Leveraging Deep Freeze Cloud’s Analytics & Telemetry for Proactive Maintenance

There’s an old saying: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” 

Meaning: Being able to prevent an issue from arising is vastly preferable to solving the issue after it causes problems.

This is true of our health, our automobile maintenance and our IT systems and devices. For example, fixing the problems caused by a security breach is great. However, preventing the breach in the first place means you save yourself and your team time, money and stress. Deep Freeze Cloud by Faronics is a solution that can help you do just that.

Analytics and Telemetry

Telemetry is the automatic measurement and transmission of data from remote sources. It works via sensors that measure electrical data, such as voltage and current, or physical data, such as temperature and pressure. Electronic devices then wirelessly transmit this data to remote locations for tracking and analysis. 

Telemetry is useful for monitoring the health, security and performance of applications and devices in real time. You can use telemetry to measure startup and processing times, system crashes, end-user behavior and the overall state of a system. With these measurements, you can then use analytics to evaluate the raw data, extrapolating patterns. For example, longer and longer processing times suggest a system upgrade might be necessary. 

Deep Freeze Cloud

Faronics developed Deep Freeze Cloud  to fulfill a number of functions, but one that stands out is facilitating proactive maintenance for workstations. IT managers and professionals can use Deep Freeze Cloud analytics to track and analyze endpoint health, predict issues, and perform potentially vital maintenance actions across their networks.

Specifically, Deep Freeze cloud has features such as asset management and provides usage statistics to help organizations understand the status of their networks and workstations and take appropriate steps to safeguard them from future problems. Here’s how these features work:

• Asset management: This feature generates detailed computer and application usage reports for compliance audits and decision-making.
• Usage stats: With valuable statistics, you gain insight into the deployment and usage of IT assets, helping you make informed IT decisions and identify usage anomalies.

Deep Freeze Cloud also collects various types of data to perform its functions, which you can configure for anonymous reporting. This data includes information to identify the computer, as well as details on installed applications and user activities.

Deep Freeze Cloud and Proactive Maintenance

Proactive maintenance is about preventing problems before they occur, and these features provide the data necessary to do just that. Here’s how:

Identifying Trends and Anomalies

The ability to generate detailed reports on computer and application usage allows IT administrators to identify patterns. Admins can ascertain which applications staff use most frequently, which machines are underutilized and if a specific program is causing system slowdowns. This can help them proactively update or replace software, or reallocate resources to prevent future issues.

Capacity Planning

By understanding the usage of IT assets, organizations can make better decisions about future hardware and software needs. For example, if usage stats show that devices in a certain department are consistently running out of disk space, IT can proactively upgrade those machines or roll out a data management policy to prevent performance degradation.

Security and Compliance

Deep Freeze Cloud provides visibility into what executables are running on a computer. This telemetry is useful for spotting unauthorized or suspicious software, which can be a precursor to a security breach or system instability. By blocking these programs proactively, administrators can prevent malware infections and maintain a secure computing environment.

Benefits of Proactive Maintenance

These Deep Freeze Cloud features can be hugely beneficial for organizations that manage numerous shared or public-use computers. The mighty Reboot To Restore function, combined with analytics, is especially powerful in these environments.

Some types of organizations that can benefit from Deep Freeze-enabled proactive maintenance include:

• Educational institutions: University labs, high school libraries and classroom computers are available to many students, often with varying levels of technical knowledge. These can lead to unauthorized changes and security vulnerabilities.
• Public libraries: Similar to schools, public libraries provide computers for public use. These machines are a prime target for malware, unwanted software, and accidental changes.
• Conference centers and hotels: Many hotels and conference centers offer computers for guest use, meaning the same threats apply as in schools and libraries.
• Kiosks and information terminals: Kiosks in public spaces must be highly resilient and tamper-proof. These devices are often open to people with even less vetting than those in educational settings.
• Retail and manufacturing: IT asset management and telemetry are crucial in these industries. 

Prevent Costly IT Issues With Deep Freeze Cloud

Please reach out to our experts today to learn more about how Deep Freeze Cloud can reduce stress on IT teams and protect your organization’s investment in its workstations.