Apple Remote Desktop (ARD), from Apple, is a remote administration tool for managing Apple computers running OS X across a network.
$79.99
one-time fee
LogMeIn Central by GoTo
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Central is a cloud-based remote monitoring and endpoint management solution enabling IT professionals to monitor,
manage, and secure their endpoint infrastructure. Whether it is used for remote employees or endpoints scattered across the globe, the vendor promises that Central
provides IT organizations with the speed, flexibility, and insight needed to
increase productivity, reduce IT costs, and mitigate risk.
I would rate this higher if I was confident that Apple is continuing to develop this utility. It has only received minor updates for quite a long time, and is not featured much in any of Apple's online material. It really is a useful utility, but it is starting to show its age and is fraying a bit around the edges in some respects. It could be very useful when integrated with the various MDM solutions (in our case, Jamf Pro) especially when an engineer needs to force something immediately and can't wait for a check-in, and also can't depend on the end user being able to (for instance) do a sudo jamf policy or sudo jamf recon.
LogMeIn Central by GoTo is well suited for easy, direct access to specific, perhaps mission critical, machines. Its remote control functionality and speed is very good - best in class, really. However, it simply can't replace a true and traditional RMM product in terms of robustness and overall ability (or lack thereof).
I would like to see more included Unix scrips that can be pushed to clients.
Inclusion of a way to remote control or screen share with Windows machines would be useful, as I manage a handful of Windows machines. While this would be possible using VNC on the Windows machines, including the ability to connect using Windows terminal connections would be awesome, for me.
It is a fairly unique tool in the level of integration it has with Apple Desktop products. It definitely needs some engineering attention, and it should be expanded to the iOS arena. It is not perfect, but it is very useful and fills an otherwise fairly empty niche in the support toolkit realm. The built-in screen sharing app in macOS handles the direct screen control or viewing function fairly well, but it does not have all of the other mass control features that Apple Remote Desktop supplies.
What I dont like is when I run out of licenses that the only way to get more is to buy large amounts. this is very frustrating and as a small business I need to watch how much i am spending. smaller license packs would be better
Once it is set up, it is quite straightforward to use. However, currently, it requires both a script to run to set up permissions and controls, AND a command from the MDM to authorize it to be active. The MDM management command is manual. This is not conducive to an automated workflow, and sometimes gets forgotten. Then, the endpoint is not contactable until someone realizes that the MDM command was not sent or was not successful.
It is wonderful after the initial setup and implementation.It's fairly intuitive and easy to use for more of our tech and users. These types of products have come a long way. I've been in tech for 20+ years, and thinking back to tools like PC anywhere things have become just so much more user friendly on both ends of the device.
During our 6 years of use, we [have] never seen any downtime from their side. The application simply works. We have had incidents when we were not able to connect to remote servers by any means, but LogMeIn Central always worked. It has saved us trips to other offices. We have few users are who live in rural areas where internet speeds are not great. Supporting these users is a big challenge, but LogMeIn Central was always a lifesaver.
Every time I called in with a question or concern, your support team always provided the right information. It's great to call in to support and everyone that answers is very knowledgeable of the product.
I would feel much more comfortable having one of these alternative solutions as our Remote Desktop management tools. Each has their drawbacks and expenses associated with them, but we simply have too large of a deployment to not be considering alternatives. If it is the only solution you can afford, it is OK to start here. I could see where this would have a return on investment, but it is really only suitable for a very small and localized scale. If employees are at all mobile, the duct taping of products necessary (VPN, distribution points, script repositories) would be very cumbersome.
LogmeIn Central is the fastest RMM in terms of remote connection. It generally performs well on networks that have low bandwidth too. In terms of features, Datto RMM does best it because it offers such a good platform for integrations and also for scripting. The community is very open with that software which really gives it a boost, and this is something LogMein Central could work on.
Apple Remote Desktop has a positive return on investment because for the expense to the school, the value it brings to teachers is important. The return on improved student performance is very difficult to measure financially, but there is a definite return.
The overall objective of education is to increase student learning, ARD does that phenomenally. Parents see the tool used and are impressed at what the capabilities of the tool can do and how it impacts how active their students are as well as how well they can learn.
One negative impact is that teachers rely too much on this tool rather than on actually teaching sometimes.
