“Back-to-office” orders are all over the news lately. The supposed conclusion is that the era of remote and hybrid work is over, a diminishing relic of the COVID-19 pandemic. Except the stats don’t bear this out. In fact, Gallup found that, of remote-capable positions in the United States, over half of all employees work in some type of hybrid arrangement.
To be fair, this number was a slight decrease of 55%–51%. However, those four percentage points were shared equally by fully in-office and fully remote models. It seems the more logical conclusion to make is that hybrid and remote work models have stabilized and will likely maintain similar numbers for the foreseeable future. If your organization has one of these arrangements, or is considering adopting one, it’s critical to have a plan to secure your endpoints.
Safe and Consistent Endpoints
In this context, an endpoint is any device that connects to and exchanges information with a computer network. It’s the final point of a connection between a user and the network — and a potential entry for cyber threats.
Examples of endpoint devices include:
- Desktop computers.
- Laptop computers.
- Smartphones.
- Tablets.
- Smartwatches.
- Point-of-sale systems.
- Other customer-facing devices, such as kiosks.
It’s not the job of this blog to debate the merits of hybrid and remote work. Suffice it to say, many organizations see enough of a benefit to maintain or switch to these arrangements. One drawback, however, is an expanded attack surface. With workers connecting to organizational networks and applications on their personal devices from a variety of locations, there are increasing opportunities for threat actors to infiltrate a company’s private database.
This may be why 65% of cybersecurity professionals feel their jobs have become more difficult in recent years. Remote and hybrid work invariably means an organization must give up some control. This requires trusting staff to follow security best practices, but all the memos and training sessions in the world can’t guarantee security. That’s why it’s critical to have the right tools.
Faronics Deep Freeze
At Faronics, we created Deep Freeze with remote and hybrid workers in mind. This solution lightens the load for IT teams, making endpoint consistency and security a highly achievable goal. Deep Freeze streamlines endpoint security, even at scale, by unifying the control of numerous workstations into a single web-based console.
With this tool, IT administrators can automate patch management for Windows and over 85 popular applications. This makes it easy to schedule updates during off-peak maintenance windows, ensuring endpoints are secure without disrupting workflows. There are also centralized tools that can help with asset tracking, software deployment and specialized lockdowns, maintaining consistent security and performance without ever having to physically interface with devices.
Reboot-to-Restore
Deep Freeze offers many valuable features to IT teams managing remote workstations. However, the crown jewel is the solution’s Reboot-to-Restore technology. This feature makes endpoints virtually indestructible while eliminating configuration drift across myriad devices. Reboot-to-Restore can wipe away any unauthorized changes or malware infections with a simple restart.
Without Deep Freeze, IT workers might have to spend hours on end communicating with a remote worker, helping them to reverse some mistaken change or deal with malware. This takes both the IT professional and the staff member away from the high-value work they could be doing. However, with Reboot-to-Restore, the remote worker only has to do one thing: turn their device off and then switch it back on.
It really is that simple. By partitioning drives ahead of time and deciding what should be frozen (unchangeable) and what can remain in the ThawSpace (files and applications that can retain changes from one session to the next), Deep Freeze can make IT professionals’ jobs much easier. In fact, Deep Freeze can reduce IT helpdesk tickets by up to 63%.
Securing Endpoints in Real Time
Imagine a scenario in which a remote employee accidentally downloads malware that compromises their system. Instead of shipping the laptop to the main office or to a third-party company for a manual re-imaging — costing days of productivity — the IT administrator can trigger a remote restart via the Deep Freeze Cloud console.
Because the system state was Frozen, the reboot immediately wipes out all unauthorized changes and restores the device to its pristine, original configuration. The employee is back to work in minutes. This is how IT departments can maintain security and performance for a global workforce without ever touching the physical hardware.
Safeguard Your Organization’s Endpoints Today
While hybrid and remote arrangements may have many advantages, the cybersecurity and IT implications can scare organizations away from these work setups. With Deep Freeze and its Reboot-to-Restore technology, however, these worries melt away.
Want to learn more? Contact us today to get started.
your Deep Freeze license count and free for up to 3 years