Action1 had doubled the number of endpoints for the free tier of its of autonomous endpoint management solutions from 100 to 200. It will allow even more organisations to take advantage of its solution for free. The offer is open to both office and home users seeking an autonomous patching solution.
This is a brave move, and one that its competitors will watch anxiously. Will it enable Action1 to attract even more customers to its platform? How many organisations who have less than 200 endpoints will be able to take advantage of this freemium offering? For SME’s this is a significant announcement and means that organisations can obtain a key piece of security software free of charge as they grow.
For Action1, the risk is that these organisations never grow beyond 200 endpoints, and therefore never need to purchase the software. Maintaining the solution will cost Action1 resources and it will be gambling that it will obtain enough customers to cover this.
Autonomous Endpoint Patching is the first foundational use case for Autonomous Endpoint Management (AEM). With a solution such as Action1 in place, IT departments, or MSPs supporting those organisations can deploy a solution that adds little in the way of costs to the SMEs. Action1 also states the solution will have “no feature limits.”
Mike Walters, President and Co-Founder of Action1, said, “For SMBs and nonprofits, cybersecurity often feels unattainable due to limited budgets and expertise. That makes these organizations vulnerable to malicious actors. Our platform changes that by delivering enterprise-grade, autonomous endpoint management that’s easy to use and completely free for 200 devices forever and simple, affordable pricing beyond that. We’re equipping organizations of all sizes with the tools they need to thrive in today’s challenging cyber threat landscape.”
Small Businesses at risk
According to Veeam’s 2023 Data Protection Trends Report, 85% of ransomware attacks targeted small businesses. Furthermore, 60% of small businesses fail after a successful cyberattack. Small businesses often lack the resources to sufficiently protect themselves from these cyberattacks. It is therefore critical that they have available low cost, easy install and simple to run endpoint protection solutions to mitigate the risks posed by such attacks. Automated endpoint management, such as that provided by Action1 exemplifies this.
Tom Cipolla, Senior Director, Analyst, Gartner on LinkedIn, commented, “In our opinion, AEM represents the most significant advancement in endpoint management in over a decade. It has the potential to significantly reduce the effort and time required to patch and manage endpoint devices, while also protecting the digital employee experience.”
What are the benefits in the extended free tier?
The extended free tier that Action1 is providing, offers three key benefits for SME customers with limited budgets:
- Enterprise-grade autonomous endpoint management FREE: Protecting up to 200 endpoints free forever, with simple scaling above 200, without hidden costs or complexity. Although pricing is only available on request.
- 5-minute deployment, effortless management: Start managing endpoints immediately, minimizing training and free up IT resources.
- Low bandwidth and hybrid workforce patching: Seamlessly deploy patches, remediation, and updates with bandwidth-efficient P2P distribution—no VPN required. Easily patch offline devices as soon as they reconnect online.
The offer is also not a limited trial, where costs are introduced after 30 days. The AEM solution is also fully functional and includes:
- Real-time assessment of missing patches and compliance status
- Custom application patching via Software Repository
- Real-time vulnerability assessment and remediation
- Free initial vulnerability assessment for unlimited endpoints
- OS and application vulnerability patching with no VPN needed
- Management and automation of compensating controls
- Third-party application deployment and patching
- Software Repository with an ever-growing list of common applications
- Custom application deployment via a private Software Repository
- Simple to install a set up, the AEM platform can be live in minutes
Customers see immediate and ongoing results. Chris Weis, Senior Systems Engineer, Razzoo’s Cajun Café commented, “With Action1, I’m saving hours every week and bringing in better control and consistency across everything that we do. It was also very easy to deploy; I was able to quickly install it and ensure nothing was missed.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
The market for endpoint management is fiercely competitive. This initiative by Action1 is potentially one that will help it win market share. The risk is that SMEs flock to the solution, but they never grow their business to have more than 200 endpoints. If sufficient number of organisations come on board and grow, then this could be a good decision by Action1. However, if they are left to service thousands of customers without remuneration it could have a negative impact on profits.
There are a lot of organisations with less than 200 endpoints, it will be interesting to see how many organisations take up the offer and how many start paying subscription fees once they cross the 200 threshold.
