17 years helping British businesses
choose better software
FileWave
What is FileWave?
FileWave's hybrid approach, including traditional client management for Mac and Windows alongside modern Unified Endpoint Management (UEM,) makes endpoint management simple today, and in the future. FileWave includes IT asset inventory; software packaging and distribution; patch management; and OS imaging and deployment for Mac and Windows. Manage all of your devices, apps, and settings on computers and mobile devices. Supports Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and Chrome OS.
Who Uses FileWave?
FileWave's feature-rich Unified Endpoint Management solution is ideal for mid-sized enterprise, SMB, and school districts managing multi-platform environments with limited staff and budgets.
Not sure about FileWave?
Compare with a popular alternative
FileWave
Other great alternatives to FileWave
Reviews of FileWave
A new way of our “deployment-thinking”! And still a great choice...
Comments: Our impressions on FileWave: Sureley it is all about technology. But we are only a small team of 5 admins for all our apple clients. So we need a strong partner with an outstanding support. This includes various in-house and almost worldwide (even if only sporadically) departments with several demands on software, settings and needs. Before the decision to FileWave, various adjustments were only possible to a limited extent and with considerable effort. It already started with an elaborate process to create, test, re-adapt, and distribute packages to the right places. Without a meaningful booster process in a DMZ this was hardly possible. We can now finally rethink - filesets replace the time-consuming use of packages in almost allplaces. And this in a mostly simple but always complex way to expand. Includes all software, preferences, setting, access permissions and pre-post-whatever scripts. Thus complex installations can be summarized wonderful simply and still be arranged in individually. This was one of the outstanding features of Filewave, as it saves us a lot of time and takes our thinking about the distribution of needs of all kinds to a new level. Second: With the booster technology, we now have access to all our employees, no matter where, at what time or in what network. The Internet is all it takes for our IT to act. For changes and updates of security settings and innovations of our production software, this procedure is unremitting and gives us an time advance
Pros:
Self-service and kiosk - in the future we will increasingly focus on supporting the end users in their independence. With a well-structured self-service and an IT-supported kiosk, end users should have more control. DEP - the integrated DEP Manager will support us in the introduction of DEP with new and"old" devices and will facilitate the initial inclusion of new hardware in our client management. FileVault Key Management - We are already using Institutional Recovery Keys, but want touse the personal key solution in FileWave in the future. License Management - For administrative overviews of compliance reports, we will useFileWave in the future. This gives our administrators a quick overview of the licenserequirements. with our external procurement solution including various release processes, license softwareshould be automatically made available to authorized persons in addition to the previousmostly free software. MDM - In addition to the daily challenge of smaller requirements, we will continue to expandthe DEP integration with FileWave and guarantee a smooth integration of the iOS devices. Network - Exchange with other IT colleagues from other companies to get to know manyother possibilities. In many cases the problems are comparable, the solution does not always have to be reinvented.
Cons:
I am just worried about the fact, that it took us such a long time for choosing this product.
Alternatives Considered:
Filewave, the technicians tool
Comments: We have had a great experience, I would definitely recommend
Pros:
there's not some overly built GUI with flashy colors, but i've found nost anything I want to do MDM wise, you can make it happen, and usually there are several ways you can make it happen depending on what you need. I love the customization. I built my device hierarchy from nothing and have been able to confugre how I want to see things, add custom fields, multiple locations, etc etc.
Cons:
While having that customization is great I do feel as though custom reports are not as readily available as i'm used to, I would like to be able to export device info on spreadsheets when needed and i've had trouble generating specific reports for certain rollouts when needed.
Alternatives Considered:
A buggy and directionless mess
Comments: We purchased FileWave because we needed a cross-platform endpoint management solution for our environment, and it was less expensive than other options at the time. Plus, we were forced to look for a new solution after our former one, "Absolute Manage" was discontinued, and several engineers for that product reportedly ended up working with FileWave. After basic deployment was finished and we began shutting down our Absolute Manage services, the issues started adding up. Basic client information missing, inability to customize display, issues with duplicated clients, issues with MDM enrollment &/or profile installation for new devices...the list of issues over the years is longer than I can even summon in my head. We've begrudgingly been able to customize the product over the years to do the basic things you might want from an endpoint management software, but the number of outstanding issues is still significant. Support sessions frequently involve rescheduling at the last minute or joining a session only to sit for 10-15 minutes with nothing happening, or watching a support technician flounder around in the CLI, checking in with their team to figure out how to run commands... Basic things will occasionally break or get replaced with options purchased from other vendors (such as the remote session 'Observe' function being replaced with TeamViewer, which requires more money if you want to license more than the 2 users granted to each FileWave deployment).
Pros:
Cross-platform (Windows, macOS, iOS, tvOS)
Cons:
BUGS, ENDLESS BUGS, with no 'Known issues' documents published Very little is ready "out of the box" - prepare to build all automation/commonly-used information items yourself Support is SLOW and lackluster at best Product development is slow and generally problematic with each release
Alternatives Considered:
Must Have for a hybrid environment
Comments: Overall the experience with FileWave and their staff have been a good experience. Their solutions engineers and professional services team have went above and beyond to help us get to where we need to be for device management.
Pros:
Being able to manage Windows, macOS, and iOS devices with one tool was a must. Being able to enroll machines with Apple's DEP into FileWave and enroll Windows machines with Group Policy made it a very easy deployment. It was instrumental in helping us achieve a fully remote-work environment to be able to deploy software, and gather device information from their Custom Field features.
Cons:
Having a cloud based administrative portal would be a huge plus. There is some scripting knowledge that is needed in order to accomplish the things you want to do with Windows machines, as there is no native "profile manager" or GPO-like menu like for macOS.
Alternatives Considered:
FileWave Endpoint Management
Comments: FileWave has saved so much time with distributing software, updates and managing our iPads.
Pros:
The software is easy to use, it works quickly. Years ago we had to re-image computers to distribute updates. With FileWave, you just create the file set and update the model, off it goes to all of the client devices. It is a top quality MDM and makes managing iPads a breeze. Another nice feature is device location. Once enrolled a device sends a location. It makes locating lost devices easier.
Cons:
Honestly, I can't think of anything at the moment. This product has made life so much easier in our department.
