CompuConnect is a managed service provider (MSP) that serves small- and medium-sized businesses in New York and New Jersey. It’s the IT division of Compu Group, a group of companies that deliver technology-related solutions.
Yiddy Lemmer, CompuConnect’s CEO, needed a cloud-based directory platform to meet his customers’ 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® setup, and he built the company’s IT infrastructure. However, when he founded CompuConnect and began to manage IT services for his customers, he didn’t want to install servers for organizations that were otherwise cloud-based.
CEO, CompuConnect
Often, his customers didn’t have data centers or any on-premises hardware to begin with, and he didn’t want to change that.
“It 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.”
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’s monthly monitoring and maintenance fees. He knew a cloud-based solution would be more cost effective for his customers.
“I want to do what’s right for my clients, bring them into the 21st century, and leverage the cloud the right way,” Lemmer said. “That’s the ultimate goal.”
He had peers who discouraged him from using Azure® Active Directory because of its costs. Then, he brought on a customer that already had a fully deployed JumpCloud® implementation, which prompted him to explore the platform — and he jumped on board with JumpCloud right away.
Solution: JumpCloud Multi-Tenant Portal
Lemmer primarily uses the JumpCloud Directory Platform to administer remote Windows machines, managing their local accounts and requiring multi-factor authentication (MFA) at login.
“I love the two-factor authentication portion of it, where it builds straight into the Windows logon page,” he said. “It’s really, really great.”
He also uses a CompuConnect admin account, rather than elevating the privileges of individual user accounts, to resolve technical issues on user machines.
“We 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,” Lemmer said.
Lemmer and his team of technicians use JumpCloud’s 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.
“It’s great,” Lemmer said. “It’s really intuitive and really easy.”
Implementation: ‘It’s Live Really Quickly’
To deploy JumpCloud 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’s remote monitoring and management (RMM) tool to deploy the JumpCloud system agent to each workstation, as well as tools and agents for other solutions in his stack. (Note: JumpCloud 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.
“It depends on how many users we have, but it’s live really quickly. In real time, it’s a few minutes.”
In the future, Lemmer plans to expand his use of the platform, including pre-built Configurations (Policies) and custom commands. He’s currently recruiting more technicians, and he plans to test more of the platform then. He appreciates that JumpCloud 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.
“JumpCloud is extremely powerful, and I’m just scratching the surface now,” Lemmer said.
The Result
Lemmer appreciates that JumpCloud enables him to replace Active Directory and keep costs low for his customers. He’s also excited to have a platform that will scale with his growing company — particularly with the velocity of feature releases.
“I’ve never seen a company roll out so many feature enhancements and so many new features so quickly. It’s incredible. The word ‘roadmap’ for JumpCloud is a real word. Any other company uses ‘roadmap’ as a sales tactic to get people in the door. JumpCloud really rolls out stuff quickly, and it works great.”
Learn More
JumpCloud Directory Platform is a comprehensive platform to manage user identities, resource access, and devices, including macOS®, Windows®, and Linux® machines. JumpCloud offers a Partner program for MSPs and resellers, including competitive margins and co-marketing opportunities. MSPs and resellers can also take free courses through JumpCloud 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.