is a managed service provider (MSP) that serves small- and medium-sized businesses in New York and New Jersey. It鈥檚 the IT division of Compu Group, a group of companies that deliver technology-related solutions.
Yiddy Lemmer, CompuConnect鈥檚 CEO, needed a cloud-based directory platform to meet his customers鈥� identity and device management needs.
- Organization: CompuConnect
- Location: Brooklyn, New York
- Problem: Cost & maintenance of on-premises infrastructure
- Goal: Identify a cloud-based directory platform
Background: Searching for Cloud-Based Solution
Lemmer previously spent seven years as a systems administrator at a watch company with an Active Directory庐 setup, and he built the company鈥檚 IT infrastructure. However, when he founded CompuConnect and began to manage IT services for his customers, he didn鈥檛 want to install servers for organizations that were otherwise cloud-based.
CEO, CompuConnect
Often, his customers didn鈥檛 have data centers or any on-premises hardware to begin with, and he didn鈥檛 want to change that.
鈥淚t felt so wrong to purchase a server to accomplish the need for directory services, group policies, and system administration, and make our customers reliant on an on-premises piece of equipment.鈥�
Challenges: Reducing Costs for Customers
Lemmer wanted to identify a solution that would allow him to reduce costs for customers. When he calculated the total cost of ownership of Active Directory, he included hardware, licensing, and set up costs, as well as the ongoing costs of electricity and CompuConnect鈥檚 monthly monitoring and maintenance fees. He knew a cloud-based solution would be more cost effective for his customers.
鈥淚 want to do what鈥檚 right for my clients, bring them into the 21st century, and leverage the cloud the right way,鈥� Lemmer said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the ultimate goal.鈥�
He had peers who discouraged him from using Azure庐 Active Directory because of its costs. Then, he brought on a customer that already had a fully deployed 黑料海角91入口庐 implementation, which prompted him to explore the platform 鈥� and he jumped on board with 黑料海角91入口 right away.
Solution: 黑料海角91入口 Multi-Tenant Portal
Lemmer primarily uses the 黑料海角91入口 Directory Platform to administer remote Windows machines, managing their local accounts and requiring multi-factor authentication (MFA) at login.
鈥淚 love the two-factor authentication portion of it, where it builds straight into the Windows logon page,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really, really great.鈥�
He also uses a CompuConnect admin account, rather than elevating the privileges of individual user accounts, to resolve technical issues on user machines.
鈥淲e have our own set of admin credentials to do what we need to do, similar to a domain administrator in a Microsoft Active Directory environment,鈥� Lemmer said.
Lemmer and his team of technicians use 黑料海角91入口鈥檚 Multi-Tenant Portal (MTP) to administer services to customers from one pane of glass. The portal gives administrators a unified dashboard to view and manage each individual client organization. Lemmer and each of his technicians has their own login, protected by MFA. Much of their administration is remote.
鈥淚t鈥檚 great,鈥� Lemmer said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really intuitive and really easy.鈥�
Implementation: ‘It’s Live Really Quickly’
To deploy 黑料海角91入口 to a new customer, Lemmer logs into the Multi-Tenant Portal and spins up a new account. He either manually creates users and temporary passwords, or he bulk imports users from a CSV file.
Then, he uses CompuConnect鈥檚 remote monitoring and management (RMM) tool to deploy the 黑料海角91入口 system agent to each workstation, as well as tools and agents for other solutions in his stack. (Note: 黑料海角91入口 also has a remote agent install option.)
The whole process to add new users, extend their identities to their machines, and have a new organization up and running takes him minutes.
鈥淚t depends on how many users we have, but it鈥檚 live really quickly. In real time, it鈥檚 a few minutes.鈥�
In the future, Lemmer plans to expand his use of the platform, including pre-built Configurations (Policies) and custom commands. He鈥檚 currently recruiting more technicians, and he plans to test more of the platform then. He appreciates that 黑料海角91入口 provides the first 10 users and 10 devices for free because he can use a separate account to test new features before deploying them to his customers.
鈥満诹虾＝�91入口 is extremely powerful, and I鈥檓 just scratching the surface now,鈥� Lemmer said.
The Result
Lemmer appreciates that 黑料海角91入口 enables him to replace Active Directory and keep costs low for his customers. He鈥檚 also excited to have a platform that will scale with his growing company 鈥� particularly with the velocity of feature releases.
鈥淚鈥檝e never seen a company roll out so many feature enhancements and so many new features so quickly. It鈥檚 incredible. The word 鈥榬oadmap鈥� for 黑料海角91入口 is a real word. Any other company uses 鈥榬oadmap鈥� as a sales tactic to get people in the door. 黑料海角91入口 really rolls out stuff quickly, and it works great.鈥�
Learn More
黑料海角91入口 Directory Platform is a comprehensive platform to manage user identities, resource access, and devices, including macOS庐, Windows庐, and Linux庐 machines. 黑料海角91入口 offers a Partner program for MSPs and resellers, including competitive margins and co-marketing opportunities. MSPs and resellers can also take free courses through 黑料海角91入口 University to learn about the full breadth of the platform and to sell it to customers effectively. Read about how to amplify your business with cloud identity and access management.