operating system. For example, you will see that Dell EMC will put out drivers for their network adapters and it fixes some problems. For some reason, the hardware manufacturers keep very close to themselves. You need to go to the Dell EMC if you want to use Dell EMC tools to upgrade Dell EMC drivers. This could be any hardware manufacturer, not just Dell EMC. It would be great if Automox could do this too. However, it could be that it is not their fault that the hardware manufacturers don't want to give that up. This is only kind of a minor quibble that I have with it.

I know they are going to fix this because I have talked to them multiple times and complained about it. Our company B/Net Systems has an account with Automox. Under our parent company, we have these different child organizations who are essentially our clients, like XYZ corporation and ABC lobbying group. They are all listed with all their computers under each one. This seems like a minor thing, but it is a real headache. You would think that we could put all our technicians on the parent level and set permissions on who can do what, so we have billing people, technical people, managers, etc., then we set it up. You would hope you could set it up at the parent level and have it be inherited by the child organizations. However, when we bring on a new client, we need to go into that client and manually set up my account, my chief engineer's account, three technicians' accounts, and a billing person's account all over again, which is annoying. We have probably up to 15 or 16 of our clients on Automox now. For every single one of those, we have had to go in and set this up. Then, if anything changes, we have to remember to go to Automox and change it 15 or 16 times. So, we just want inheritable permissions, and that is it. We have talked to them about this, and they are like, "Yeah, we hear a lot of complaints about it." I am thinking, "Guys, I have been complaining about this for a year and a half. When are you going to do it?" It must be some tricky thing or not an easy fix, because I can only assume if it were easy, then they would have done it by now.

I wish we could create an inheritable policy too. That would be awesome because every time when something declines we have to set up a brand new policy all over again exactly like the other 16 that we already have. This is growing pains stuff, and they are going to figure this out at some point. Hopefully, in the near future, they will have inheritability.

Automox doesn't do Macs, so it doesn't help us there.

We have been using Automox for a little under two years.

We have had zero problems. As far as I know, I have not had any indication that the agent is unstable. It seems to be pretty solid.

It seems scalable. We operate in this space where we are working with small- and medium-sized enterprises, nothing like thousands and thousands of machines. However, we have hundreds and hundreds of machines on it, and it has scaled just fine with the exception of the inheritability, which is kind of a pain from a scalability standpoint.

The technical support is good. I have no idea of the size of their tech team, but they always resolve our questions, and it is always timely. 

We have a joke. We call it tech support roulette because you don't know how good of a technician you will get when you call the help desk. Sometimes, you get a good one. On the other hand, I have even called Microsoft and gotten a tech who didn't know what he was talking about, which is kind of shocking. However, we have not had an experience like that with Automox. Every time that we have called, the man/woman on the phone who answers, or we were transferred to, can fix the issue. It is also not more than one hop to a person who can fix it for us.

Before Automox, we had a very manual process. We would set up Microsoft Windows to automatically download updates and install them, but that did nothing for Adobe, Firefox plugins, Chrome, etc. Those programs have their own auto update features. However, if you work in tech for a while, it becomes pretty obvious that you have to follow the trust, but verify model. It is great that an automated tool says that it will update its own software on a regular basis, but how do you know it actually happened unless you go and check? So, we had these long processes where we would manually go in and just check, "Is Adobe up to date? Is this up to date? Is that up to date?" It was a real pain in the neck.

We would have to go check all these different things, run reports, and compare version numbers. It was a time-consuming pain. It was a little easier on the Macintosh platform, because Macintosh mostly runs all software updates of its operating system through the app store. There are some that somehow escape that. Though it was a little easier, it was still trust, but verify. We had to go in and take a look at the report to make sure.

The initial setup was pretty straightforward. We trialed it with one of our medium-sized clients, so we had to run around and install the Automox agent on all their computers then figure out how to tweak it, customize it, and set up the reporting and alerts. You can set up policies, where you can tell this group of computers to update just this software at this time. We played around with that, but it was all very well-designed. 

The permissions/inheritance thing was the only real major annoyance, which we didn't discover until we went to add our second client. Then, we are like, Whoa, where are all our accounts?" We called them up, and they were like, "Oh, you have to set them up again." I was like, "Are you kidding me?"

Setting up policies is not difficult because our methodology is to be as consistent as possible. Unless a client asks us, we will not set up 10 different policies for them. We want a one size fits all that would update every single piece of software on this computer at least once a week. That is all we care about. We are not going to subdivide and say, "These are developer computers." We haven't had that need, but if we needed to, we would. Our policy needs are very simple, so we haven't had a need to get complicated with it, so setting it up has been easy. It works. 

We learned some things, like you don't want it to update too frequently. It sounds counterintuitive, but the sweet spot seems to be about once a week. If you do it more than that, it will start alerting the user. Then, they will get confused and be like, "Wait a minute. I thought we just did an update yesterday. What is this?" Then we get a support call, a ticket is generated, and we need to talk to them. It just created too much confusion. We finally settled on doing it once a week, Friday at six o'clock, unless the client wants something else. We give them one chance to defer, and that's it. That is our base policy that we replicate across.

There are some growing pains to Automox. For example, when you set up a new client, you would think you go to the console, set up a new client, and it will show up there as a child organization under your MSP organization. Then, you think, "I'm done," but you are not done. You then need to email or call the tech support people at Automox, send them the URL for the child organization that you just created, and make sure they link it to your account. I think that is for billing reasons. Even though it shows up under my dashboard as a client that is a child under my MSP parent, it is not on their system. They are very nice about it. They add it within an hour or two, then it is done. However, it is just one of those things where you are scratching your head going, "Why did you design it this way?" We have talked to them about it, and they're like, "It is on the list. We will get to that."

We have seen ROI. The cost isn't really an issue because our clients bear the cost of that. They pay for it. We have seen the benefit in process improvement, streamlining our operations, and peace of mind, e.g., being able to pull up a console and see how many systems are not compliant.

Previously, we would run a report, scan it, and compare it. We were spending 15 to 30 minutes a month on each machine on this stuff because you would find stuff that wasn't up to date, then you had to fix it. This solution takes that time down to minutes. Automox saves us easily many hours a month.

The pricing is great. It is inexpensive and on the lower cost side of some of the tools that we use. Our tools range from $2 a month per machine up to $7 or $8 a month per machine. Automox is closer to the $2 a month side. Of course, we are resellers, and you have to be a reseller to use it. I don't know that they sell the solution directly, so we could mark it up to whatever we want but we don't do that. We just pass through the cost and make our money off of labor. There are companies where that is their business model, and they pick up dollars wherever they can. Good for them, but that is not how we do it.

For all these software tools, it is usually a subscription model. There is a monthly charge that we need to pass along to our clients because we are doing all this for their benefit. It is only a couple of bucks a month per computer, and that is a low enough price point where our clients, without exception, have accepted it, and said, "This is great. We will pay that. It sounds like a worthwhile thing." 

Two years ago, we used the free period for a little bid with a trial client after we got their permission to give it a shot. The free trial was important in our decision to go with Automox. I like the "try before you buy" model. Because if it doesn't work out for whatever reason, the interface isn't easy to use, the tech support people are no good, or the product is unstable, then you can walk away from it, if you want. There is no big commitment, and having a trial is perfect for that.

We didn't have other options because we couldn't find anything that was exactly like this solution. It was also recommended to us by one of our clients who was using it. That is how we found out about it. Therefore, it came highly recommended, and we thought, "Let's take a look at this and see if we like it." We did, we loved it, and we haven't looked back. It has been a process of just getting as many clients as possible on it. I would love to have all our clients on it. It simplifies our life.

Overall, we have been very happy with it. Like any new product, there are things that need to be fixed. When they fix them, the tool just gets better. So, I am very optimistic that it will only get better, and it has already been a huge help. We have been converting over as many of our clients to using it as possible.

At some point, because we have to restart, we need the collaboration of the user. This is not really a problem with Automox. It is more of a human being thing. However, it exposed something that we needed to talk to our clients about.

We use six or eight different tools on most machines. This is one of my favorites because we don't have to bother the client. The joke that a colleague of mine used to say was, "We are the plumbers of the 21st century." I thought about it and that really makes sense. Like plumbing, your average user doesn't understand how all this stuff works. They don't want to understand how it works. They don't care. They just want it to work. Also, like plumbing, when there is a problem, it needs to be fixed right now, not tomorrow or next week, because it is a mission-critical thing. Having Automox allows us to bother people less, fix things faster, and generally be a better managed services provider providing better service. There is a lot more transparency as well as be more under the radar than it used to be when we had to schedule everything manually.

Definitely do the trial. Pick some meaningful use cases, test them as thoroughly as you can, and also be very aware of the human policy side of things. When you get into technology like this, it is really easy just to focus on what the tech can do, but there is always a human side of it. The human side in this case was the forced reboots once a week. That was something we had to get our clients to approve because we were restarting their machines. Therefore, make sure you look at it not just from a technology impact, but how it impacts the users and what you will need to change as well as any kind of policy you will need to set up on the human side.

We are looking into how we can leverage more of the solution’s API functionality, but we are not using it at this time.

I would give Automox a nine out of 10. The only reason that I am not giving it 10 is because of the inheritability thing and having to call every time that we set up a new client, when we need to have them link it to our account.