4 IT Management Tools to Prepare for Coronavirus or Any Disruption

 

With 1.5 billion people under lockdown, companies worldwide have strained their IT infrastructure to implement large scale deployments. By now, organizations across the board have transitioned to a rapid remote work model within days, made substantial changes to day-to-day operations, and moved to a virtual single pane of glass operations setup. For most, an easy starting point would have been steering towards cloud-based options — such as Microsoft, Citrix, and CiscoOpens a new window to streamline remote work during this crisis.

However, constructing a seamless, consistent work connectivity experience is not the only challenge for IT administrators and programmers in times of crisis. There are additional layers to contend with — bracing for more traffic on VPNOpens a new window , secondary DNS service for backup, and application-centric security policies. And given the rise of COVID-19 themed malicious campaignsOpens a new window , network visibility and data security is also on top of the mind of IT teams and executives working round the clock to assess new risks that remote connectivity may throw up. After all, nobody wants critical corporate assetsOpens a new window to be compromised.

The coronavirus pandemic demonstrates all too well there is no “one-size fits all” approach, and it is best not to become overly dependent on a single set of tools or vendor. Some of the best companies in the midst of an organizational reconfiguration have invested in the right IT wares based on staff needs, current environment, and applications.

There’s a wide range of purpose-built IT management software that can help IT pros maintain smooth operations and gain network visibility during the global pandemic. Note to ITDMs: As remote work takes off, it’s time to pivot to cloud-based software that can help your IT teams identify and fix technical issues in real-time, and in turn, support the company cope with distributed, large-scale remote workforces.

essidsolutions Ziff Davis, (that has a mandatory WFH policy during this time) is supporting customers worldwide with purpose-built free tools via it’s essidsolutions community. Always popular among developers, these tools have become much more important in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Check out the top free essidsolutions tools such as Inventory Manager, Cloud Help Desk, and Connectivity Dashboard purpose-built for asset management, automated ticketing, network and application performance monitoring that allow IT teams find trouble spots quickly and efficiently. An upside: IT professionals can get complete visibility into IT infrastructure and applications, allowing them to proactively troubleshoot issues and deliver the best remote experience to end users.

Learn More: 10 Collaboration Tools With the Best Security Features Opens a new window

Here is the lowdown on the most popular remote and WFH enabling tools on the essidsolutions community:

1. essidsolutions Inventory Online

This is the one-stop-shop for managing software and hardware asset inventory from a single dashboard. With Inventory online, you have multiple ways to “feed” and maintain your asset list:

• Discover what’s connected to your IP network via the automatic IP scanner feature.
• Get detailed hardware and software information from workstations and servers via the collection agent.
• Manually configure any device or piece of equipment that is not connected and discoverable.

Once you have this trusted asset inventoried, you can invite your fellow workers to it as well as report on it (this is currently in early beta).

Sign up for the free tool now!

2. essidsolutions Cloud Help Desk

What happens when you’re not onsite and have a load of tickets to deal with. You cannot access your end-user workstations in-person, so all break/fix and educational activities need to happen remotely. This tool provides a built-in end-user portal through which users can submit their request and check ticket progress; no need for them to be on a VPN or for you to punch a hole in your firewall. The portal allows you to collect more accurate information from the beginning via the use of required fields. A better description of the request leads to faster resolution. The portal is secure and accessible over the internet, which makes life more convenient for your IT team.

Here’s a key highlight about the ticketing system: A built-in remote support tool that works over the internet (built-in partnership with Zoho CorpOpens a new window ). By and large, all remote support tools designed for use work only on local networks, which won’t help in this kind of situation. You need a remote support tool that works Over The Internet (OTI) to support remote end-users effectively. Over the past two weeks, essidsolutions observed a 25% increase in usage of the Cloud Help Desk built-in Remote Support tool and a 100% increase last week!

To know more, click here!

3. Ookla Speed TestOpens a new window

Some of the challenges associated with remote work are flaky internet connections, spotty VoIP, and patchy video conferences. Additionally, higher latency can significantly impact work performance. IT pros and end users can put your internet infrastructure to the test with the Ookla Speed Test. Instead of using the Ping command to test network latency, Ookla Speed Test leads to “faster diagnosis and resolution.”

Check the speed test tool hereOpens a new window !

4. essidsolutions Connectivity Dashboard

The Connectivity Dashboard is a cloud application that simplifies the job of IT professionals by giving them a “single screen with real-time visualization of the quality of the connectivity between remote sites, down to each individual end-user and the critical resources they need to access to do their everyday job.” The application which tracks outages helps IT professionals understand the source of the problem and find trouble spots quickly without wasting time. “You can even monitor services using the URL of a SaaS app, URL of a web app in your private data center, or the IP address of a file share server, printers, and more,” noted Francois Caron, in the blog.

Get started on Connectivity Dashboard here!

Learn More: Coronavirus – Best Practices for Security Pros to Defend EnterprisesOpens a new window

Our Take

The COVID-19 outbreakOpens a new window has turned out to be one of the most destabilizing forces with so many unknown variables. For example, highly regulated industries such as financeOpens a new window and healthcare wouldn’t have been prepared for this breadth and depth of remote work at scale. Business functions that cannot operate remotely are now functioning in remote mode. Keeping businesses running and supporting critical applications for clients and end users has become the need of the hour for IT executives. In the tech landscape, downtimes and unplanned IT disruptions create huge complexities for developers and IT teams, leading to low productivity.

Findings from the State of Unplanned Work Report 2020Opens a new window by PagerDuty indicate that 81% of respondents report urgent, unplanned work keeps their company from focusing on key objectives. Additionally, 62% of IT professionals in North America spend more than 100 hours each year on disruptive, unplanned work. During this time of crisis, IT decision makers should act rapidly to introduce IT management tools for programmers and administrators that help make things work, get a unified view in this current situation and prepare better for coronavirus or any disruption.

Editor’s note: Toolbox is part of essidsolutions Ziff Davis. This blog is a rewrite of a piece that originally appeared on Toolbox sister site essidsolutions.