Managing Endpoints at Scale: A Practical Guide to Deep Freeze Cloud

Every endpoint is an opportunity: an opportunity for success and for disaster. An endpoint can represent a staff member executing some highly valuable work or a customer using your service. But it also represents a vulnerability, a location where something can go wrong or a threat actor can gain access to your systems.

How do you manage these endpoints? Especially as you scale up? Let’s look at what endpoint management entails and explain how Deep Freeze Cloud can help.

What Is an Endpoint?

An endpoint is any device or workstation that connects to a network to send or receive data, behaving as a communication point. Endpoints can be computers, smartphones, servers and Internet of Things devices, such as smart speakers or cameras. In the context of cybersecurity, endpoints are critical because they’re frequently the entry point for threats, and securing them involves protecting varied devices from incidents such as malware, ransomware and data breaches. 

What Makes Managing Endpoints Difficult?

Effective endpoint management involves overseeing, securing and maintaining all user devices. This can mean in-office desktop computers, company-issued laptops and even personal smartphones and tablets that connect to an organization’s network. IT departments perform endpoint security and management using centralized software to enforce security policies, deploy updates, manage access and ensure compliance. This IT work is crucial for protecting against threats, especially in hybrid or remote work environments.

Let’s look at a few of the factors that IT teams must consider when managing and securing endpoints:

Scaling Up

As an organization grows, the sheer volume of devices can quickly overwhelm manual processes. IT teams must move from “hand-configuring” individual machines to implementing automated systems that can deploy patches and software to thousands of endpoints simultaneously. This scale introduces a multiplier effect for errors. For example, a single misconfigured security policy can potentially lock out every employee in the company at once. 

Furthermore, scaling requires significant investment in infrastructure and bandwidth to ensure that remote updates don’t crash the network. Keeping an accurate inventory becomes a constant battle as devices are retired, replaced or lost in the shuffle of a growing workforce.

Hybrid Work Environments

The hybrid work model can create a “split-brain” scenario for IT professionals, where they must manage devices that alternate between the secure corporate office and unsecured home networks. This leads to inconsistent security postures, as a corporate firewall might protect a device on Monday, but on Tuesday, it’s exposed to a vulnerable home router. 

IT teams have to ensure that security policies are location-aware, triggering different protocols depending on where the device is located. This type of work setup also complicates troubleshooting, as it’s difficult to determine if a performance issue results from the organization’s hardware or a user’s poor home Wi-Fi. 

Remote Work Environments

Remote work shares many of the challenges of hybrid work but adds the complication of total physical isolation. Since these devices may never touch the corporate network directly, IT must rely entirely on cloud-based management and virtual private networks to maintain visibility. 

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Programs

BYOD programs introduce a chaotic variety of hardware and operating systems that IT did not choose and cannot fully control. The primary challenge here is balancing corporate security with user privacy; IT needs to protect company data without overstepping into the employee’s personal photos or apps. 

To manage this, teams often use a technique called “containerization,” which involves creating a secure work bubble on a personal device, but adds a layer of software complexity that can lead to bugs. Furthermore, personal devices are more likely to be “jailbroken” or run outdated software, making them easy entry points for malware. If an employee leaves the organization, IT must also find a way to remotely wipe only the corporate data while leaving personal files intact.

Managing Endpoints With Deep Freeze Cloud

Deep Freeze Cloud by Faronics can make endpoint management easier and more effective. This solution streamlines endpoint management at scale by unifying the control of myriad devices into a single, web-based console. 

The core of Deep Freeze is its Reboot-to-Restore technology, which eliminates configuration drift across thousands of devices. Reboot-to-Restore can wipe away any unauthorized changes or malware infections with a simple restart. It’s that easy. In fact, Deep Freeze can reduce IT helpdesk tickets by up to 63%.

For large-scale operations, the solution automates patch management for Windows and over 85 popular applications, allowing IT teams to schedule updates during off-peak maintenance windows. Furthermore, Deep Freeze provides centralized tools for software deployment, asset tracking and specialized lockdowns for kiosks, ensuring consistent security and performance with no need for on-site intervention.

Want To Learn More?

Want to discover how Deep Freeze can help streamline your organization’s IT or learn more about how Reboot-to-Restore works? Reach out to the Faronics team and we’d be happy to tell you about it.