CRN Exclusive: RMM Vendor Pulseway Adds Antivirus Capability

Mobile remote monitoring and management software vendor Pulseway has added an antivirus offering to its platform to help managed service providers (MSPs) get a better handle on endpoint security when managing distributed devices across a client's network.

The product, Pulseway Antivirus, is a "natural extension" of the San Jose, Calif.-based vendor's core mission: solutions that can monitor and manage IT systems at any time, from any device, according to Marius Mihalec, CEO and founder of Pulseway.

The antivirus solution is "an easy way [for customers] to completely monitor and secure an endpoint," Mihalec said in an interview with CRN. He said it's especially helpful to small MSPs that are new to the business and growing.

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"This is a huge help," he said. "MSPs need to become very specialized, and security is the number one topic these days."

Brian Heersink, a systems administrator with Troy, Mich.-based health care MSP CareTech Solutions, told CRN he's "excited" about the addition of the antivirus module.

Heersink, who works out of San Luis Valley Health, a health care network in Alamosa, Colo., said responding to a warning today on a mobile device requires him to call someone to check it out further or, if he's traveling, find a network to log in to so he can investigate.

"It would be nice to be able to remotely scan the server," he said.

Pulseway Antivirus will also be made available to the vendor's enterprise customers. Pricing starts at $1 per month per workstation; $2 per month per server, the company said in a statement.

Mihalec said some of Pulseway's roughly 3,600 customers – about two-thirds U.S.-based that are split about evenly between MSPs and mid-market businesses – have asked if Pulseway had an antivirus offering.

A key for Pulseway has been its emphasis on mobile enablement of its solutions.

"One thing that’s quite important for our users is [Pulseway's] mobile-first approach," Mihalec said. He added that it's "very easy" to integrate Pulseway Antivirus into the RMM platform.

"Today’s proliferation of mobile systems and distributed, remote workforces means that securing all endpoints is not a 'nice to have' capability, but a must have," Mihalec said in a statement.

The statement cited four elements of Pulseway Antivirus. They are:

• Easy deployment across a network, which can protect systems within minutes;
• Central configuration directly from the web application, which can begin to protect thousands of installations right away;
• Unified threat management, which can allow the user to receive instant notifications whenever threats are detected, and act immediately;
• Real-time protection, which can keep all files secure, make Internet browsing and instant messaging safe, and inoculate in-boxes from malware.

Mihalec says Pulseway is planning additional security-related elements that he expects will debut in the second half of this year. Although he wouldn't get into specifics, the CEO said the vendor plans to build some "intelligence" into the product "so we know that if something is detected consistently, [the user can] learn from that."

"We can integrate this intelligence and come up with some analysis of what's going on in that system, or if there is a trend within the network" that needs to be monitored, Mihalec said.

The payoff for MSPs in having the antivirus product as part of the platform is that it provides an "easy way to completely monitor and secure an endpoint … rather than deploying [an antivirus solution] manually … and then somehow work out the integration" between an RMM solution and the antivirus solution they choose.