How many devices and systems within your digital environment do your employees come into contact with in any given day? A study by Pegasystem has found that on average, employees utilize at least 35 different enterprise programs, switching between these applications over 1,000 times in a single shift.
For the IT teams who work to oversee these digital environments, this growing trend creates an enormous strain on their time and labor resources. They must constantly work to run interference on any potential security issues or data vulnerabilities. In addition to monitoring for external risks, IT must oversee and update assets across the organization’s entire software and hardware inventory to ensure that the programs your daily business operations rely on are fully up-to-speed.
To reduce the time spent on these administrative tasks and to empower IT teams, SecurityIntelligence recommends employing a centralized or unified endpoint management solution. This technology can help enterprises “secure and control the entire IT environment and all of its endpoints,” including smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. These tools will also give users full access to valuable usage insights, apps, content and data
By selecting the right centralized endpoint management solution for your company, experts suggest your administrators will be able to easily secure and control even the most complex and widely distributed infrastructures. This can help lead to the reduction of overall IT costs and boost user productivity across the organization.
Managing software and patch updates
When left to their own devices, users are unlikely to execute the necessary updates required on both their company-owned and personal computers, especially while working remotely. In a study by the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with Indiana University, nearly half of respondents said that they had been frustrated when updating their software. Those surveyed cited the disruption to workflow as the number one cause of avoiding the task for “as long as possible”.
Patches are a necessary piece of software management, as developers release these updates to address serious potential security flaws as well as bugs or glitches not found in the application at launch. By failing to follow-up with these patches, users are exposing themselves and sensitive company data, as many hackers capitalize on the vulnerabilities commonly found in outdated technologies.
Verizon’s 2018 Data Breach Investigation Report revealed that hackers typically infiltrate an organization’s network by taking advantage of technology that users have neglected to update. These external attackers are even able to access confidential information by manipulating vulnerabilities in common appliances found within almost every office across the globe, including fax machines, printers and video conferencing tools.
By utilizing a centralized endpoint management system, IT teams can easily oversee the patches that are required throughout the entire network in a single, comprehensive dashboard. This allows teams to mitigate the risk of hackers taking advantage of insecure and outdated software and also helps to reduce the overall costs associated with recovering workstations after they are attacked.
The cost of a breach
Without a centralized endpoint management system, your IT resources will likely be depleted in the event of a security breach. IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach report revealed just how expensive these threats can become, as IT’s sole focus becomes minimizing and eradicating the threat. On average, companies take about 197 days to identify threats and 69 days to contain the breach. This lengthy amount of time costs businesses millions of dollars each year.
The easiest way to avoid the significant costs associated with security failures? A proactive and layered approach. Faronics Core is a centralized endpoint management solution that helps users to monitor a large number of workstations from a single, central location. It provides deep insights and user-friendly alerts regarding patch updates and allows for automated installation and scheduling.
If your organization does ever experience a breach, Core is equipped with enterprise-level deployment and management capabilities, making the execution of all Faronics products seamless. Our Deep Freeze technology will allow your employees to immediately correct the issue with a single reboot. By resetting their device, users will be able to return their computer to the desired state as set by administrators, removing any trace of the hack before it spreads and reaches your company’s sensitive data. Users will be able to return to their standard business activities without ever needing to send a support ticket to IT.
If your team is ready to adopt a centralized endpoint management solution that works for you, contact us today to learn why over 30,000 unique customers have entrusted Faronics to support their existing security systems.
