Unified Endpoint Management: Why Does Your Business Need It?

Remote and hybrid work opportunities have created increasingly complex environments as employees work from multiple locations on various devices such as laptops, desktops, tablets, etc. Add to this complicated work situation the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) culture, and managing devices and network security becomes a real challenge.

Thus, organizations and their IT departments need to properly safeguard their network security by setting up measures like firewall implementation, antivirus software, and strong password usage to manage their end-user devices better. This is where unified endpoint management (UEM) software comes into play. UEM takes a comprehensive and streamlined approach to managing all endpoint devices in an organization’s network.

In this blog, we will discuss UEM software and its importance to organizations while exploring its core features and functionalities.

What is unified endpoint management?

Unified endpoint management (UEM) is a simplified software solution for managing, monitoring, and protecting all endpoint devices in an organization’s network.

Implementing UEM enables IT teams to secure all end-user devices through a unified console, regardless of operating system type or location radius. It centralizes configuration data from all existing devices so that daily operations can run smoothly with minimal impediments.

UEM is a relatively new technological advancement that combines the functionalities of mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) solutions with tools designed to manage on-premises and remote PCs. Unified endpoint management is growing in popularity, with its market size predicted to increase from US$9.34 billion in 2023 to US$84.91 billion in 2031, with a CAGR rate of 31.8%.

Unified endpoint management core features

1. Device management

For enhanced data protection, a UEM solution configures all devices in your organizational network, irrespective of ownership details. It enables regular syncs to keep devices updated with the latest security measures.

Moreover, it offers additional features like location history, custom reports, device onboarding, and device lifecycle management. These features allow IT teams to retrieve information about your existing IT devices, including system and hardware details, installed apps and software, etc.

2. Cybersecurity management

UEM helps mitigate cybersecurity risks as IT administrators enforce security policies across company devices, such as multi-factor authentication, complex password usage and renewal, data encryption, etc. Admins can also install the latest antivirus software on devices and update web filters to include the most recent blacklisted websites.

Overall, a unified endpoint management solution reduces IT teams’ administrative overload by offering a single unified console for managing cybersecurity threats.

3. Patch management

When coupled with an ITAM tool, UEM can scan devices for software vulnerabilities and generate analytical or utilization reports on your organization’s IT assets to address any issues with patch management. This method is automatic and more efficient than waiting for your IT team to manually address all the patches.

4. Identity and access management

According to an IBM report, the average cost of a data breach due to identity theft or unauthorized access to an organizational network is US$3.86 million. Furthermore, it takes an average of 280 days to contain that data breach.

Focusing on access management can mitigate this risk and secure your endpoints to ensure that sensitive company data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

With UEM, your organization can allow or restrict data access for relevant teams, groups, or individuals to ensure data security across all device endpoints. This means that when your employees log on to their systems, they can only view files they have been authorized to access.

Why is there a need for unified endpoint management?

Unified endpoint management plays an important role in securing organizational networks. Without UME software, organizations face challenges like a lack of formal tracking processes for monitoring IT devices and equipment for remote and hybrid workers. Sensitive data can thus be easily jeopardized if untracked devices suddenly go off-network. A UME solution is, hence, a critical tool for organizations. It includes other benefits like:

1. Data protection

With UME, organizations can restrict employees from downloading and using certain applications to prevent unauthorized apps from accessing corporate data. 

Furthermore, a UME solution can function as an organization’s last line of defense by allowing IT administrators to wipe out, reset, or lock devices remotely in case they are lost, misplaced, or stolen. This prevents sensitive company data from falling into the wrong hands.

2. Simplified IT management

Having a centralized console to manage endpoint devices makes daily operations more streamlined, resulting in greater productivity. It also reduces the administrative burden on IT teams to manually manage user and machine provisioning, operating system maintenance, device maintenance, and decommissioning.

3. Enhanced user experience

UME solutions allow employees to self-enroll devices and provision them automatically through user portals, providing a better end-user experience. Moreover, UME helps ensure that all endpoint devices are in good health for optimal usage, resulting in improved employee experience regarding device functionality.

4. Smoother onboarding

Using UME software, organizations can easily deploy devices, policies, and applications while hiring new employees or procuring new devices. The onboarding process becomes more seamless when all related laptops, desktops, mobile devices, software, applications, and configuration data are managed through a single, unified IT management platform.

5. Improved integration capabilities

Integrations with third-party applications like Jira and Zendesk become easier when implemented through UME’s unified IT management platform. The hassle of switching between different applications to manually compile, compare, and evaluate reports disappears as UME’s integration capability makes it much simpler to consolidate data.

6. Greater flexibility

Cloud-based UME tools offer remote and hybrid workers greater flexibility by reducing their reliance on on-site networks to securely access and handle corporate data, irrespective of location or time zone. This kind of flexibility is especially important as most organizations now have a global workforce spanning all corners of the world.

7. Improved visibility

With a UME solution, your organization can vigilantly track and monitor assets, inventory, usage patterns, and system vulnerabilities. Through real-time reports on device security and functionality, you can easily troubleshoot, diagnose, and resolve any issues that crop up. Real-time knowledge about your endpoints can help you patch up your devices in a timely fashion, thereby reducing costs and improving performance and system security.

Benefits of unified endpoint security

UEM operates across a variety of computers and operating systems, including Apple iOS/MacOS, Google ChromeOS and Android, Microsoft Windows, etc. It supports many equipment on the network, like printers, scanners, virtual reality headsets, and other IoT (Internet of Things) devices. To maintain endpoint security, UEM software is aware of all connections on the network, no matter their type or location. With unified endpoint management, network security is maintained through:

1. Real-time monitoring and data analytics features

UEM software facilitates the real-time tracking and monitoring of all endpoints, generating detailed custom reports on device functionality and security. It helps combat data threats by analyzing device usage and network traffic to indicate suspicious behavior patterns.

2. Automatic updates

A UEM solution can scan the software of all endpoints and automatically push through new updates as needed. This ensures that all devices are equipped with the latest security updates, decreasing their vulnerability to cyberattacks.

3. Threat detection

UEM software helps identify abnormal device behavior patterns by consistently monitoring all endpoints to index any immediate or future threat to network security. In the case of a cyberattack, it triggers security features to resolve the issue, like quarantining affected devices to prevent data breach or loss.

How to choose the right unified endpoint management solution for your business?

While the market is inundated with unified endpoint management solutions, choosing the right one for your organization means being aware of your business’s particular goals and picking a solution that best complements your organization’s existing and potential needs. To that end, some factors that should be given weight when selecting a UEM software are: compatibility, integration capabilities, scalability, and presence of advanced security features.

Your chosen UEM solution should be compatible with a diverse mobile ecosystem and should be able to support all endpoint devices and their operating systems. It should seamlessly integrate with a broad range of technologies for easy connectivity. AssetSonar, for example, is an IT asset management software that has endpoint integration capabilities with Mac, Windows, Android, and Linux systems. 

It easily integrates with other software platforms, such as Zendesk and Jira, while boasting integration capabilities with other third-party applications using the REST API. It combines dedicated asset lifecycle management and location tracking with centralized endpoint management to offer a holistic picture of your organization’s IT environment, whether hardware or software assets.

Scalability should also be a concern when choosing a UME solution. Your chosen software should be able to adapt according to your organization’s growing IT requirements. Furthermore, your unified endpoint management software should ideally be able to secure your organization’s data and devices. It should reveal any security vulnerabilities through regular and consistent reporting so you can properly manage all your devices and restrict employees from accessing malicious websites and accidentally downloading malware on their systems.

Additionally, your chosen UME solution should be capable of automating routine tasks to reduce the burden on IT teams and admins while keeping employees compliant with the software and hardware usage policies in your organization. A robust endpoint management tool must also store and analyze data to provide full visibility into inventory details (serial numbers, models, warranties), track employee behavior, and provide network connection details.

Looking ahead: the future of unified endpoint management

As technologies evolve, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will play an important role in enhancing UME capabilities. With AI integrations, UME software will get better at threat detection through ML’s predictive modeling capabilities to better identify cyberattack patterns by analyzing device usage, performance, and network traffic.

Moreover, with the Zero Trust approach (i.e., considering all endpoints hostile by default) gaining popularity, there will need to be an increased focus on device and user verification processes. UEM solutions, in this case, will need to consider integrating advanced security measures like providing real-time visibility for every endpoint connected to the network to ensure that user access is validated.

Conclusion

For organizations with increasingly flexible work environments such as remote and hybrid employee roles, unified endpoint management is a necessity for maintaining network security. UME offers a simplified and comprehensive approach to managing all endpoints on a network at a time when the BYOD culture is gaining popularity and the number of devices to be supervised has increased exponentially. 

Through its unified IT management platform, organizations can improve their efficiency and productivity by tracking and monitoring all endpoints throughout the entirety of their lifecycle. In conclusion, implementing a unified endpoint management solution helps organizations combat threats that come with operating in an increasingly digitized world to create a more secure, productive, and user-friendly IT environment.