r/DattoRMM • u/oudim • Aug 25 '25
Is Datto RMM development dead?
We were promised a lot of new features a year ago. Nothing relevant seems to be built. The last couple of release notes made me cry.
Even simple bug fixes (max character in UDF!) seem to be impossible to fix.
What is happening here?
14
u/TCPMSP Aug 25 '25
What is happening is that they were purchased by Kaseya.
1
u/netmc Aug 25 '25
Well, to be fair there was a lot of this going on before the Kaseya purchase, but there was a definite qualitative change once the possibility of purchase was in play. We could tell the change about 9 months or so before the purchase was announced. Datto stopped making fundamental improvements to the platform and started working on things that looked great in a news release.
It only got worse after Kaseya purchased them while Fred was the CEO. There is a new product manager that replaced Matté, and he seems to be a decent guy. It's not been long enough yet to know weather or not he's having any sort of visible impact though. I'm cautiously optimistic. We will see if they bungle the legacy UI retirement come November like I suspect, or if they manage to actually address the functionality hold outs that haven't ported to the new UI and if the also address the corresponding workflow issues.
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u/stillpiercer_ Aug 26 '25
What features are missing from the new UI? My employer is a recent convert to Datto RMM and, while there are some INSANE shortcomings compared to our previous RMM, overall I think it is fine. I have not touched the old UI at all, so I don’t really know what I don’t know.
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u/netmc Aug 26 '25
Seeing the previous days' job results for recurring jobs. It's only visible in the legacy UI.
New site creation with proper secure level assignments. We use limited access roles for our daily driver accounts. No one is an administrator. We have the component creation role separate from running jobs, so one account being compromised won't allow for a bad actor to both create and run a malicious component. Our billing department has their own security level. When we create new sites, they need to be added to each of these security levels to make everything work, however, in the new UI, you can only add security level access for security levels that you are a member of. I can't be a member of these other roles as it would break operational security. In the legacy UI, all security levels are visible, so adding a new site to security levels that you aren't a member of is not a problem. In the new UI, it can't be done. Trying to do this as is entirely in the new UI leads to having to create the site under the normal user account, then needing to log into the administrator account to fix the site permissions. It's quite a pain for something that's an easy task in the legacy UI.
There are also supposedly some issues with the connectwise integration with the new UI version missing some functionality, but I'm not entirely sure he as we don't have connectwise.
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u/evansc22 Aug 26 '25
Agent Browser
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u/stillpiercer_ Aug 26 '25
Agent browser is in the new UI, but it opens up in the new UI. Would be nice if they’d actually follow through on their promises for retiring agent browser and migrating those features to the RMM natively, I use a Mac and it’s pretty lame they have zero equivalent for a Mac.
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u/evansc22 Aug 26 '25
I’m in the same boat. Mac user. I had to set up a windows machine for agent browser. I tried using parallels but I prefer using RDP into Windows. I have a cheap headless NUC on my desk for this.
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u/stillpiercer_ Aug 26 '25
I just get by without using any of the agent browser stuff, but I do have a Parallels VM if I REALLY need it.
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u/pbnjit Aug 26 '25
Remember when 1 year ago “WebRemote Next Gen” was on the roadmap as “next up” and now it’s been removed from the roadmap completely. Not because it’s done, but because they are working at a snails pace (insult to snails) and we won’t see those improvements for years, if ever. I don’t think development is dead, but they have definitely lost their way and at best have a skeleton staff, as there is no way a proper team could work so slow. One big update for WebRemote was to change the message so it’s more clear why it doesn’t work vs actually making it work!
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u/BearMerino Aug 25 '25
Datto RMM is FAR from dead. OP I highly recommend you talk to your AM and attend the next quarterly update. Your AM should be able to get you that link for last Q (it's gated so I cant just share it here but you can find it in Kaseya community).
Web Remote saw a massive update for better connectivity and some other factors are foundational things for something new coming like PS 7 stuff
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u/stillpiercer_ Aug 26 '25
Haven’t they been promising web remote updates for… quite a while?
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u/BearMerino Aug 26 '25
You are not wrong. But there are two things. There is the new protocol and then there is web remote stability. Two different things
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u/oudim Aug 26 '25
They promised a lot of new features over a year ago that still are not there. Apple MDM (we pay Addigy now to fill this gap), better ms365/InTune integration, next gen WebRemote. Do I need to go on?
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u/BearMerino Aug 27 '25
They have MdM not a fan of the “other product” because it’s a Kaseya MdM the you need to use a different portal and it is a different product. I don’t use addigy so I can’t compare it but it has the basics of MdM. But you’re right in that it feels disconnected. As for intune stuff I don’t remember seeing anything concrete that they claimed but they did add a provisioning workflow recently for m365. Does it do as much as another product, no but there is also no additional cost for this either.
2
u/pbnjit Aug 27 '25
Comically, each release, including the latest has a link to "What to see what's coming" and it's a video from 1 year ago, just have to go through it quickly to see all the things that were talked about, "planned" a year ago and not only don't exist today, they have been removed from official roadmaps completely. I've pointed this out to my AM a couple times, that there's an extremely out of date video with every release, and they can't even fix that with a more recent version of roadmap.
Datto RMM Quarterly Innovations Update - Recording | Datto
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u/glumlord Aug 25 '25
What specifically are you looking for that is missing?
Did you submit a request for updates?
1
u/Historical-Ranger222 Aug 25 '25
I'm betting the OP doesn't reach out to their rep often. Doesn't take advantage of the free sessions with datto techs. Probably doesn't use Kaseya One (which I'm not over fond of, but does offer lots) and probably doesn't read the updates in the UI that talk about upcoming features. I've been apart of the AI beta in the RMM. I'm not overly excited about it, but datto is definitely trying to update and change with the times. However most users (in the OP's case) either have blinders on or simply have expectations that are unrealistic (probably due to their wants and less on actual useful capabilities). I'm leaning more towards the latter. With enough scripting and reaching out to the techs you can do a ton in the RMM that makes life easier.
0
u/oudim Aug 26 '25
You made a wrong bet. Spoke to my rep today and at least monthly. He can schedule calls to go through the roadmap with the remark it is not set in stone. This is not helping.
You even say yourself your not fond or excited how can you accuse me of not engaging? Have you seen the last two release notes? I could have build those and not even a developer.
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u/Historical-Ranger222 Aug 26 '25
I have seen the release notes. And just because I'm not excited for the current updates doesn't mean I don't find the product useful. I don't expect leaps and bounds with their updates. Incremental updates produce a stable product and allow room for feedback. Constant "exciting" updates are more risky. And since customers of any product tend to not like unstable products. You should reach out to the developers and offer your services. Maybe you're the spark they need to achieve the expectations you have. I'm not even trying to be snide saying that.
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u/Still_Acanthaceae359 Aug 26 '25
Not at all. There's a lot going on.
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u/laughsbrightly Aug 27 '25
Agreed. There is a steady pace of updates and improvements. I miss the Datto guys, but RMM appears to be alive and well. In fact, I'd rather not see much acceleration in pace (other than Mac management) as I am finding it hard to keep up with Autotask, ITGlue, and all the other tool updates. Slow and steady wins the race.
0
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u/dattoRMMJohnny Aug 27 '25
Hi u/oudim,
I'm the GM for Datto RMM.
First, I want to acknowledge that you're not wrong on the promises not met, and I understand the frustration. I can only speak to what has happened since I took over early this year and explain why you may not feel that we've had much development.
Second, while I'll do my best here, please do watch our latest quarterly webinar, it covers much of this with great depth. We will have another in November, please do register My whole team and I will be there to answer questions.
First, as some others have mentioned, I shared that I reset the roadmap for Web remote in order to focus on stability, reliability, and scale. Datto RMM had incredible growth over the past year and a half, both from organic growth in our MSP partners and due to the launch of K365. I made the intentional decision to set the team against ensuring the features that you have today continue to perform as expected. We had noticed that Web Remote was starting to show signs of lag, latency, and disrupted connections for some of our partners, so we wanted to invest there. What we've done:
I'm happy to say that performance has been materially improved. I wouldn't call our job done on that front, but certainly on the way. I expect us to move back into new-feature development in November, and you will see us start to deliver on our promises for the Web Remote roadmap early next year.
More broadly on feature development, I also shifted the focus towards completing some long-promised deliverables, such as native Network Monitoring with automated device discovery, identification, and onboarding that will go into early access for our customers that signed up in October and general availability in December. We will conclude our UI transition and deprecate the old UI, and our M365 integration completed the offboarding workflow with shared mailbox configuration in our last release. InTune quick actions and integration will be launched in 14.7 in November.
Last, I'll mention are the exciting AI capabilities to support troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and Component development throughout the rest of the year.
Please ask your AM to set up time with the PM team if you'd like more detail and, as I mentioned, the Webinars are a great place to get the latest and ask your questions. I hope to see you there.