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Review: GFI Cloud eliminates need to nursemaid Windows

Help for the hard-pressed sysadmin

Strong protection

I have saved the best for last, largely because the web protection feature of GFI Cloud is entirely deserving of its own category in this review.

I have been doing IT for more than two decades and even I can't say that I can keep up with the rapid pace of changes on today's internet. So I cannot honestly claim that my custom-secured Firefox browser would be proof against all threats.

If I am not certain that I can defend my own Windows system from all of the creepy-crawlies on the internet, what chance does an overworked sysadmin have of defending an entire network?

GFI Cloud's web protection is a simple and well implemented corporate web filter. Put your computers in a group and allow or deny access to different categories of website. Servers are classified by default based on operating system.

Server operating systems by default have a far more restricted set of sites to which they are allowed access. As an example, my personal desktop operating system happens to be a copy of Server 2008 R2. Imagine my surprise when, after installing GFI Cloud's agent, I couldn't access The Register!

The category News and Media is blocked by default on server systems. Other categories that you will need access to – such as Computer and Internet Info – are enabled by default for servers.

This all strikes me as pretty rational: most people logged into a server probably shouldn't be browsing a social media sites or reading the latest tech news.

The majority of GFI Cloud users will probably never futz with the defaults in Web Protection as they are pretty well thought out. Malware, phishing sites, spyware, adware and other nasties are blocked by default.

Bandwidth usage can be viewed as an aggregate or on a per-system basis and reports pulled by group, by category and going back 30 days.

Much as I dislike the concept behind such centralised web filtering, I acknowledge that in today's world it is an absolute necessity. GFI Cloud offers by far the simplest implementation of this concept that I have seen, and it is exactly the kind of security precaution that businesses need to be taking.

Buy one today

GFI Cloud is not just a simple management interface for the overworked sysadmin. Far more critically, it also functions as a checklist of the basic items that need to be covered to keep your network functioning.

Make sure your antivirus scans are run, keep your patches up to date, find out why Windows Time isn't working, and so on and so forth.

There remains room for improvement. On my first pass through, I didn't even notice that updates were managed for anything beyond Microsoft's offerings. The patch interface shows a sea of Microsoft patches and it isn't until the fifth page that I could see a non-Microsoft patch, hidden among the waves.

GFI claims support for more than 50 third-party applications. That is fantastic and on its own makes this offering worth the sticker price for many businesses.

Still, I'd love to see the interface updated so that it was easier to see the third-party patches needed. Ideally, I'd love a summary view. For example: "patches for Computer A, 45 Windows (35 critical), 2 SQL patches (0 critical), 3 Java Patches (3 critical, also: you have Java installed. That's a terrible plan.)"

You can get some of this information from the patch management report, but not quite. My grouse here is something of an exercise in picking nits. I am irked by an interface design choice, but it certainly doesn't detract from functionality.

GFI cloud is the kind of management tool that offers that first step away from constantly fighting fires towards getting IT under control. It is so easy to deploy that you start seeing benefits within minutes of signing up.

Other tools are more powerful but they require a lot more configuration. This poses a barrier to entry for the overtaxed or inexperienced sysadmin.

If you are still at this firefighting stage of systems administration, GFI Cloud is exactly the sort of product you should be out there buying right now.

Others will turn to GFI Cloud as part of a more comprehensive strategy. They will use it in conjunction with other tools because it makes the task of dealing with Windows systems easy.

We all have better things to do than play nursemaid to Windows. GFI Cloud removes the need to do so. ®

You can trial GFI Cloud for free for 30 days. Here is a Reg promo link for you.

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