Altitudo Guardian
Everything your IT team keeps track of, in one place that tells you what needs you.
Overview
School IT runs on a dozen tools and a spreadsheet nobody trusts. Renewals live in one place, compliance evidence in another, monitoring alerts in a third, and the thing that matters today is usually in none of them. Altitudo Guardian brings contracts, budgets, compliance, security and monitoring together in a single Australian-hosted platform, with an AI assistant that explains what is wrong in plain English and a named person who approves every change before it happens.
Built around what a school IT team actually does
Most school IT teams are small, often one or two people, and they carry three jobs at once. They have to know what the school owns and when it is due for renewal. They have to prove to the board, the auditor and the insurer that security controls exist and work. And they have to keep the network, the servers and the firewall running every day of term. Guardian is built around those three jobs rather than around a product category.
Each part of the platform feeds the same picture of what needs attention today. A certificate that expires on Monday, a firewall support contract that lapses next month, a critical vulnerability on a server that stopped reporting to monitoring forty minutes ago. They are listed most urgent first, and they arrive by email as well, so nobody has to remember to look.
An AI assistant that explains, and a person who approves
When Zabbix raises a problem, Guardian reads it and tells the engineer what it means, the likely cause and the steps to fix it, in plain English rather than in alert codes. The Technician desktop app does the same for the PC in front of them: Wi-Fi signal, IP settings, DNS, ping and recent network events, checked the way an experienced engineer would check them.
What the AI does not do is act on its own. Nothing reaches a firewall, a server build or a DHCP scope without a change that a named person has approved, and that person cannot be the one who raised it. On a PC, the assistant picks from a short list of checked actions and asks before running any of them. The result is a record that answers the question every incident review starts with: who changed this, when, and who said yes?
Compliance evidence that is already collected when someone asks
Boards and insurers now ask schools about the Essential Eight as a matter of course, and the answer is usually that the work has been done but the evidence is spread across inboxes and shared drives. Guardian tracks every control with the evidence behind it, runs automated checks against Microsoft 365, and produces a report written for an auditor with the exceptions listed first.
Web filtering assurance works the same way. Rather than trusting that the filter blocks what the policy says, Guardian tests it for each group of users on a schedule and tells you the moment a result changes, which is usually the first anyone knows that a category was quietly unblocked.
Hosted in Australia, with your credentials kept where they are used
The platform runs in AWS Sydney and the AI runs on Australian-region services, so the data sovereignty question in a procurement pack has a straight answer. Device passwords stay on the on-site appliance rather than in the cloud, cloud tokens are encrypted, and appliance updates are signed and never install automatically.
Access is by invitation only and each organisation sees only its own data. Guardian connects to the systems a school already runs, Microsoft 365, Palo Alto, VMware, Hyper-V, Zabbix and Xero, rather than asking the school to replace any of them.
Three packages, priced per site
Essentials covers the platform: renewals, budget reports, change management, certificates, assets, compliance reporting and email alerts. Professional adds the on-site appliance, which brings vulnerability scanning, web filtering assurance, Zabbix monitoring and the Technician app. Managed adds orchestration and firewall changes, run for the school by Altitudo engineers.
Pricing is per site rather than per user or per device, so a school is not penalised for growing its fleet. The quickest way to see whether Guardian fits is a demo on the systems you already run, which takes about forty-five minutes.
What's included
Contracts & renewals
Every licence, support contract and subscription with reminders before they lapse. Renewals are picked up from Xero automatically.
Budget forecasting
Next year's IT budget built from your contracts and planned spend, with a reason for every line, as a Word or PDF report for the board.
Infrastructure assets
Servers and devices discovered on your network, numbered, and checked to see whether they are still answering.
Certificates
SSL certificates renewed automatically before they expire, and installed only once someone approves the new one.
Essential Eight & ISO 27001
Every control tracked with its evidence, automated Microsoft 365 checks, and an auditor-ready report that lists exceptions first.
Vulnerability scanning
Scheduled scans from inside your network, with findings tied back to the asset they were found on.
Web filtering assurance
Proves your web filtering blocks what policy says it should, per group of users, and tells you the moment a result changes.
Change management
Every change raised, approved by a named person who is not the requester, and recorded, so the history answers "who said yes?"
Monitoring with Zabbix
Open problems, host graphs and urgent alerts by email, each one explained with the likely cause and the steps to fix it.
Orchestration
Windows server builds on VMware or Hyper-V, DHCP scopes, DNS records and Palo Alto changes, all approval-gated.
Firewall migration
Another vendor's configuration moved onto Palo Alto, built on the IronSkillet baseline.
Technician app
A desktop help desk assistant for your engineers that opens with what needs them and answers from your own data.
What you get
- Hosted in Australia: platform in AWS Sydney, AI on Australian-region services
- A person approves every change before it reaches a firewall, server or DHCP scope
- Essential Eight and ISO 27001 reports written for an auditor
- Works with Microsoft 365, Palo Alto, VMware, Hyper-V, Zabbix and Xero
Packages
Essentials
Renewals, budget reports, change management, certificates, assets, compliance reporting and email alerts.
Professional
Everything in Essentials, plus the on-site appliance: vulnerability scanning, web filtering assurance, Zabbix monitoring and the Technician app.
Managed
Everything in Professional, plus orchestration and firewall changes, run for you by Altitudo engineers.
Common questions
What is Altitudo Guardian?
Altitudo Guardian is an IT operations platform built for Australian schools. It brings contracts and renewals, budget forecasting, Essential Eight and ISO 27001 compliance evidence, vulnerability scanning, web filtering assurance, change management and Zabbix monitoring into one place, with an AI assistant that explains problems in plain English and a named person who approves every change.
Does the AI make changes to our systems?
No. The AI reads and recommends. Nothing reaches a firewall, server build or DHCP scope without an approved change, and the approver must be a different person from the requester. On a PC, the Technician app picks from a list of checked actions and asks before running any of them.
Where is our data hosted?
In Australia. The platform runs in AWS Sydney and the AI runs on Australian-region services. Device passwords stay on your on-site appliance, cloud tokens are encrypted, and each organisation sees only its own data.
Which systems does Guardian connect to?
Microsoft 365, Palo Alto Networks firewalls, VMware, Hyper-V, Zabbix and Xero. Renewals are picked up from Xero invoices automatically, compliance checks run against Microsoft 365, and orchestration covers Windows server builds on VMware or Hyper-V along with DHCP, DNS and Palo Alto changes.
Do we need to replace our existing monitoring?
No. Guardian connects to the Zabbix you already run and adds the layer that explains each problem, shows host graphs and open issues, and sends urgent alerts by email. If you do not run Zabbix yet, the Professional package includes the on-site appliance that provides it.
How is Guardian priced?
Per site, in three packages: Essentials, Professional and Managed. Pricing is confirmed after a demo on your own environment, so the quote reflects the number of sites and the package that actually fits rather than a list price.
Is Guardian only for schools?
It was designed for schools, where small IT teams carry renewals, compliance and day to day operations at once. The same platform suits other Australian organisations with the same shape, such as professional services firms and not-for-profits, and we are happy to show it on your environment.
What happens in the demo?
We walk through Guardian on the systems you already run rather than on a sample dataset, so you see your own renewals, assets and monitoring. It takes about forty-five minutes and there is no obligation afterwards.
