Kaseya Expands Systems Management

In an attempt to make its product more scalable to both larger and smaller organizations, Kaseya International Ltd. has created a line of four products on one platform that let users migrate between them. The software is intended to automate all the processes an IT person does, such as discovering workstations, inventorying them, auditing changes, patch management, backup and recovery, policy management, software deployment and automation of daily and periodic tasks. On the high end, the software competes with network management products such as Computer Associates' Unicenter, Hewlett-Packard's OpenView and IBM's Tivoli.

"You have machines managing machines, rather than people running around with a checklist," said Jim Alves, executive vice president of product marketing and strategy for Kaseya. "I don't need to know everything that happened - I need to know what didn't happen." Michael Trivison, the owner of Ember Labs Inc., an Orange, Calif., managed service IT consulting firm for small businesses, uses the Kaseya IT Toolkit product, available on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) monthly subscription basis. Many of his clients have one to five employees and don't even have a server. Using the lower-end product makes IT support more affordable for his clients, he said. The full-featured Kaseya product can cost up to $10 per user per month, which can be costly when companies start getting up to 25 users.

Because his clients often have just a single computer they rely on, Trivison likes Kaseya's remote control feature, which lets him do work on his clients' computers on the back end while they continue working. "There are a lot of remote control tools out there, but you're just connecting to the computer as if you're there, and you tell the user, 'I'll call you back, or can you sit there while I'm working on it,'" he said. "I don't know anyone who likes it when the computer guy comes and sits at their desk and they have to wander around to find something to do."

Currently, the software runs on Microsoft ISS Server, with SQL Server on the back end. Supported platforms include Windows and Macintosh, with support for Linux, including Google's Chrome operating system, planned shortly, Alves said. There is also an application for the Apple iPhone that lets users view, create and route trouble tickets, as well as contact people from within the ticket.

The software is available now starting at free for Kaseya Free, for providing remote access, file transfer and video chat for up to 25 users. The IT Toolkit is available for $1.50 per computer per month, and the on-premises Master IT Service Edition starts at $18,000. The Enterprise and Small to Medium Enterprise Editions start at $50,000 to $80,000 for 1,000 to 2,000 seats and $18,000 for a few hundred seats, respectively.