Barracuda is focusing making the RMM it acquired from Avast in 2019 the best security-focused RMM for its MSPs, and to this end is expanding its third party integrations.
Today, Barracuda Networks is announcing major updates to their Barracuda RMM security-centric, cloud-based RMM platform. It includes new integrations with Windows Defender and ServiceNow, as well as an expansion of the integration with Barracuda’s own Intronis backup offering. The new release also enables the application of patches immediately to identified devices, and improves visibility on which devices are online or offline. New third-party software patch management has also been added as part of the onboarding process for all new MSP partners.
“This release is about increasing the flexibility and enhancing the security posture of the RMM,” said Chris Crellin, Senior Director, Product Management, Barracuda MSP. “We want it to be a security-centric RMM to help them make their customers more secure. It is critical that our RMM plays a critical role in managing customer security.”
Crellin stressed that a key part of this security emphasis involves integrating as many non-Barracuda security aspects in it as well.
“We see it as a differentiating factor,” he said. “It’s not just the security posture of the RMM that matters, but also the engagement in the security practice of the MSP. Becoming secure as an RMM is different from making the RMM central to the backbone of the MSPs security structure, which is what we do because security is in our pedigree.” Both are essential, Crellin emphasized, and the broader integrations are a necessary part of this.
Barracuda has added Windows Defender Antivirus, a free but highly ranked Microsoft security tool. It becomes only the second AV tool supported by Barracuda RMM, joining Avast, which was the AV solution originally with the product when Barracuda acquired the product, then named Managed Workplace RMM, from Avast in 2019.
“This new integration with Microsoft Defender provides additional flexibility, which we wanted to provide,” Crelin said. “It also sets us up for more flexibility for other tools down the road.”
A new integration is also being announced with digital workflow provider ServiceNow, to streamline event and ticket management. New-bi-directional integration with the ServiceNow PSA allows for incidents and events to be automatically created in ServiceNow when they are created, either manually or automatically, in Barracuda RMM.
Chris Crellin, senior director of product management, Barracuda MSP
“We had an initial rollout of this in the spring, and have been working on it through the spring and summer, so that it is now a fully bidirectional process for ServiceNow to track RMM tickets into the PSA,” Crellin indicated. “ServiceNow has become an important tool in the MSP’s arsenal, especially for larger MSPs. Now all the coding in our system will synchronize over to ServiceNow without MSPs having to modify their workflows to enable the integration.”
Barracuda has also extended the integrations that exist with their own Intronis backup offering.
“We released the first integration with our backup last year,” Crellin said. “Now we have added new alerts, and added some new reports, that give customers a better ability to hook in between the two products.”
The new Barracuda RMM release also adds the ability to apply patches immediately to identified devices and improve visibility on which devices are online or offline. Also included, as part of the onboarding process for all new MSP partners, is third-party software patch management.
“We have also provided some additional enhancements which represent improvements of opportunity based on partner feedback,” Crellin noted. This includes enhanced support for MacOS including a Mac Device Manager agent and upgrades for Catalina and Big Sur, a new MSI install package for Barracuda RMM Device Manager agent for Windows, improved alerting emails including site, device, and alert configuration names in alert email subject lines, and improved searching of reports.
“We are continuing to improve our security assessment capabilities from within the RMM, so MSPs can provide the information, showing additional security vulnerabilities, as a report card for customers,” Crellin said. “It’s an important pre-sales tool for them, especially since security and data protection are not always front of mind for the end customer.”
