If you can’t see and manage your endpoints, you can’t ensure your network is secure or your teams are equipped to succeed. Endpoint visibility has become a critical priority for businesses, especially with the rise of remote work, BYOD policies, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
As cyber threats continue to grow, traditional approaches to visibility aren’t sufficient. Organizations and IT teams need robust, detailed visibility into and management over each of their endpoints, including the ability to enforce security policies, install patches, and detect threats from anywhere.
With that in mind, let’s examine the importance of endpoint visibility, how real-time monitoring tools can help organizations monitor their endpoints and apps, and how Splashtop AEM makes endpoint management easy.
What Is Endpoint Visibility?
Endpoint visibility is the ability to monitor and manage all endpoints connected to your network and IT environment. Good endpoint visibility also includes information on the applications and other software on those endpoints, as well as the ability to secure, update, and enforce policies across them.
Endpoint visibility typically relies on endpoint management software, such as Splashtop AEM (Autonomous Endpoint Management), which can provide real-time insights, alerts, and inventory management for endpoint environments.
The Role of Endpoint Visibility in Proactive Security and Risk Reduction
So, what exactly are the benefits of endpoint visibility? Endpoint visibility enables proactive monitoring, patching, and compliance enforcement, while reducing risks and identifying vulnerabilities. This makes it an essential part of proper endpoint management.
Proper endpoint management includes: monitoring connected devices and their applications, ensuring everything is fully patched and updated, identifying potential threats or vulnerabilities, enforcing security policies, and addressing any threats that appear.
Without proper endpoint and IT asset visibility, IT teams will struggle to do any of these, and management tools won’t be able to function optimally. This can lead to security gaps and vulnerabilities that cyber attackers can exploit.
Endpoint Visibility Gaps: Where Companies Fall Short
Maintaining endpoint visibility can be easier said than done without the right tools and preparation. Several obstacles can make it challenging for organizations to gain full endpoint visibility and control, including:
Shadow IT: Shadow IT (the use of unauthorized devices, applications, and services without IT approval) can increase both expenses and risks for a business. When employees use devices and apps behind the IT department’s back, there’s a significant risk of those devices going forgotten and unpatched, creating a point of ingress for attackers.
Siloed data: When information is siloed and kept separate, it becomes challenging for IT teams to monitor it and detect potential threats. This can complicate threat response and give attacks more time to inflict damage.
Lack of integration: A properly-integrated environment is key to full and efficient endpoint management. If your tools and solutions aren’t integrating properly, it’ll be more difficult for your endpoint management solution to monitor and manage everything, creating blind spots and potential vulnerabilities.
Outdated tools: Similarly, old and outdated tools can present complications. Legacy solutions don’t always receive patches and updates, which makes security vulnerabilities more difficult to address. Additionally, they might not interface well with the endpoint management solution.
Each of these can create blind spots that make it difficult for IT teams to monitor and manage each endpoint. This can create security risks and reduce operational efficiency, so businesses must be aware and take action to address these obstacles.
8 Proven Ways to Enhance Endpoint Visibility
Fortunately, for all the obstacles that can obscure endpoint visibility, there are also best practices for endpoint visibility. Keeping these tips in mind will make it easier to monitor and manage each of your endpoints, even in remote environments:
1. Discover and Classify All Endpoints in Real Time
When a new endpoint is added to your network, your IT team should know. Using a platform with real-time endpoint detection and monitoring ensures that your inventory remains accurate and up-to-date by automatically adding new devices as they connect.
2. Build and Maintain an Accurate Endpoint Inventory
Building and maintaining an accurate, up-to-date inventory is essential for ensuring your IT team knows what devices are connected to your network and helps avoid shadow IT devices from going unnoticed and unpatched. If you don't have accurate inventory, unauthorized devices are more likely to slip by unnoticed, putting the network at risk.
3. Leverage Endpoint Management Tools
Endpoint management solutions like Splashtop AEM are incredibly helpful, as they provide insights into and control over connected devices. This reduces the workload for IT teams, streamlines endpoint management, provides visibility and insights into endpoints, and empowers teams to deploy updates across connected devices.
4. Use EDR/EPP Solutions for Complete Endpoint Insights
Endpoint security solutions that use endpoint detection and response (EDR) and endpoint protection platform (EPP) can provide valuable security insights. This includes identifying suspicious behavior, monitoring for threats, analyzing logs, and providing information about your overall security health, which can provide vital information about your endpoints and any risks that need to be addressed.
5. Optimize Monitoring and Alerting for Actionable Signals
Gaining visibility into your endpoints is one thing, but monitoring them properly is another matter altogether. Make sure your endpoint monitoring solution can collect the information that matters most to your business, including specific threats and vulnerabilities. That information should be available from a single screen, so all pertinent information is available at a glance.
6. Integrate Endpoint Data Across Your Tech Stack
If all your data remains siloed and locked away, you’re sabotaging your own security efforts. Integrating endpoint data so that security and IT teams can access and monitor it makes it easier to detect and respond to suspicious activity, improving responsiveness and overall cybersecurity.
7. Retain and Search Logs for Deeper Investigations
Data is king, as the saying goes, so retaining historical data is vital. Identifying patterns and warning signs in your data can help security teams find their own weaknesses and areas for improvement, while maintaining data can help teams analyze past behavior to better identify suspicious activity.
8. Continuously Improve Processes for Long-Term Visibility
Technology is constantly changing, which means cyber threats are growing in turn. Frequently assessing and updating your endpoint visibility processes and strategies will help your teams stay ahead of the threats and maintain proper security even as your endpoints and applications change.
Splashtop AEM: Empower IT Teams with Real-Time Endpoint Insights
Real-time visibility across your endpoints is vital for proper endpoint management and security, but that requires a robust and powerful solution that can work across a distributed workforce. Splashtop AEM (Autonomous Endpoint Management) is just that solution.
Splashtop AEM provides centralized visibility across your endpoints, bringing asset tracking, endpoint health monitoring, policy enforcement, and patch management into a single dashboard. Not only does Splashtop AEM help you manage connected devices and automate updates, but its security features help companies meet requirements like SOC 2, ISO/IEC 27001, and HIPAA compliance.
Splashtop AEM gives IT teams the tools they need to monitor endpoints, address potential issues, and reduce their workloads. This includes:
Automated, real-time hardware and software inventory tracking and remote management.
AI-powered CVE-based vulnerability insights.
Customizable policy frameworks that can be enforced throughout your network.
Automated patching for operating systems and third-party/custom apps.
Alerts and remediation to automatically resolve issues before they become problems.
Background actions to access tools like task managers and device managers without interrupting users.
Ready to experience Splashtop for yourself and gain unprecedented visibility into your endpoints? Get started today with a free trial:
