Johannesburg, 31 Jan 2017
According to Gartner in its 2016 SIEM Magic Quadrant, the two primary reasons for companies deploying security information and event management solutions are threat management and compliance. However, the focus is very much around early threat detection, and this across businesses of all size.
Simply put, endpoint management provides a single point of contact that enables the business to address issues across the enterprise, across vendors and across the miles. Pedion IT consultant Dewald van der Wel, says that when a company has an enterprise-wide issue, it wants to deploy an investigation quickly, report on the problem immediately and then remediate as soon as possible.
When it comes to implementing any type of IT solution, companies are driven by the need to consider budgetary restrictions, a desire to consolidate and simplify where possible while also considering bandwidth availability.
Van der Wel says: "The right endpoint management solution can utilise resources more efficiently, requiring less power, reducing the amount of infrastructure - such as servers - needed, as well as freeing up your human resources for other, more business-critical tasks. You also need to consider the solution's effectiveness at scanning for and remediating issues - I'd recommend a 95% success rate at the first go.
"Another focus for organisations is to reduce their datacentre footprint, which can be achieved by implementing a single tool that can do the job that would previously have required several tools. This also addresses another issue that businesses routinely face, where problems arise immediately after patches have been deployed, the ideal is to have a solution that identifies and rectifies these issues before they impact users.
"In a similar vein, the time that it takes to deploy a patch can impact on business productivity, so the ability to schedule these updates outside of critical business hours is invaluable - it also gives the solution time to identify any potential issues before they arise."
"Any effective software asset management solution can save the business licensing costs, because the client could be paying for software that isn't even being used."
Van der Wel advises companies to seek out a modular solution that they can add on to as the business evolves. "You may not need every module or functionality offered by an endpoint management solution, but that's not to say that you'll never need them, so it's best to have a solution that can grow with you."
Today's businesses operate across many countries, so need the ability to offer remote software support across regions, including but not limited to updates, asset management, licensing, anti-virus implementations, all of these can be difficult to manage across borders. Companies need to ensure that all software implementations are according to company policy and that all software company-wide is up to date, as outdated software creates its own set of problems, especially around security.
Endpoint management bridges the gap between what happens on any desktop or device in a company and the people who can support it, implementing systems that ensure everyone has the same access to the same solutions - and the same assistance, should those solutions fail.
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