What is Outpost

Outpost is a hosted platform that IT departments and managed service providers (MSPs) use to manage and support the computers they are responsible for. One console covers endpoint management and monitoring, patching, remote access, scripts, backup, IT documentation, a service desk, and, for MSPs, sales, projects, and client billing. This page names the parts of Outpost and points you to the rest of this section.

What Outpost does

Area	What you do with it
Endpoint management and monitoring	See inventory, health, and live metrics for every endpoint, and get alerts when something changes.
Patching and software	Approve and install operating system and application updates, and deploy software from a catalog.
Automation	Run and schedule scripts, and apply settings to endpoints through profiles.
Remote access	Connect to an endpoint’s desktop or terminal from the console. See Remote access.
Compliance	Measure endpoints against a compliance framework, record exceptions, and export evidence. See Compliance.
Backup	Back up endpoints and monitor third-party backup jobs. See Backup.
Documentation	Keep IT documentation, assets, and credentials next to the endpoints they describe. See Documentation.
Service desk	Work tickets, incidents, status pages, and a knowledge base. See Service desk.
MSP tools	Manage many client organizations from one console, with sales, projects, agreements, and client invoices. See MSP.

Which of these you have depends on your plan. See Plans and limits.

The parts of Outpost

Part	What it is	Who uses it
The console	The web application at your Outpost address where your team manages endpoints. Most of this documentation is about the console. See Console.	Technicians
The Outpost agent	A service you install on each computer you manage. It reports inventory and health, applies settings, and carries out the work you start from the console. See Agent.	Installed by technicians, runs unattended
The Outpost tray app	A small app for the person who uses the computer. It shows the computer’s status and gives them a way to reach your support team. See Tray.	End users
The Outpost portal	Where the account owner signs up, chooses and changes the plan, and manages payment methods and invoices. See Account and billing.	The account owner

A computer with the Outpost agent installed is an endpoint. The words this documentation uses for everything else are defined in Concepts and vocabulary.

Who each plan suits

Plan	Suits
Home Lab	Your own computers at home, for personal and non-commercial use.
Essentials	A small organization managing its own computers.
Enterprise	An organization with an internal IT department, and anyone who needs the service desk.
MSP	A provider that manages computers for other organizations as a paid service.

Choose a plan explains how to decide.

In this section

• Concepts and vocabulary: the terms the rest of this documentation uses.
• Quickstart: from signup to your first managed endpoint.
• Choose a plan: which plan fits a home lab, a small business, an IT department, or an MSP.
• Supported platforms: the operating systems the agent runs on, and what works on each one.
• How Outpost is hosted: where your data lives, how it is kept apart from other customers, and how endpoints connect.
• Self-hosted and air-gapped deployments: running Outpost on your own infrastructure, by arrangement.