When it comes to mission-critical technology in the workplace, much of the conversation revolves around digital transformation through broadband, cloud applications and enabling the mobile workforce. But there’s another footprint beyond this conversation that’s just as critical to businesses of all sizes: endpoints.
Your servers – which run the applications that run your business, and the workstations your employees use to do their jobs – represent a large business investment. Managing these endpoint systems requires sophisticated tools, expert resources, and focused attention to keep them healthy, secure and performing optimally. The unfortunate reality for many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) is that they are falling short on this important management task. This exposes them to significant business risks such as security breaches, downtime, and lost productivity.
Perhaps the most significant endpoint and workstation concern is security. Threats like ransomware, cryptomining and other viruses are becoming more prevalent and sophisticated all the time. Keeping ahead of the threat landscape starts with basic security hygiene: software patching to prevent bad actors from exploiting vulnerabilities on your systems, and keeping antivirus up-to-date with the latest threat intelligence. However, with the rise in the volume, complexity and frequency of cyberattacks, it also requires more sophisticated defense-in-depth approaches – like advanced behavioral heuristics to identify and protect against never-before-seen attacks, and real-time scanning to prevent phishing attacks (which are the number one cause of security breaches). Technology is sometimes not enough. Removing threats to your endpoint security often requires more human intelligence. Remember QuickTime from Apple? This used to be the leading video player software and was once installed on millions of PCs. In 2016 Apple stopped releasing security updates for Quicktime. Shortly after, two critical new exploits of QuickTime hit. Companies who had a skilled support team in place were able to recognize this threat and ensure that the QuickTime application was removed from all of their PCs.
Another major concern is how to deliver efficient and effective support to end-users. There are several aspects to delivering great support. First, you must maintain expert resources that have the variety of skillsets needed to address a wide range of issues across all systems and applications. Next, you need to invest in the tools and technologies that allow these resources to perform more efficiently. This includes tools for remote monitoring and management (RMM), secure remote control, system inventory, advanced security protection, and reporting. And finally, effective support requires focused attention and a proactive approach. When you consistently perform system maintenance and identify and address issues quickly, you’ll significantly decrease the number of incidents that affect end-users, reduce the time to repair, and ultimately minimize unnecessary downtime and lost productivity.
If it seems daunting, don’t fret. Although most SMBs struggle with budget constraints that hamper their ability to deliver effective support, they can still stay ahead of the curve by adopting endpoint management solutions from a Managed Services Provider like TPx.
At TPx, we’re dedicated to ensuring that SMBs can keep up with the pace of change in technology. We invest in the latest security and management technologies so that you don’t have to – and then we package them as part of our cost-effective, fixed-price set of managed services.
Our managed endpoint services suite allows SMBs to tap into the power of having always-updated endpoint management technologies and a virtual team of skilled experts manning two 24/7/365 state-of-the-art security operations centers (SOCs) that ensures you get the right resources at the right time. You can rest easy knowing that we are keeping up with security patches and proactively maintaining your servers and workstations. If a problem does arise, our team can react in real time to quickly resolve it. With more secure, stable and available endpoint equipment, and less downtime, you stay productive and focused on your core business goals.
Bottom line? Servers and workstations run the applications that run your business. All of that endpoint technology represents a significant business investment. Given the range of threats that arise from a lack of proper management, your company has a vested interest in making sure it’s reliable, secure and performing at its best. Don’t be caught behind the curve. Call your TPx representative today to discover how we can help you with endpoint management.
About the Author
Joe Royer is Product Manager for IT/Cloud services at TPx. He has 25 years of industry experience in sales, consulting, and product management for several leading MSPs.