Modern IT teams have a lot to manage. Between all the endpoints, remote devices, software, and security requirements they have to juggle, it can be hard to keep up with everything and maintain good endpoint security.
This isn’t limited to large enterprises; organizations of any size can struggle to keep devices secure and up to date without interrupting users. Without real-time visibility, automation, patching control, and efficient remote support workflows, endpoint management becomes a real challenge.
With that in mind, let’s explore common endpoint management challenges, how a good endpoint management solution can address them, and what Splashtop AEM brings to IT teams struggling to support their endpoints.
What is endpoint management?
Endpoint management is the process of monitoring, securing, updating, and supporting devices used across an organization. Depending on the organization and the tools involved, this may include desktop and laptop computers, servers, mobile devices, and other connected endpoints.
Good endpoint management can help IT teams maintain security, performance, IT compliance, and uptime. However, without proper endpoint management, it’s easy for devices to fall out of compliance or for threats to go unnoticed for too long.
Why endpoint management has become more difficult
Modern endpoint management can be challenging for the unprepared. Recent years have seen an explosion in remote and hybrid work, leading to more distributed devices across offices and among remote employees. At the same time, employees are using more third-party applications than ever, and each one presents its own security challenges.
As a result, IT teams have to watch out for even more cybersecurity threats. At the same time, growing threat landscapes have led to more security regulations and compliance requirements to meet.
As such, modern IT teams face more challenges and are under more pressure than ever before. Traditional, manual approaches to cybersecurity can’t scale to keep up with distributed endpoints, so teams need to adapt to the modern work environment and challenges.
Common endpoint management challenges
With that said, what challenges do IT teams face in endpoint management? There are several common obstacles that can make managing devices a challenge, including:
1. Limited endpoint visibility
IT teams can’t manage devices that they can’t see. Without good visibility into endpoints, they’re missing vital information, including software inventory, device status, and patch status. Additionally, without visibility, IT teams lack centralized reporting and can’t tell what devices have or haven’t checked in.
This can lead to delayed remediation, poor compliance reporting, and increased security risk. As such, good endpoint management begins with visibility.
2. Patch management delays
Patching is one of the most important parts of endpoint management, as it ensures endpoints and applications are up to date and properly protected. However, it can also be one of the most difficult aspects, given the number of endpoints and apps it involves.
There are several reasons why patches might fall behind. Offline devices can miss update cycles, users can delay the reboots needed to complete installations, or IT teams may rely on manual updates, which is prone to human error. Additionally, if updates aren’t properly prioritized, then critical patches may be delayed.
The longer it takes to deploy a patch, the greater the risk of exposure to known vulnerabilities becomes.
3. Third-party application vulnerabilities
Endpoint vulnerabilities aren’t limited to operating systems. Third-party apps, such as browsers, collaboration tools, and productivity apps, can all pose risks if not properly updated. As such, IT teams need to track and update third-party apps across distributed endpoints to fully address endpoint vulnerabilities.
4. Remote and hybrid device support
While the growth of remote and hybrid work has been great for employee flexibility, accessibility, and productivity, it can also make endpoint management more difficult. When devices are outside the office network, they can be tricky to monitor and manage. As a result, remote support and troubleshooting become difficult, especially when employees can’t bring their devices onsite and may not be connected to a VPN.
Organizations need an endpoint management tool with remote access and support, so IT teams can access remote devices and troubleshoot from anywhere. This goes beyond technical support, as remote access is vital for proper management and maintenance.
5. Manual IT workflows
Endpoint management can get repetitive, but the workflows are often simple and repeatable, which is to say, they can easily be automated. Yet many IT teams still have to manually perform tasks such as checking patch status, running scripts, collecting device information, and applying configuration changes across endpoints.
Good automation can improve efficiency and response times, provide consistent management across endpoints, and free up time for IT teams. Without automation, repetitive endpoint management tasks can consume time that IT teams need for higher-priority work.
6. Tool sprawl
Many organizations rely on a variety of tools for patching, remote access, inventory management, monitoring, scripts, reporting, and more. However, not only can this get complicated and expensive, as they have to juggle multiple solutions, but it can also create a host of new problems.
Tool sprawl can lead to disconnected, disorganized data, as well as increased admin overhead and licensing complexity. This, in turn, leads to inconsistent workflows and slower troubleshooting, resulting in worse outcomes than with a unified tool.
Consolidating closely related workflows can reduce administrative overhead, eliminate disconnected data, and make endpoint operations easier to manage.
7. Compliance and reporting gaps
Logging and reporting are vital for IT compliance, especially when it’s time for a security audit. Businesses must be able to prove that their endpoints are patched, protected, and properly configured, which they can do by maintaining clear logs.
However, without good reporting, businesses can have incomplete patch records, limited device inventory, and difficulty demonstrating their endpoint statuses. As such, not only can this lead to failed audits, but it also means IT teams will have trouble identifying which endpoints need further updates and support, which is detrimental to cybersecurity.
Compliance and reporting aren’t just about passing audits. It’s also essential for good endpoint hygiene.
8. Scaling endpoint operations
As businesses grow, their endpoint count and management workload can increase faster than existing processes can handle. Small and mid-sized businesses, internal IT teams, and MSPs need scalable ways to support more devices without increasing repetitive manual work.
As such, scalability is vital. This includes the ability to quickly add more endpoints, along with automation, centralized visibility across devices, remote remediation, and policy-based actions, all of which can help lean teams manage more devices. Without proper scalability, IT teams will struggle to keep pace with your growth.
How IT teams can overcome endpoint management challenges
Given the challenges of endpoint management, what can IT teams do to overcome them? Solving endpoint management challenges takes more than just another standalone tool; it requires focused, practical improvements designed to address issues.
This includes:
Centralizing endpoint visibility, so IT teams can monitor everything from a single place.
Automating routine remediation to quickly resolve issues without needing IT agents.
Prioritizing patching based on risk, so the most critical threats are addressed first.
Tracking third-party application updates to ensure everything is up-to-date and any security vulnerabilities in the apps are addressed,
Using remote support to fix issues faster, thus reducing disruptions and helping remote employees.
Standardizing reporting across endpoints for better management and audit readiness.
Reducing manual work through automation where possible, so IT agents have more time to focus on critical tasks.
What to look for in an endpoint management solution
There are several endpoint management solutions on the market, but not all of them provide the same features or work for all types of organizations. IT teams need to carefully consider their needs when evaluating options to find a solution that provides the tools and functionality they require, so knowing what to look for is important.
Look for the following in an endpoint management solution:
Real-time endpoint visibility across your network.
OS and third-party patch management (not just operating systems)
Vulnerability insights to identify potential threats.
Hardware and software inventory with real-time updates.
Remote support for employees on the go.
Scripting to automatically carry out basic tasks.
Proactive alerts to identify threats early.
Automated remediation to address basic issues.
Automated reporting and user-friendly dashboards.
How Splashtop AEM helps simplify endpoint management
Splashtop AEM helps IT teams improve visibility, automate routine endpoint management work, and respond more quickly when devices require updates or remediation. It brings endpoint insights, patching, policies, scripts, alerts, and related workflows into the Splashtop platform.
Splashtop AEM provides visibility across endpoints, including health, patch status, and software. This helps IT teams identify devices that need support or updates, and provides inventory reporting to ensure they’re not missing a thing.
When a device needs an update, Splashtop AEM helps IT teams identify missing patches, deploy operating system and third-party application updates, and track patch status across managed endpoints. This includes supported operating systems and third-party applications, helping teams address more of their patching workload from one console.
Splashtop AEM’s AI-powered CVE insights help teams identify and prioritize known vulnerabilities. IT teams can then use patching policies, scripts, and automated actions to remediate supported issues more efficiently.
When an endpoint requires hands-on troubleshooting, technicians can use Splashtop remote support capabilities to access and support the device remotely.
As a result, IT teams using Splashtop AEM can reduce manual work, respond to issues more quickly, and keep endpoints secure across their network.
Get started with Splashtop AEM
Endpoint management becomes harder when visibility, patching, automation, reporting, and remote support rely on disconnected or manual processes. Bringing those workflows together helps IT teams respond faster, apply policies more consistently, and maintain clearer insight into endpoint health and risk.
Splashtop AEM provides real-time endpoint visibility, automated patch management, scripts and tasks, proactive alerts, and remediation tools within the Splashtop platform.
Start a free trial of Splashtop AEM to see how it can help improve your endpoint management workflows.
