3 Device Management Challenges For Modern IT Operations (And How to Overcome Them)

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Modern IT operations are beset with challenges. These include things like cybersecurity, digital transformation, migrating to the cloud, automation, analytics and data management, and, of course, ensuring that the fleet of PCs and other devices being used remotely by employees are working optimally, are more secure, and their users are as able to be as productive as possible. Nowhere is this more critical than in mid-sized growing businesses.

When everyone worked in the same building behind a secure firewall, IT had little trouble identifying IT devices and checking their age, what versions of software they were running, whether they needed patching to update their software and keep security up-to-date, and how stable the PC was. 

It was also easier to calculate how expensive a device was, in terms of downtime. Questions like how slowly the device booted up and how quickly it worked could be easily answered. And it was easier to perform any repairs that were needed. 

Now, in an increasingly remote business world, employees may well be accessing the corporate networks using personal devices. This adds to the IT team’s performance management challenge of getting both the best performance and the best value for money from the hardware.  Endpoints have become the most mission-critical workloads in remote business settings. If a laptop is malfunctioning, the impact to user productivity can run into hundreds of dollars per user, per hour and even more. 

 In a cloud, mobile, and user-centric environment, IT teams also need to factor-in emerging challenges — identifying endpoints that are vulnerable to known threats, increased visibility into remote devices and reining in management overheads that can arise from maintenance, tech support and OS refresh. Modern IT Ops teams need to build a balance between increased mobility and collaboration demands with security and manageability built in.

Let’s unpack these problems and see what solutions are available for IT teams for more efficient, standardized PC fleet management:  

1. Lack of Access to Onsite IT Centers for Repair and Updates

The IT fleet of devices for a mid-sized growing business could be located anywhere, and the chances of those devices returning to a corporate office building any time soon for repairs, upgrades or updates are slim. This can lead to more support calls to the IT help desk that prevents IT teams from getting on with other work, while reducing the productivity of end-users. 

An Intel report The Economic Case for the Intel vPro® PlatformOpens a new window ¹, 2017 looked at the lifetime incident profiles of endpoints and found reactive support issues throughout the device lifecycle, including network or software incompatibilities, operating system malfunctions, virus remediation and more. 

Businesses reported on average five incidents in the first year of the device’s life, with incidents increasing every year the device is in use, per research conducted during Q3 2017. This implies that while the initial purchase of the device makes up only a fraction of the total cost of ownership (TCO), true costs of endpoint management arise from maintenance and support. 

Remote servicing of devices can be costly and time consuming for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) operating on tighter budgets. It also hamstrings end-user productivity. So, how can IT teams working on downsized budgets reduce IT spend on maintenance and administration, improve end-user experience and increase efficiency? In other words, what options are available to build strong manageability of device fleets? 

Our Take: IT teams should look to modernize PC fleet manageability with tools that support remote diagnosis and repair, especially when devices are outside the corporate firewall. Focus on standardized solutions with built-in capabilities that  allow IT Ops to remotely troubleshoot and resolve issues, effectively deploy patches, monitor and improve device health, update the OS, discover OS-level issues, and manage unresponsive systems for their distributed, mobile workforces in a secure and timely manner. This will not only significantly free up IT resources, but also allow them to focus on more strategic areas, and help the organization realize greater agility, manageability, and reduced implementation costs.  

2. Outdated Devices Pose Major Manageability Hurdles

Older computers present a host of issues. As far as the company is concerned, those devices still work and allow employees to get work done. However, from IT’s point of view, older devices may still be running Windows 7 with Office 2010 installed. The challenge for them is that support for Windows 7 has ended and support for Office 2010 ends in October 2020. PCs operating on Windows 7 and Office 10 are more vulnerable to security risks because users will not receive new security and feature updates.

But older devices also impact employee productivity. An A J Gold Associates Research ReportOpens a new window ² found that a person using a computer more than five years old was likely to be 43.7% less productive than someone with a new one. Respondents were also asked to estimate approximately how much longer they thought an older PC takes to start up as compared to a new machine. PCs more than five years old were likely to be 44.02% slower. The survey also looked at average yearly fail rates. 

Again, for PCs over five years old, the fail rate was high at 43.42%. The report concluded that older PCs cause a significant loss of productivity and ultimately cost a good deal of money. In addition, IT departments are faced with the need for frequent updates and patches for these devices, taking up time and effort. Frequent refreshes can also dent budgeted device refresh cycles and chip away at cash flows.

Additionally, a study by Techaisle, Older vs Newer PCs – Cost and Productivity Impact for SMBs in Asia-Pacific³, 2018 tried to understand the comparative differences in costs of maintaining older and newer PCs, as well as associated quantifiable productivity loss. The survey found that PCs older than four years can cost 1.6 times more in maintenance and repairs than newer PCs. They also found that lost productivity was 3.1 times greater on older machines than newer ones.

Clearly, the burden of older computer hardware and software adds to the operating costs of mid-sized companies. But a large number of computing devices and operating systems also present manageability challenges in terms of standardization. The more complex the environment, the greater IT resource requirements to keep endpoints updated. 

 A Forrester survey titled The Total Economic Impact Of The Intel® vProâ„¢ PlatformOpens a new window ⁴ 2019 found that 56% of IT managers surveyed said patches were not installed in an efficient, standard manner.  Securing multiple OSes requires different toolsets and old, un-updated devices with software nearing End of Life (EOL) need ongoing management and support.  In small business scenarios with managed IT services, IT decision makers (ITDMs) should take a deeper look at their IT assets and upgrade to modern devices that reduce overall maintenance costs and increase user uptime and productivity. 

Our Take:  Mid-sized companies should consider replacing older PCs with new devices that are both more secure and are built to receive regular security and OS updates as part of regular IT management. By deploying PCs built on the Intel vPro platform, companies can utilize technologies and services within the Intel vPro platform such as Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) that allows remote out-of-band management of PCs running. Intel® AMT, with persistent out-of-band connectivity operates independently of the OS and enables IT teams to effectively deploy patches and fixes to a wider range of system issues for mobile workforces in a secure, timely manner, even when the OS is down.  

3. Managing Endpoint Visibility 

Gaining visibility and control over endpoints has been a long-standing struggle for IT operations, especially in distributed environments. In the wake of the ongoing crisis, companies transitioned from office-only to remote-first, making endpoint visibility a key priority for ITDMs. The shift away from corporate perimeters means companies have little to no insights into devices that are being connected over home/consumer networks. Endpoint devices could risk being non-compliant or even worse, breached, if exploits go undetected. 

The State of Endpoint Security Risk⁵, a study from the Ponemon Institute highlights that corporate endpoint breaches have become a hot-button issue. 68% IT security professionals revealed that their company experienced one or more endpoint attacks that compromised data assets or IT infrastructure in 2019. 

The inescapable fact is that global events have further stressed the bottom lines of SMBs and enterprises alike, and many are looking to right-size their IT budgets without compromising security, responsiveness and productivity. In this scenario, a data breach would cause irreparable economic damage and reputational harm, as well as regulatory and compliance fines.  

Simply put, device endpoint management is critical to business continuity and disaster recovery measures and is key to strengthening the company’s security posture. Lack of visibility into corporate PC fleets or assets is a serious drawback, can significantly widen the attack surface, and disrupt business operations.  These gaps leave room for bad actors to bypass traditional antivirus solutions and gain unauthorized access to enterprise networks. 

Our Take: Up until this point, endpoint devices operating within the network perimeter were not viewed as critical to cybersecurity strategy. However, the scale and nature of attacks created by COVID-19 means businesses need to review their security stance. SMBs should lean into unified platforms that provide more secure management capabilities and help improve the visibility of hardware platforms, thereby enabling IT teams to streamline hardware inventories.  

Turning Manageability into an Opportunity in 2020 and Beyond

To overcome device management challenges, especially in the remote work era,  IT teams need a comprehensive and standardized toolset that supports employee and business goals without compromising on security and stability.

For anytime, anywhere support to be efficient and productive, it needs to move away from ad-hoc responses and crisis management to an easy, standard and prevention-led way to ensure out-of-date software is replaced and security software is regularly updated. This would be impossible to achieve with a disparate fleet of PCs and devices, all running on different operating systems. 

In business terms, it makes sense to replace older PCs with business-class devices that offer modern capabilities such as enterprise-grade security and single-window remote manageability by IT to enable high performance by end-users. 

These solutions must be rigorously validated to ensure compatibility and promise quality assurance. By making appropriate investments in a modern fleet management strategy, SMBs can benefit from an increased return on investment (ROI). Not doing so can result in hidden IT and productivity costs, not to mention security vulnerabilities and risks – an expense that mid-sized companies can ill afford.

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