Device Lifecycle Management: Remote Remediation

Managing device support is a critical element in lifecycle management, from patch management to automated controls and remediation capabilities. Here’s how FileWave helps you remotely remediate devices that need attention.

One of the top challenges facing many organizations is the need to manage an increasingly complex device landscape. We have been exploring how FileWave can simplify your lifecycle management, from onboarding new devices and asset monitoring, which helps you discover the status of your devices. We move onto our next stage in lifecycle management: remote remediation, the ability to identify, target, patch, and remediate poor device behavior – all without leaving your seat.

Visibility: Identify Poor Device Behavior

FileWave’s asset monitoring capabilities can help you identify non-compliant systems that may be exposing your network to security threats, such as unmanaged devices, devices with unapproved or unpatched applications, or devices with missing settings or applications.

FileWave’s Smart Groups and Profiles give you the tools to organize and identify devices based on criteria important to you, such as:

- The integrity of key security layers (encryption, anti-virus, anti-malware).
- User level or the presence of unauthorized administrative privileges.
- The integrity of configurations needed for compliance and productivity (WiFi, network configurations, password standards, email configurations, digital content, VPNs).
- The ability to assess all your devices together, no matter the operating system.
- Greater visibility by tracking devices by user groups or drilling down to the individual level.
- The ability to geo-track devices to ensure they are where you expect them to be or to locate missing devices.

Optimize Your Lifecycle Management with FileWave

FileWave’s lineup of professional services such as the Technical Assurance Programare designed to help you ensure you have the oversight needed to track and maintain compliance, with training or set-up of automation options to remediate poor device behavior.

Simple: Targeted Patch Management

There will always be vulnerabilities. Patching, support, and end-of-life system management are critical to reducing vulnerabilities, yet the complexity of managing both applications and operating systems across a complex device landscape makes patch management seem nearly impossible. As a result, vulnerabilities persist, with over 70% of security breaches targeting known vulnerabilities that could have been prevented with a simple patch.

Currently, up to 55% of vulnerabilities remain unpatched three months after discovery, some of which will be high risk, with risks of breach increasing the longer the time-to-patch window extends.

FileWave makes patching easy – and easy is what you need. After assessing your devices together as a group, you can target patches for deployment to all of your systems from within a single interface. One interface to see and remediate all of your devices.

FileWave simplifies complex patch management deployments with minimal impact to network load, helping you manage the timing and delivery of patches to minimize network load and impact on end-user productivity. Operating system updates and third-party apps can be set to automatically update to devices as they check-in regularly with FileWave, or you can push updates immediately to address an urgent threat.

FileWave’s compliance reporting can help you prove the application of patches and highlight if any devices become non-compliant.

Automated: Application Self-Healing

When it comes to data and device security, research has proven that layered endpoint management, in combination with identity controls and self-healing, offers the greatest protection against threats. After all, one of the first steps in any malware script is to try to disable your security protections. FileWave’s patented self-healing can help ensure that critical security layers, such as antivirus or endpoint protection tools, remain installed where they are needed.

It doesn’t matter if applications are compromised maliciously or unintentionally – what matters is how quickly you can remediate the problem.

FileWave’s self-healing can be applied to any applications your employees need to remain productive in their jobs, helping reduce the reliance on help desk if applications are accidentally misconfigured or deleted. Automatically verifying the app’s integrity at an interval you can set, FileWave will automatically repair or reinstall apps that are missing, modified, or corrupted or re-apply updates that have been removed or altered.

Productive: Improve Incident Response Times

If you uncover that a device is not working, or a support ticket comes in, your IT team needs to investigate the source of the negative device behavior. FileWave’s built-in remote control easily navigates firewalls and NAT configurations, letting you view and operate remote computers nearly anyplace.

FileWave allows you to take action to remediate problems by remotely deploying configurations, files, and patches immediately. The net result is improved first-call resolution, user productivity, and security compliance.

Control: Device Location Tracking

When managing hundreds or thousands of devices, it’s almost guaranteed that one, or many, will eventually go missing. Whether it was lost, stolen, or simply misplaced, recovering the device, and more importantly the data on it, is often urgent – and critical.

FileWave’s asset management capabilities include the option to track the location of a single device, or group of devices, including mapping the last known location of any FileWave managed Mac, Windows, Chromebook, or Android device.

FileWave doesn’t just “report” on security risks, we help you remotely respond to potential security incidents by limiting device access to confidential resources, or even locking or wiping a device that is at risk.

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As we’ll explore in our next post on lifecycle management, the next step in your lifecycle management is software management, from efficient software rollouts and license management to removing applications that don’t belong.

Want to see how FileWave can transform your remediation capabilities? Click here to attend a free demo of our software.