Miradore for ITAM vs ITSM Integration

17 December 2015
6 minute read
ITAM News & Analysis

Miradore for ITAM vs ITSM Integration

17 December 2015
6 minute read

This independent review is part of our ITAM vs. ITSM Integration group test.

Also participating:

To read the summary, strengths and weaknesses, and criteria please visit this page.

Commercial Summary

Vendor Miradore
Product Miradore
Version reviewed V4.1 (released June 2015)
Year Founded 2006
Customers About 40 service provider customers, servicing about 500 end customers and about 450,000 devices
Pricing Structure Priced by managed device per month

Miradore Desktop ManagementMiradore-Logo300dpi_RGB

A desktop management solution providing ITAM and Configuration Management capabilities and opportunities for automating routine ITSM tasks.

 Miradore was formed in 2006 when three IT specialists working at the Finnish pulp, paper and timber manufacturer, UPM, couldn’t find a suitable solution in the market for their IT infrastructure management requirements. Miradore now has customers in 70+ countries and over 450,000 devices under management.

Miradore is a Desktop Management solution for Windows, OSX and Linux providing ITAM and Configuration Management capabilities and opportunities for automating routine tasks in ITSM lifecycles.

A key route to market is Managed Service Providers who harness Miradore for monitoring and managing client environments. MSP business partners include global integrators such as Fujitsu to local specialists such as Tieto.

A key differentiator for Miradore is providing a light, versatile and automated desktop management solution to partners and end user organizations that find larger frameworks such as Microsoft Configuration Manager too expensive and labour intensive to implement.

Miradore provides partners an easy to use console for visibility and management of client environments via a low cost subscription.  Managed Service Providers can easily see what devices they are supporting and the status of each device to facilitate efficient support.

Miradore also offer a SaaS based Mobile Device Management called ‘Miradore Online’ for the management of iOS, Android and Windows Phones. This provides asset location, technical specification, security settings and installed applications for connected devices. We trialled the system using Apple’s Device Enrolment program and found it remarkably easy to use.

Miradore’s product naming conventions are not obvious and those browsing their website could be forgiven for getting completely confused which product is which. Perhaps calling the products Miradore Desktop Management and Miradore MDM would be more straightforward.

Miradore_screen 1

Self-Healing ITAM

Miradore offers comprehensive device monitoring and management features including:

  • Asset discovery and SNMP scanning for other network devices such as printers, switches and routers
  • Hardware and software inventory for Windows, Linux, OS X
  • Connection to Miradore’s ‘Miradore Online’ MDM solution for management of iOS, Windows Phone and Android devices
  • Power Management and centralized management of endpoint back up
  • Device monitoring, alerting and reporting
  • Automated tasks based on rules e.g. Create an incident in the service desk based on an alert
  • Remote control, operating system and software installation, patch management
  • Asset update service
  • Quality index reporting
  • Software license management including normalized inventory, software usage tracking and a software request catalogue

We particularly liked the asset update service, allowing Miradore customers to confirm the continued ownership of assets and keep their asset and ownership details fresh. The service checks-in with end user customers to ask, “Do you still own these devices?” then provides a workflow for administrators to eyeball and verify any changes.

We also found the quality index reporting a powerful reminder of key metrics and a refreshing change to the usual reporting dashboards found in IT management tools.

Quality index reporting allows Miradore customers to set thresholds for key ITAM or Configuration Management performance metrics as asset visibility or anti-virus coverage. This reporting, presumably driven from Miradore’s SLA driven MSP partners, is great practical use of asset data to improve ITAM quality over time rather than generic dashboard.

Automation and Empowering Self-Service

Miradore_screen 2From an IT Service Management perspective, Miradore is a great complement to a broader service desk solution and provides great asset data to empower service management processes.

Miradore’s close device monitoring and management capabilities allow alerting on the service desk to enable proactive problem management by generating tickets based on device events, or highlighting mismatching configurations of devices, or simply identifying changes.

Similarly, Miradore’s self-service software request catalogue allows customers to select software, seek management software, and for the software to be deployed to the end user’s device – without the need for service desk agent intervention.

Finally, Miradore’s remote control facility will be a useful utility for the service desk. Features include screen sharing, controlling mouse and keyboard, file transfer and drawing tools.

In summary, Miradore is a good all round solution for desktop management and configuration management to support the service desk, especially for those organizations looking for a simpler and easier to use solution to Microsoft Configuration Manager.

 

Vendor information – in their own words

“Miradore

Miradore was born when three IT specialists working for a global paper giant UPM needed a better way to manage their own IT infrastructure. Since none of the existing configuration management solutions did not address the challenges they faced in a company with 20,000 workstations in over 30 countries, they decided to create their own. The pilot project and full-scale roll out was a success, and so in 2006 they left UPM to found Miradore Ltd. And naturally, UPM became Miradore’s first customer.

Today Miradore provides a mature and feature-rich product for managing different types of IT devices throughout their entire lifecycles. This is done by collecting accurate and up-to-date information from devices, automating device management activities, and integrating Miradore easily to overall ITSM toolset.

Miradore is committed to continuous improvement and thereby strives to further improve the product, focusing especially on utilization of cloud technologies, easiness of implementation and use, and mobility.”

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