What is our primary use case?
We use it as an endpoint protection solution. It pretty much sits on all of our devices. We manage the app control piece through it.
We use it for elevation requests. Worldwide, we have set Zero Trust, so people need to elevate through applications. We do not want to give them an admin account on the machine, but we need these applications to run with administrator privileges. That is the piece we leverage the most.
How has it helped my organization?
The greatest benefit is the ease. The mobile app is great. I get requests in the portal, and I can allow or reject them, and it works almost instantly, getting teams up and running within 60 seconds. That is the best part. We can train global teams in a half-hour meeting. We are able to break down all their permissions. It is done in a few seconds. We are happy with it.
Elevation control has been second to none for us. It has been amazing. We switched off the last product we were using. We did not have a great experience with them, but we have had a great experience with ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform.
We have eliminated our original endpoint app. We will look into consolidating some of the other tools that our Information Security team uses, but at the moment, it is a replacement; it has not cut any other apps out of our environment. We have already started exploring different ways to eliminate or at least add to our security posture. Specifically, we are targeting the storage control and deeper application control with ringfencing and things like that. We have had lots of demos from ThreatLocker. They are always very good about giving demos on the spot. Thanks to Blaine and Jesse for that.
ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform is fantastic at blocking access to unauthorized applications. With our old product, we had so many issues with policies being all over the place. It was not very intuitive, and the product could not even update itself. ThreatLocker has broken it down in terms of how exactly it is run and the science behind it all. That education and their knowledge base have helped us with understanding. It has been a fantastic platform. It has been in our environment for a relatively short period of time. It has been fantastic so far, and I am hoping that it continues to prove itself.
ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform has not helped to reduce help desk tickets, but it has streamlined them. Instead of guessing what the user needs, the elevation requests pretty much tell you the properties or the paths of what needs to run. That may introduce more tickets, but it is so much faster that it outweighs that aspect.
ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform has expedited our ticket resolution. Although we are getting more tickets, we are plowing through a lot faster. We can see them in the console. People no longer have to reach out to us. People can create an elevation request for the entire organization. They could go to the console and see it there and do it themselves. It makes things so much easier. It has been awesome.
ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform allows us to see what the user needs immediately and simply hit the Go or Approve button. We can set the rules we want. Our last solution was trial and error. It would take me up to an hour and a half sometimes to get the rules working exactly the way I wanted, whereas, with ThreatLocker, it is already all there for me. I can even break down and specify exactly what I want or drill down even more.
In a day, it saves us one to two hours a day depending on what is being elevated and what people need. This time saving is significant for our technicians. The overall savings could be two to three days. We get overtime, but that is still a lot of work. ThreatLocker has been amazing at saving us time.
What is most valuable?
We use it most heavily for elevation control, blocking and giving rights only to certain people or devices, and not allowing the rest to access the software. Elevation control has been second to none for me.
It is super easy to use. We could train a team in 30 minutes. If you are in it relatively often, it becomes second nature. The reduction in attack surfaces comes down to the elevation approval. If an app cannot be elevated or run as an administrator, it is not running at all. That is the key part there. It helps ensure that people are not running something that they are not supposed to. It is very trustworthy. It was socialized pretty quickly within our company. It was very quick.
ThreatLocker’s support has been second to none.
What needs improvement?
Better visualizations of what exactly is happening in our logs would be helpful. There can be more visuals on what has been elevated. Presenting this in a more refined manner would be beneficial.
One area that needs improvement is the hierarchy of permissions. Sometimes ThreatLocker's built-in elevations or apps overtake, leading to conflicts.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used the solution for six months in total, with it being in production for three months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is super stable. I have not had any issues yet. Knock on wood. It has been great.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is simple. As long as you have the licenses, you can scale as far as you like. We scaled it in three months to the entire organization. It is very scalable and fast, reaching 4,000 computers in three months, which is pretty nice.
How are customer service and support?
Cyber Heroes are awesome. I can open a chat with them and probably get my question answered within a few minutes. If they need to elevate, they can, or we have our meetings with our contact, Blaine, every two weeks. Those meetings are for higher-level topics, but he is very easy to work with.
Any time I have had to put in a ticket, it has been worked on within the same day or the next hour. This support ranks at the top of all the different software I use.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used CyberArk. It would not update itself and was causing blue screens. It even blocked emails and did other unwanted actions. We had it set up to do the bare minimum, and it would sometimes do vastly different things that we did not want it to do. That was one issue.
The updates were blocked, so we could not uninstall it for machines. The dashboard was outdated. Even with a switch to a cloud solution, it was not intuitive. In this age, it is insane to have a console that is not intuitive and looks out of date. It is probably an out-of-date software, and that definitely reflected in our experience.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was extremely easy. I did a lot of the packaging and deployment. Once deployed, it shows up in the console within five to ten minutes whenever the machine checks in. No matter where you are in the world, it just works.
What about the implementation team?
We used Access IT. They have always been great. They are super easy to work with. They streamlined the whole process and got us on board quickly.
What was our ROI?
ThreatLocker is a little cheaper than our last app, and we could continue to save money as we utilize its other aspects. It is doing so much more for our company, which is amazing. Adding more features and eliminating others could save even more and provide more proven value. It has saved us about 25,000 a year.
We have been using it only for about six months. It has only been in production for three months, but we have been testing it for six months. It is a short time, but it has already saved us so much time.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is pretty fair, considering other solutions. Licensing-wise, it did not take long. The only long piece was the legal lease. Other than that, the only thing that held us up was the holidays. It was more on our end than on their end. The cost structure and everything else seemed very fair and well laid out.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated BeyondTrust and a smaller company. BeyondTrust’s presentation ran on Windows 7, whereas in 2024, we were on Windows 11. That was an issue for us.
A significant issue with the other solution was that the UAC prompts were not working anymore. You had to use their software, which pretty much gave up administrators' ability to elevate when needed.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.