Atera has Launched Network Discovery! Great, Now What Should I Use it for?

We are excited to unveil our new Network Discovery tool to all you Aterans in addition to our full-suite PSA and RMM solution. For some, Network Discovery might be a brand-new tool, and you may be scratching your head over what value it is going to bring to your MSP business. Here are the top three uses that Network Discovery is built for.

Do a Deep Dive on a Client Network

Network Discovery allows MSPs to onboard clients quicker, to streamline and enhance reporting and operations, and to keep your own security practices best in class.
Network Discovery supports use cases for both new and existing customers. For new customers, the technology can allow you to run a deep analysis and discuss all devices and assets in their ecosystem, showing clients a thorough list of their infrastructure and discussing a roadmap for improvements. You can highlight places they are using over-complex communications or paying more than they ought to be for their services, suggesting improvements that you could make if they onboarded your MSP solution.
When it comes to existing customers, you can use Network Discovery for quarterly business reviews. Identify places that need change, increase engagement with low-value clients, or upsell new services such as cloud or monitoring with a simple representation of how easily you can visualize a customer’s entire network. Provide reports for customers that show changes or problems and increase your value to your end user.

Create Best-Practice Documentation

As all network devices will be automatically documented, you can use these reports to create network topology maps and other documentation for each client. Atera Network Discovery shows the domain name, domain controller, customer and network name, default gateway and public IP, as well as information on the devices themselves, from name and type, to OS platform, edition, version, build and even the last login.As all successful network scans are logged and recorded, you can use one baseline report, and then receive instant alerts when changes happen, such as new devices being added or removed. This also helps to stop your network being exposed to potentially compromised devices.
This can also be used to document your client’s network in case of an audit or any kind of legal action. When collecting this kind of information, it is good practice to include copies of certificates, licenses or receipts for software and applications.

Give yourself a Thorough Network Diagram

Your own MSP business can benefit greatly through Network Discovery as well as your clients. Use the tool to gain insight into your network, identify any problems or broken servers or connections, and even discover unsafe traffic flows that could be moving East-West within your data center.
If your business is looking to start a larger security journey such as micro-segmentation, this begins with visibility of your entire infrastructure. Just like with your clients, this network diagram can also be used as a system of record.

Network Discovery… Just the Beginning!

Adding Network Discovery will create a new element of transparency and insight between you and your clients, and in-house with your own network, too. This is just the start! We will be adding new features to Network Discovery as we begin to get feedback on the first iteration, so please make sure to check out the Feature Board and upvote the ideas you want to see going live.