TL;DR; I’ve teamed up with 1E to give you a no-holds-barred look into their Tachyon Unified Experience Management platform. If you need an honest review on a real-time endpoint management solution that might be worth it, join me on a multi-post learning journey coming soon.
It was 2009 and I was working for a local technology consulting company in my hometown. As I strolled through the door to my office, one of the sales reps casually asked if I had any Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) experience. Jokingly, I stated, “Yeah, if you count the few hours I helped a coworker at a previous job building some packages for it”.
It turns out, I had the most experience of anyone in the office for SCCM and soon discovered why the sales rep had asked me that question. That sales rep had a large client, we’ll call them Client X, that needed someone to design, implement and train their staff on their first endpoint management product what’s now Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (MECM).
Can you guess what happened next? Yep, I was told I’d be traveling to see Client X that next week to discuss the project. Awesome. I guess I better start learning endpoint management fast!
“But don’t worry”, the sales rep consoled. “They just want to use it for software deployments and asset inventory”.
Fast forward six years to 2015 where I’ve been at Client X putting in 40-hour weeks billing $150/hour nearly every week since making my employer happier than a clam.
I’ve now deployed thousands of SCCM clients, built and deployed dozens of packages, created dozens of SQL asset reports, discovered PowerShell, and have started this very blog.
Why did a short implementation project turn into a six-year staff augmentation gig? Two big reasons.
- Client X changed their mind and actually wanted all the bells and whistles that SCCM provided drastically increasing the project scope.
- Client X realized that managing SCCM isn’t a part-time endeavor. After implementation, they discovered SCCM is a mammoth product with a lot of complexity and they needed someone dedicated to it.
My employer threw me in the deep end and told me to swim. And I loved it. I went from knowing nothing to learning the ins and outs of SCCM, becoming a Microsoft MVP all while embracing SCCM’s benefits and dealing with its annoying nuances.
Adam the Automator Meets 1E
My past experience with SCCM coupled with my love for PowerShell was a big reason I’d like to announce a new partnership between myself and the endpoint management company, 1E.
Ever since I’ve been in the endpoint management space, I’ve been following 1E learning about their Nomad product and other ways they complement SCCM. Throughout the years, I’ve grown to respect them as a company and their products especially now they’ve transitioned more into being endpoint management specialists via the Unified Experience Management platform, Tachyon.
When I finally got the opportunity to work with Sumir Karayi and the 1E team on their Tachyon product, I jumped at the chance.
I had a love/hate relationship with MECM while in the daily admin trenches. On the one hand, I loved it because it gave me the power to control and monitor an army of endpoints but I also hated it because it was sloooooooow.
During those times, my colleagues and I coined the term “SCCM time”. SCCM seemed like it was always operating on its own time subscribing to the “We’ll get there when we get there” attitude.
When 1E introduced me to their Tachyon product, touted all of its features, and showed me what Tachyon could do, I was impressed. At first glance, Tachyon was managing endpoints as I did with SCCM in near real-time querying thousands of endpoints in seconds!
Time will tell if this rings true as I put Tachyon through its paces.
Announcing the 1E Tachyon Learn with Me Series
If you’re an IT pro, how do you typically evaluate a new client/server product? If you’re like me, you completely skip the documentation, download it, figure out how to get it installed on a test server. Why? Because I’m lazy and I just want to learn the nuts and bolts ASAP rather than sifting through stuff I don’t care about.
I may eventually regret not reading the documentation or watching any training videos, but, in the end, I follow my own haphazard learning path and do well at evaluating a new product.
Using this haphazard yet totally real approach to product evaluation, I’d like to bring you with me as I take 1E’s Tachyon product for a spin.
Welcome to the Learn with Me series on 1E’s Tachyon.
Learning 1E’s Tachyon (with Commentary)
Over the next few months and several blog posts, I will be taking time to download, install and evaluate 1E’s Tachyon product one feature at a time.
Just like my SCCM days, starting from knowing nothing, I will be diving into Tachyon and all that it can do starting from scratch with an outline based on 1E’s Tachyon Getting Started guide.
Don’t worry though. This series of posts isn’t going to be boring documentation and product fluffery. I intend to give Tachyon a fair shake and throughout the process, give you my honest opinions (both good and bad).
Full disclosure: 1E is paying me to write this series of posts but has given me full permission to not hold back my personal opinion. Talk about confidence in their product or perhaps they’re unaware of just how honest I can be.
Through this Learn with Me series, I will be focusing on:
- Implementing Tachyon to figure out how to set up Tachyon.
- Using Tachyon’s Explorer to investigate and remediate issues and manage operations across endpoints in real-time.
- Using Guaranteed State to ensure endpoint compliance to enterprise IT policies.
- Using Inventory to track hardware and software assets
- Using Experience to measure performance, stability, and responsiveness for applications based on user experience.
- Extending Tachyon to learn how to work with related tools and even build your own PowerShell scripts to run in Tachyon.
Conclusion
Are your users getting fed up with a terrible technology experience? Are you tired of your frustratingly slow and inaccurate endpoint management solution? Want to learn about a fast solution for all things endpoint management and user experience that might be worthwhile? Join me!
The jury’s still out on 1E’s Tachyon but I’m ready to take on the challenge. I hope you’ll come along for the ride.
