Selecting the Right RMM Solution for Your Business

E⁠ndpoint monitoring

Endpoint monitoring helps you identify potential issues before they become problems. Once the agent is deployed, your RMM tracks and collects data from each endpoint to find out what adheres to normal behavior and what doesn’t. Endpoint monitoring focuses on various parameters to determine the health, security, performance, and availability of endpoints present in a network.

Businesses with robust endpoint monitoring are well-equipped to understand what their endpoints are up to, from which one is not reachable to which one is vulnerable to security threats.

Some of the core aspects of endpoint monitoring are:

• Resource utilization and performance monitoring

It is important to track how the resources in a network are utilized, such as CPU, memory, disk, and network. If a resource is overutilized or utilized disproportionately in comparison with its counterparts, the system flags the behavior, identifies what is causing the extra load, and alerts the technician to take action. It is important to monitor this because, if a CPU or a disk is being overused, it is not available for normal usage or for processing new requests. 

• Availability monitoring

Availability monitoring tracks the online status of endpoints. It checks for connectivity issues, pings devices, and assesses response times to ensure all endpoints are available and working properly.

• Process monitoring

Process monitoring helps you track when a process doesn’t comply with the policies or throws an error. Your RMM should allow you to set up scripts to automatically kill processes that have gone rogue. 

• Event log monitoring

An event log is a file that records all the significant events or occurrences in a system, from policy changes to failed login attempts. When an issue occurs, this chronologically recorded list of events will help the technician identify where exactly the problem is.

Event logs are typically classified by the component in question (Ex: system, application) and the level of severity (Ex: information, warning, error). The types of events logged differ between each operating system.   

• User activity monitoring

User activity monitoring refers to tracking user behavior on endpoints, from file access requests to changes in user privileges. It can help you detect suspicious activities that don’t comply with your security policies.

Network monitoring

Endpoint monitoring requires an agent to be installed on the device. We’re talking about workstations, laptops, and more. But there are components you can’t monitor by installing an RMM agent on it. We’re talking about all the networking components like routers, servers, switches, and firewalls.

Network monitoring uses the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to track all the devices in your network to ensure proper performance, health, and stability. As a result, you will be able to eliminate costly downtimes caused by cyberattacks or unattended network failures. 

Alerting

Monitoring ensures any issue in a network is identified while alerting ensures your technicians are notified, enabling immediate action. Alerts are typically generated when specific predefined conditions are met. It can help technicians understand where to focus, identify the root cause, and proactively fix the issue even before your client knows about it.

Make sure your RMM allows you to create policies specific to each client. Every alert should be mapped to the respective assets, device information, and tickets if any. This helps your technicians get highly contextual alerts, where they have all the information they need to resolve the issue by creating tickets, running scripts, executing patches, or running commands in the console.

One more important point to consider is if your RMM knows which alerts matter and which don’t. Remember, all alerts are important, but not all of them are urgent. Oftentimes, your technicians get alerts for perfectly normal things. It’s a lot of noise they don’t need, but are forced to deal with.   

So when choosing an RMM, see how advanced and how granular the alert configurations go. Or even better — see if the RMM has an Intelligent Alerting feature.

Intelligent alerting

Intelligent Alerting enables your platform to understand what’s important and what isn’t. With time, your platform will be able to weed out redundant alerts, notify technicians only when their intervention is needed, and create tickets automatically so the issue is resolved faster. 

In today’s complex IT environments, the line between proactive alerting and alert overload is becoming microscopically thin. Intelligent alerting hits just the sweet spot. 

Automation

IT professionals are some of the most overworked people out there. Reason? High dependency on human resources, cost-cutting initiatives that put pressure on existing technicians, constant firefighting, and seemingly unachievable deadlines. Automation can solve many of these problems by helping you reduce manual work and focus on things that matter.

In fact, the benefits of automation go much beyond cutting a few corners here and there. 

• Better efficiency: By automating repetitive tasks such as assigning tickets or updating patches, your technicians can provide faster and more efficient support. They are free to do more meaningful work now, like upskilling themselves or going the extra mile for a client.

• Compliance: Automation allows you to streamline your processes, ensuring established policies are adhered to and there is no room for human error.

• Improved client satisfaction: Automation helps technicians act quickly when an issue occurs, exceeding client expectations. When their time is not eaten up by redundant tasks, they can focus on giving better solutions to their clients.

• Cost reduction: Automation helps in reducing costs by minimizing the need for manual intervention wherever possible. You simply stop spending $60,000 per year on someone just to keep a record of invoices or assign tickets. 

• Differentiation: By eliminating busy work with automation, you can allocate your resources toward developing strategic initiatives, exploring leading tech, optimizing organizational efficiency, and driving busin

Scripting

• Scripting refers to using a set of commands or instructions to automate a process or fix an issue. You can either run these scripts manually or schedule them based on specific conditions, adding more firepower to your automation. Choosing an RMM with strong scripting capabilities is paramount to efficiency. See if the RMM supports the scripting languages you operate with. Some of the commonly used languages are PowerShell, VBScript, Bash, MSI, and Bat. PowerShell is a no-brainer to have if your environment is primarily Windows. PowerShell is also a go-to for anything with complexity. 

  Try to write most of your scripts in PowerShell and use as little logic as possible in the RMM's scripting engine. This will make your work portable should you try to switch platforms in the future.

  It is also important that your RMM comes with robust script libraries or a forum that enables script exchange. Writing scripts can be time-consuming, and there is no need to reinvent the wheel when you can use out-of-the-box scripts to automate your processes effectively.

  
  
  

  “With SuperOps, I do absolutely have that trust that it (policies) is  working. And every day I check it and I haven't had any issues and  that is brilliant, that I can have that trust. I know if I look on there, all  those servers are working, and they've all got space. When SuperOps  added scripting, it was very cool. I have added scripts to restart  servers and now I do not have to worry about when I should restart  servers. I know servers are restarting every two weeks; I don’t even  have to look. This was not the case with other tools I used. Thanks to  SuperOps, I have stopped working at night a lot and that’s really good.” - Mathew Fenton

Auto-remediation or Unattended device management

Auto-remediation is a workflow that automatically clears alerts that match certain predefined conditions. This means with some amount of initial work, you can eliminate the need to manually deploy scripts, run commands, or even lift a finger when certain issues occur.

But note that auto-remediation is much suited for smaller “closed-loop” processes first. It can have some limitations when it comes to complex processes with a long list of remediation steps. Adding a series of conditions that might not interact well with each other may lead to cascading failures and unintended consequences. In this instance, you can use Runbooks, which involves human intervention at a level it’s necessary.   

Make sure your RMM allows you to add time to auto-remediation so you don’t miss billing your client. If you have clients who pay a fixed price unless a device is required or some outlier occurs that requires out-of-the-ordinary work, they won’t be paying for services like these unless you show a record of some actions that were taken. Your RMM should allow you to add a predetermined time on tickets like these on a script level. This ensures that you never leave money on the table for the work you do, even if it’s through automation.

Policy management

Policy management involves establishing a set of policies or rules to govern the lifecycle and usage of assets in a managed network. Policies simplify the process of applying patch updates or running antivirus scans on assets at scale. Once a policy is assigned or modified, they are reflected automatically in all the assets under that policy, without further user intervention.

When it comes to asset management, there is no one-size-fits-all configuration. Look for an RMM that helps you create policies that make sense for different clients with hierarchical and group-based policies. 

Group-based policy management helps you break down asset sprawls into manageable groups by setting group-based policies. If your client environment is relatively simple, you can use hierarchical policies where you assign policies at the global level and let those policies cascade over to individual clients, sites, or devices. This type of cascading policy management or policy inheritance eliminates the need to individually configure policies for each asset or group. 

Your RMM should also allow policy overrides. While the lower-level assets or groups automatically inherit policies defined at the global level, these lower-level entities should have their own specific policies that can override the inherited policies if necessary. This adds another layer of customization to handle unique requirements and edge cases. 

⁠Patch management

Patch management is the process of monitoring, applying, and updating software patches to systems, in order to ensure they are up-to-date, protected from vulnerabilities, and operating efficiently. A patch is a piece of code that is created to fix bugs, remove vulnerabilities, add new features, or enhance the performance of the software. Patch management gives your clients peace of mind knowing their security — and reputation — is intact. 

Make sure your RMM has automated patching so you don’t waste hours scouring for gaps. Automated patch management monitors the availability of patches, assesses their relevance, and updates them automatically to all the managed assets without disrupting service delivery. With patch management effectively running behind the scenes, you have your security posture improved, downtime reduced, and business continuity guaranteed. At all times. 

Another thing to ensure is if your RMM supports patching of all the operating systems you support, from Windows to Mac to Linux. It should support third-party patch management too, to keep critical third-party applications like Chrome or Adobe up-to-date. 

Security management

You can’t be too careful when it comes to security. Applying security management strategies will help you catch vulnerabilities in real-time, isolate affected components, and take necessary actions to safeguard critical data before it falls into the wrong hands.

To give your client environments the highest form of security, look for an RMM with robust antivirus features, compliance with industry-accredited security standards such as HIPAA, and integration with key industry players. 

Reporting

Reports help you collect and analyze data to arrive at important business decisions and showcase value. Reporting is one of the core RMM features that take MSPs from “IT guys” to trusted service partners, which provides expert insights that are useful for all, from MSP owners to your own team. You can use reports to show the value you provide, build credibility, and guide improvement efforts. 

To get maximum value out of reporting, look for an RMM with the following capabilities:

• The ability to create custom reports for unique use cases

• A library of out-of-the-box reports or default reports to generate quick reports about technician performance to resource planning

• A clean and professionally built dashboard to get an overview of the entire environment at a glance

• Report scheduling to automatically create and distribute of reports to clients at a specific time. You don’t have to set up reminders or even manually hit send every time you have to send out reports

• The ability to brand reports with your company name and logo for brand reinforcement and trust building

• The ability to support different formats of export from PDFs to Microsoft Excel

Remote access

Remote access enables technicians to troubleshoot client devices by initiating remote sessions from anywhere. Through remote sessions, your technicians can identify issues and perform maintenance actions, even without your client being present. Not all issues can be resolved through automation or by running scripts, some require expert assistance. This makes remote access a crucial feature to look for in any RMM.

Here are some key considerations when evaluating remote access in an RMM:

• Unattended remote access to proactively fix issues without interrupting end-users

• Automatic deployment of streamer through the RMM agent

• Secure connection to ensure the end devices are not vulnerable to attacks

• Improve the quality of support with the ability to transfer files, record sessions, share screen, reboot, or wake the device remotely

• Multi-platform support to access client endpoints remotely from Windows, macOS, or Linux devices

• Ability to print documents locally so you can access when connecting between Windows devices

• Ability to transfer sessions to loop in technicians or bring in expertise

• Live chat to help end-users with any questions they may have

• Ability to take background control of a desktop to perform functions in the background without disturbing the user or taking over the desktop

Mobile application

When dealing with thousands of endpoints, it’s difficult to stay on top of each one. Your technicians should have a mobile application to get things done on the go. With full IT management in the palm of your hands, your technicians can provide faster support, monitor alerts, and keep the business going when they get going. 

Some features that make your mobile RMM application useful are:

• Some level of feature parity with the Web version to be able to perform common activities such as tracking alerts or viewing assets

• Ability to view or execute scripts

• Take remote control of end-user devices

• Get notifications on important events

• Availability on primary operating systems like Android and iOS

Mobile-ready interface so working on a small screen doesn't become a pain

Key integrations

Although RMM is a staple software for MSPs, it’s not the only software you need. PSA is another table stake. But it doesn’t end there. MSPs typically have an array of tools to manage different parts of their business, from invoicing to documentation. Your RMM should support integrations that matter to your business. 

In fact, even if you choose the best RMM out there, the value you get out of your RMM directly relies on how seamless these integrations are. Disjointed tools are a major problem in today’s IT world. They can make the platform hard to navigate, configure, or use for even simple tasks. 

There are not many ways to know if an RMM plays well with your tech stack, because each MSP has their own set of tools and requirements. Start talking to fellow MSP owners who use a similar tech stack or go through r/msp on Reddit. As a thumb rule, avoid choosing legacy RMMs. They are heavy, resist innovation, and naturally lack the ability to pair up with modern tools. 

Your RMM should have the following core integrations:

• PSA

• Data backup

• Invoicing

• IT documentation

• Remote access

• Antivirus solution

• Payment processing

• Project management

Active directory