AVG Managed Workspace

AHarvey · 21 Dec 2016 at 23:10

Hi all,

I work for a company with 400 employee's, other than the tech director it's just me looking after the IT, web dev, social media, blogging etc.

Someone has come in and seen how much I have on and recommended AVG Managed Workspace as a system that will cut down on a lot of the tasks I have to do and give me more free time.

Thing is, I know this person and he knows someone there so I am wondering if there is an alternative to suggesting them.

Has anyone worked with it and if so, what are the pro's and con's?

Liquidfox · 22 Dec 2016 at 13:31

There are lots of RMM solutions out there however be prepared to spend days/weeks configuring them so that they do what you need. It's an ever evolving solution really, we're still adding more and more scripting and automation to our LabTech system that we've had for over two and a half years now.

It all boils down to what you want/need it to do. If it's simple server monitoring then something like GFIMax or whatever it goes by these days would do the trick. If you're wanting more advanced agent monitoring, scripting, automated maintenance etc then something like Kaseya/Labtech/N-Able would be more up your street. They also work better in conjuction with a ticketing system like ConnectWise/Autotask depending on their preferred partner.

AHarvey · 22 Dec 2016 at 17:30

We don't really have a server setup for anything, 4 locations (a 5th soon) with employed staff (call centres, legal, accounts, admin) and then 250 remote sales advisors running their own laptops. Our hardware is running Win 7 - Win 10, a few pro installs but most are home.

We need a complete solution really, while I understand this may speed some things up, I don't think it's what we need right now.

Liquidfox · 23 Dec 2016 at 02:15

You have no server whilst handling that many users?

AHarvey · 23 Dec 2016 at 03:13

Liquidfox said:
You have no server whilst handling that many users?

They use variations of Vigor servers for routing traffic in the office and a Cpanel system for emails.

Azure for some website and development.

No centralised Windows/Linux server, home editions of Windows, no active directories, no MS exchange for emails, no group policies. Storage of files is spread over several dropbox accounts and Personal shared ones drive accounts. A few of the staff have office accounts (business licence for each person I set up, the old system has 1 account shared between 5 employees), rest use Libre or Openoffice. Our sales consultants provide their own hardware, I just provide helpdesk support for our own software (or I should be but cover general IT issues)

I've just starting learning MS Server 2012 via the virtual academy and it's all very new to me. I am using it as a stepping stone, experience, training, troubleshooting etc but I'd like to leave it in a better state than I started!

Columbo · 23 Dec 2016 at 10:41

You company need to invest in some resource and infrastructure.
I'm sat here surrounded by 4 dedicated IT staff (2x support, 2x dev) for 240 users. 1 for 400 staff and no dedicated solution is just stupid and you must be pulling your hair out.

AHarvey · 23 Dec 2016 at 11:08

Columbo said:
You company need to invest in some resource and infrastructure.
I'm sat here surrounded by 4 dedicated IT staff (2x support, 2x dev) for 240 users. 1 for 400 staff and no dedicated solution is just stupid and you must be pulling your hair out.

The IT guy before me had 200 staff to oversee, due to his Dyslexia nothing was written down other than a couple of logins on strips of paper. He was setting up 6-7 people every months.

I'm approaching 400 staff, slowly finding time to write procedures, creating an asset tracking system, repairing laptops, implementing a remote access system with GoToAssist, training and everything else that is slightly technical or online. The biggest issue is getting them to invest, and although I am doing a lot of reading etc at home it's having the time for me to develop my own skills so I know what we need and how to use it.

While this AVG thing might be a good idea initially, if it's being put onto a broken system its like using a plaster to repair a dam

nightmare99 · 24 Dec 2016 at 14:11

I would say it may be a good idea to engage with a managed service provider who can scope out exactly what you need.

bigyin9 · 25 Dec 2016 at 15:46

AHarvey said:
Hi all,

I work for a company with 400 employee's, other than the tech director it's just me looking after the IT, web dev, social media, blogging etc.

Someone has come in and seen how much I have on and recommended AVG Managed Workspace as a system that will cut down on a lot of the tasks I have to do and give me more free time.

Thing is, I know this person and he knows someone there so I am wondering if there is an alternative to suggesting them.

Has anyone worked with it and if so, what are the pro's and con's?

I work for a IT support and consultancy company in the medium enterprise market and we changed from GFI to Mananged workplace just after AVG bought it from Level platforms based in Canada. We are an AVG Platinum partner so we get a lot of attention from AVG services.
Our account manager for MW used to work for GFI which says a lot. Main reason we went with MW was the pricing, constant development, integrated Antivirus(Cloudcare) and training/certifications we receive all included.

I can honestly say MW is one the best investments we have ever made. I could go on for hours writing about what it can do, so what exactly are you looking for from it? It does everything all the other RMM services do, and I would say even a wee bit more. I've been using it for about 18 months now so I have quite a lot of experience with it.