What is Modern Endpoint Management?

The technology landscape is constantly shifting. Companies are moving away from traditional working patterns, enabling fully remote workforces by leveraging cloud computing services and applications – ultimately breaking down legacy ideas of a ‘traditional network perimeter’.

Data is more available than ever before – anywhere and at any time.

Keeping pace with the demands of the modern workforce presents organisations with a myriad of challenges and on the forefront of this change is the endpoint – the devices used by staff all day, every day to do their jobs. Unmanaged, these devices present significant risk of data compromise, impersonation attacks or theft by malicious actors.

The solution is to leverage a modern endpoint management solution that enables companies to control this risk and ensure that their information remains secure and their users remain safe anywhere and at any time.

THE NECESSITY OF UNIFIED ENDPOINT MANAGEMENT (UEM)

So, why is effective endpoint management so crucial?

UEM enables companies to configure and control their devices, automate maintenance tasks and perform remote sanitisation and protection of their information.

Unlike a traditional on-premises management solution, UEM offers more flexibility and scalability required for a modern workforce. Effective UEM takes an integrated approach that allows organisations to manage, secure, and monitor all connected devices, such as PCs, mobile devices, and IoT devices, across various operating systems, from a singular cloud platform.

We love Microsoft’s answer to endpoint management, and given our status as a solutions partner, we wanted to explore this suite of tools with you to help you understand what ‘good’ looks like for modern endpoint management.

MICROSOFT’S ANSWER TO UNIFIED ENDPOINT MANAGEMENT

Modern Endpoint Management at Microsoft

Microsoft provides an array of technologies designed to provide end-to-end management of endpoints. These technologies include:

Microsoft Endpoint Manager
(Reporting, compliance and oversight)
Microsoft Intune
(Configuration and maintenance)
Windows Autopilot
(Enrolment and auto-provisioning of new devices)
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
(Endpoint security and data loss prevention)
Microsoft Entra ID
(Identity protection and conditional access)

Once integrated, these tools allow organisations to enhance their security posture and optimise IT operations through a collection of core capabilities.

Key Challenges and Components of Modern Endpoint Management

To help you understand how these technologies can support a unified endpoint strategy, let’s explore some typical challenges modern organisations might face, and the Microsoft solutions that could be used to address them…

Effective Device Management

The CHALLENGE

Managing a diverse array of devices including desktop computers, mobile devices, and IoT gadgets, which can be both complex and resource intensive.

The Solution

Microsoft Endpoint Manager, inclusive of Microsoft Intune, offers a unified platform for device management. This centralisation ensures that policies are consistently applied across the organisation, reducing the burden on IT teams and helping boost efficiency.

Key Toolsets

Intune: This service enables IT administrators to control applications and settings on devices across the organisation remotely. With its robust Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Mobile Application Management (MAM) capabilities, Intune facilitates secure and efficient device deployment and management, ensuring that all devices comply with the organisation’s security requirements.

Windows Autopatch: This feature automates the updating process for Windows and Microsoft 365 applications. By keeping systems up-to-date, Windows Autopatch not only secures devices against known vulnerabilities but also ensures that they operate with optimal efficiency and stability.

By integrating these technologies, IT teams can effectively manage the security and functionality of devices remotely. This approach not only improves the security posture of the organisation but allows for a fairly uninterrupted user experience.

And a nice little bonus – the reduced need for hands-on device management ultimately frees up IT resources to focus on the bigger projects that can drive your business forward.

Enhanced Data Security and Compliance Enforcement

The CHALLENGE

Protecting your data against unauthorised access, cyber threats, and employee negligence while complying with both internal policies and external regulations.

The Solution

Microsoft integrates its security tools, including Defender for Endpoint, Intune, and Endpoint Manager, to create a robust security management framework. This cohesive approach ensures that only authorised users can access sensitive company data, enforces strict compliance policies, and supports a zero trust security model, in turn minimising vulnerabilities.

Key Toolsets

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint: This toolset offers advanced threat protection and endpoint security management capabilities, by continuously monitoring and reporting on device health and security. Using machine learning and behaviour analysis to detect and respond to threats in real time, this proactive threat management tool helps protect against a wide array of cyber threats, including ransomware.

Microsoft Entra ID: Formerly known as Azure AD, Microsoft Entra ID enhances identity and access management (IAM) capabilities, which are foundational to a zero-trust model. It provides features such as conditional access, which ensures that only devices and users that comply with your security policies can access your network, and multifactor authentication (MFA), which adds an additional layer of security by requiring multiple forms of verification.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Data Loss Prevention: An expanded feature set of the Defender for Endpoint client, data loss prevention allow organisations to restrict residence and flow of data through and off of endpoints. Blocking unauthorised USB storage, preventing users from saving corporate files to their local device storage or even printing sensitive information are just a few ways that organisations can protect their information against accidental or malicious compromise.

By leveraging these tools to enforce policy and monitor compliance organisations drastically improve their overall systems and information security without impacting users’ ability to perform their duties.

Additionally, Microsoft Defender uses a behavioural threat analytics engine – a layered approach to security that can dynamically adapt to new threats based on what they do without needing dictionary updates to provide protection against zero-day threats in a constantly shifting security landscape.

Streamlined Application Management

The CHALLENGE

The complexity and time constraints associated with the deployment and management of applications.

The Solution

Microsoft Intune simplifies the deployment, configuration, and management of software across both personal and organisational devices, supporting multiple operating systems. IT teams and administrators are able to remotely deploy applications and resources to their users, ensuring seamless access to necessary tools without the need for manual installations.

Key Capabilities

Mobile Application Management (MAM): This tool specifically targets user-owned devices within the organisation. It allows IT administrators to manage and secure corporate data at the application level without needing to own or manage the entire device. This is particularly useful for supporting BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies, providing flexibility while maintaining control over the organisation’s information.

Application Deployment: Intune facilitates the efficient deployment of a wide range of applications. This includes seamless integration and distribution of Microsoft Office 365 apps, third-party applications, and custom in-house developed software. The platform enables administrators to set deployment rules which automate the installation process based on user roles, device status, and group membership, ensuring that the right tools reach the right users.

Additionally, Intune’s application management capabilities include monitoring and reporting features that provide insights into app performance and usage patterns. These analytics help IT departments make informed decisions about software licenses, updates, and user training needs.

By utilising Microsoft Intune for application management, organisations can significantly reduce the complexities and resource demands traditionally associated with software administration. This leads to improved IT efficiency, lower operational costs, and a better end-user experience as employees receive timely access to required applications without delays or disruptions.

Implementing BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Policies

The CHALLENGE

The challenge of allowing employees to use their preferred personal devices for work lies in balancing an organisation’s security and compliance requirements with respecting a user’s ownership and information residence on their own equipment. Employees need to access company resources conveniently on their own devices, but this must not compromise the security of organisational data.

The Solution

Microsoft Intune and Endpoint Manager provide robust solutions for managing and securing corporate data and applications on personal devices without the need for full device control. These tools allow for a high degree of flexibility and security, enabling employees to work from their personal devices safely.

Key Capabilities

Mobile Application Management (MAM): This feature focuses specifically on managing applications on personal devices. MAM allows IT administrators to control corporate applications and data on employee-owned devices without managing the entire device. This helps maintain user privacy while ensuring that organizational data remains secure.

App Protection Policies: These policies are designed to manage and control how data is accessed and shared on personal devices. They allow organisations to enforce security measures such as data encryption, preventing data leakage, and requiring authentication before accessing sensitive information.

In a world of remote working, BYOD policies are crucial, and ensuring flexibility without sacrificing security isn’t always possible without the right toolsets. Both Intune and Endpoint Manager ensure that while employees can enjoy the convenience of using their own devices, while ensuring the organisation’s data remains protected against unauthorised access.

Enabling Strict Access Controls

The CHALLENGE

It is crucial to manage user access across corporate networks without compromising the security of the IT environment. Organisations need to ensure that the right individuals have the right access at the right times, safeguarding sensitive information against unauthorised access.

The Solution

Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) augments a number of endpoint management tools by offering sophisticated identity and access management solutions, significantly reducing the likelihood of breaches.

Key Capabilities

Single Sign-On (SSO) Integration: Streamlines access to multiple applications with a single set of credentials.

Conditional Access: Controls resource access based on the user, device, application, and location.

Multifactor Authentication (MFA) and Passwordless Authentication: Provide enhanced security measures beyond traditional passwords.

Privilege Identity Management: Manages access to sensitive business information.

User Self-Service: Reduces the IT team’s workload by allowing users to manage their own credentials.

Modern endpoint management is a critical aspect of contemporary business strategy, ensuring that all devices within an organisation are managed, secured, and monitored efficiently.

Microsoft’s suite of tools, designed for modern endpoint management, helps organisations not only protect their data but also enhance operational efficiencies and maintain high productivity levels. By adopting these sophisticated tools, businesses can stay ahead in managing the complexities of today’s digital landscape.

IMPLEMENTING THE RIGHT ENDPOINT MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

With over 12 years working in the IT industry, I have been responsible for implementing and managing devices for customers in a wide range of industries, with diverse requirements, policies and goals. Managing devices used in a large enterprise medical insurance company, for example, versus an aluminium manufacturing facility could not be more different but can both achieve their goals using the same toolset.

But how?

How you do this requires a few critical steps and considerations to ensure that your technology serves your users and your business instead of requiring your process to bend around your technology.

Let’s explore these below…

Understand

The Lesson Learned

Implementing arbitrary ‘best practice’ sets of controls may seem like an efficient and expedient way to get a job done. But doing so without understanding what people need will result in poor adoption and an adversarial experience between users and security.

Our Approach

It may seem obvious but asking simple questions like how many devices do you have in use, who owns them and how are they used can be overlooked in the rush to ‘be secure’. My advice is to work with key senior stakeholders to understand what result they need the technology to deliver, then work closely with end users to understand how they work so you can get the job done in a way that fits with how your teams operate day to day.

Plan

The Lesson Learned

Even a good idea can be implemented poorly. Without suitable planning, it is easy to miss key requirements or considerations. Without getting the agreement of the wider organisation to adopt a new technology, change can come as an unpleasant surprise.

Our Approach

Effective planning and change management is crucial. Consider each decision in the context of all the others. The whole is more than the sum of its parts and having a holistic view of your management approach is critical to achieving a smooth roll-out of any device management solution. Document all the applications used by your teams, and understand any dependencies and limitations. Highlight upfront where change will impact current usage and help users create suitable alternatives and mitigations before rolling out rules that change how they work.

Communicate

The Lesson Learned

Rolling out changes to users who aren’t expecting change, or who don’t understand why change is required, will create disquiet and foster an adversarial relationship with IT that makes all future change implementation more difficult.

Our Approach

When planning a roll-out of any technology that will change or restrict how people use their devices, consider how and when you tell people what’s happening and why. Don’t keep secrets, don’t use buzzwords and be transparent about your goals. Make sure that your aims are aligned with your organisation and ensure that your users are informed throughout.

Deliver

The Lesson Learned

You have a plan, it’s agreed and you know what to do. You start deploying your solution and there is a sudden request to postpone or halt the roll-out because there’s an important customer coming in for a meeting. The week after, key personnel are on leave. The week after that there’s an unrelated outage and your team are not available to implement the change. Months pass and your implementation is stalled with too many roadblocks to proceed.

Our Approach

Plans are made to be carried out and rollback should be reserved only for unexpected issues. If you have engaged, planned and communicated your changes then follow-through is critical to achieve your stated outcomes. Allowing change to stall can undo the effort that preceded it. Prolonged delays can mean that plans are no longer valid and must be recreated so once you have done the due diligence, ensure you deliver on your plans and gain the benefit you have worked for.

Effective modern endpoint management is integral to maintaining security, compliance and productivity within modern organisations. Selecting the right tool to deliver on your aims is critical to any successful adoption and I do believe that Microsoft’s UEM technologies ensure that any organisation, of any size, can get control and keep it.

For those that want to understand more about how Unified Endpoint Management can support their organisation, contact our experts today.