Small Animal Specialist Hospital

Managing a busy hospital network round the clock

Small Animal Specialist Hospital (SASH) operates as a 24/7 veterinary hospital network across multiple Australian states, employing more than 1,100 staff and managing over 700 Windows endpoints. Arnaud Van Wyk, the systems analyst on a lean IT team, is responsible for cybersecurity, system administration, and day-to-day device management.

Improving visibility and vulnerability management

The need for stronger device security and better insight into endpoint health became especially crucial under a local governance guideline called Essential Eight — a framework for organizations to protect against cyberthreats.

“One of the requirements of Essential Eight is vulnerability scanning and so, I started looking out for a tool that could help us do that effectively.”

Before adopting PDQ Connect, the SASH IT team relied heavily on PDQ Deploy & Inventory to manage their Windows-based environment. While the tools were effective, they didn’t offer the vulnerability scanning or vulnerability management capabilities that Arnaud was looking for.

Choosing PDQ Connect for streamlined security at scale

Arnaud initially evaluated PDQ Detect, PDQ’s standalone attack surface management tool. However, he shifted to PDQ Connect after learning it not only offered full remote device management but vulnerability management as well — all in one cost-effective solution.

With Connect’s cloud-based agent, Arnaud also found it easier to support users across SASH’s eight hospitals and gain consistent visibility across the network — even when devices weren’t always online.

"We never had that visibility into vulnerabilities across our environment before. But on top of the visibility, PDQ Connect flags them and allows us to remediate them — all within one app. It’s a perfect fit for our needs."

Fast, easy migration

Moving from PDQ Deploy & Inventory to Connect was a straightforward process thanks in large part to the PDQ Migrate tool. 

“We used the PDQ Migrate tool to prepopulate the core things. The process was really easy and very smooth.”

From there, things continued to move quickly. The SASH team had planned to phase out Deploy & Inventory within about 11 days of purchasing their PDQ Connect subscription — and by the end of that window, nearly all regular devices had already been migrated over to Connect.

"It was super easy. Just a couple clicks, and you're good to go."

All-in-one patching, automations, and vulnerability remediation

With only six to seven active team members supporting over 1,100 staff and hundreds of endpoints across eight hospitals, Arnaud and his team often had to stretch their resources.  

“We service eight hospitals across multiple states 24/7,” said Arnaud. “So we have to rely on a lot of automation wherever possible.” 

Since the migration, Arnaud has relied on Connect for almost all endpoint management, particularly patching and vulnerability remediation. 

“I use Connect probably 80 to 90% of the time,” said Arnaud. “You can queue up a deployment for an offline device and know that as soon as it comes online, it'll deploy.” 

He’s found that the added visibility into vulnerabilities has made remediation much simpler. Most issues can be resolved with a quick deployment or an automated update, eliminating the need for manual intervention. Because his team relies on PDQ’s prebuilt Package Library, the majority of fixes — like updating browsers or collaboration tools — are covered without extra work. Only a handful of specialized apps, such as their VPN, require custom packages, making the overall process smooth and efficient. 

"It's very streamlined. A lot of times, it’s sort of a one-click action in PDQ Connect. You can even set up an automation if you want, so you don’t even have to do the clicking after that, which is perfect."

Improving deployment reliability with PDQ Connect’s cloud-based agent

One of the biggest operational benefits Arnaud has noticed since switching to PDQ Connect is the stability of deployments. With the cloud-based agent, patching and updates reach devices more reliably than before.

“Deployments themselves tend to be a bit more stable and consistent” he said. “I assume because it’s a cloud-based agent rather than a network one.”

SASH's internal network sometimes presented challenges due to DHCP or DNS inconsistencies. With PDQ Connect, those issues are largely avoided.

“With a cloud agent, it just talks to a central cloud server and comes back to the dashboard. Very easy.”

Advice for those considering a move to PDQ Connect

For other IT teams considering the switch from PDQ Deploy & Inventory to PDQ Connect, Arnaud’s advice is simple:

"Do the demo. The system speaks for itself."