Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) is a set of tools that enable IT admins and IT security teams to manage, monitor, and secure the organization's endpoints, such as servers, workstations, laptops, mobile devices, IOTs, etc. from a single dashboard, regardless of the location or the operating system they run on.
In an ever-changing technological landscape, it is imperative that organizations adapt to newer solutions to secure their endpoints and make the most out of it. UEM is one such technology that has evolved over the years, to adapt to the needs of organizations and their growing requirements.
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Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) is a comprehensive solution that admins can leverage to manage, monitor, and secure, a diverse set of endpoints. This unified approach drastically simplifies IT administration with centralized control over various endpoints, regardless of their operating systems or locations.
The rapid growth in the UEM market in recent years can be attributed to the significant adoption of remote work and the expansion of connected endpoints in the organization's network.
Implementing UEM solutions offers a plethora of benefits to organizations and their IT teams, starting with increased, holistic visibility. On the security front, UEM enhances security by enforcing consistent policies across all devices, thus ensuring that endpoints comply with compliance standards, and the organization's internal guidelines and ward off looming vulnerabilities.
Additionally, UEM acts as a breather for complex IT environments. It drastically enhances operational efficiency by equipping IT administrators with the necessary tools and modules to provision, manage, and troubleshoot all the endpoints in the network. This streamlines critical processes such as software updates, patch management, and device configurations.
As organizations continue to embrace digital transformation and expand their device ecosystems, the importance of UEM solutions is expected to grow. By providing a unified approach to endpoint management, UEM helps organizations maintain security, compliance, and efficiency in an increasingly complex IT landscape.
The UEM solution that we see today has upgraded manifold from its predecessors, in terms of functionality as well as use cases. Mentioned below is a brief on how UEM evolved from other solutions:
Initially, organizations offered company-owned mobile devices to their employees to leverage the technology. With time, Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions were developed to manage, monitor, and secure these mobile devices. This allowed IT admins to provision and encrypt these devices, track their location, access and restrict the content of these devices, and also lock and remotely wipe off the data, in case the device was stolen.
Hence, the first instance of UEM's evolution was from MDM. Moving on, as mobile devices became more and more common, employees started bringing their devices to work, giving rise to the concept of BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices).
However, this gave rise to another problem as employees were not ready to let the organization's MDM tools access and monitor their data. This led to the development of MAM (Mobile Application Management). Unlike MDM which had access to monitor and restrict the complete endpoint, MAM took control of the applications installed in the devices. With this, the IT administrators could access the corporate applications and the corporate data to prevent data loss or exposure from the employee's devices.
Additionally, MAM provided admins with some level of control over the personal apps on these mobile devices, to prevent the corporate data from being exposed, without being able to control or see the employee data.
After the shift from MDM to MAM, the next instance in the evolution of UEM was EMM or Enterprise Mobility Management. With the multitude of applications being installed by employees on their iOS and Android devices, it became difficult for MAM solutions to track and manage all of those applications.
As a result, the vendors combined the best of all worlds to develop the Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) suite. EMM consisted of the mobile device management capabilities, the application management functionalities of MAM tools, as well as some other relevant capabilities to broaden the horizon of management and security to not just mobile devices but also laptops and computers.
EMM might have been the perfect predecessor of UEM until it failed to provide comprehensive security to the endpoints. With rising vulnerabilities, ransomware attacks, and cyber crimes, it was necessary to develop a solution that encompassed the management and monitoring of devices as well as holistic endpoint security.
This gave rise to UEM or Unified Endpoint Management, which comprises all the functions of EMM and more such as integrations with other tools, in-built vulnerability remediation, ransomware protection, and more.
Hence, the evolution of UEM that we see today started with the development of MDM (Mobile Device Management) MAM (Mobile Application Management) EMM (Enterprise Mobility Management), and finally UEM (Unified Endpoint Management).
The digital landscape is rapidly evolving. To keep up with the pace, organizations are rapidly utilizing newer systems and upgrading the obsoletes. This growing diversity provides IT admins with manifold challenges, such as ensuring security, compliance, and streamlining the day-to-day IT operations.
Unified Endpoint Management solutions bridge this particular gap by offering comprehensive visibility. By leveraging UEM solutions, admins can manage and secure their diverse endpoints, both within and outside the organization's geographical boundaries - all from a single console.
UEM solutions are a must because they:
Here are the key ways in which UEM can boost endpoint security within an enterprise:
UEM solutions offer a wide array of features when it comes to device monitoring and management. In recent times, several UEM solutions have also introduced security-related offerings, in addition to the UEM front. Such security offerings, such as Ransomware Protection, Data Loss Prevention, Vulnerability Detection, etc. ensure a holistic protection of the network.
That said, below are the highlighted features of UEM solutions:
UEM solutions offer centralized device management, with control over all the endpoints in the network, irrespective of the Operating Systems they run on or the location they operate. This allows IT administrators to manage, deploy, and monitor patches, updates, software, configurations, and vulnerability mitigation steps to the managed endpoints - all from a centralized location.
With increased remote work, UEM tools allow admins to troubleshoot and provision devices remotely with built-in remote monitoring capabilities. This provides a huge benefit to employees working from home or various geographical locations, other than the office.
Enterprises today rely on scalability and the ability to adapt to growing technologies. UEM tools offer the flexibility of scaling up based on the enterprise's requirements, accommodating the growing number of employees, endpoints, and changing business needs.
Furthermore, UEM tools consolidate device management into a single interface and integrate multiple capabilities into one, that make endpoint management a seamless affair. Additionally, the diverse support for newer systems, automation, and AI integration to optimize routine tasks reduces redundancy for the IT teams.
Considering the financial metrics of a business, UEM tools offer great value in limiting the expenditure of IT tools. Since UEM tools offer multiple capabilities from a single interface, the need for multiple solutions is negated. In addition to cost savings, this also makes the job easier for IT admins, who now have to focus on a single tool for their endpoint management needs, and not multiple tools, each having separate learning curves and UI.
Consolidating multiple features into a single UEM platform is becoming increasingly complex and challenging. As the market matures, so does the solution. With that in mind, the future of UEM solutions might witness several changes and additions starting with the addition of advanced security offerings and integration with Aritificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Models.
The rapid evolution of the threat landscape makes it much more challenging to predict threats and attack vectors. Hence, vendors are now focused on incorporating advanced threat detection solutions or modules within the existing UEM tools, either via integration or as a native part of the codebase.
Data analytics with advanced telemetrics is another facet. This would allow administrators with increased visibility over multiple data types, including systems with weak security, loopholes in the network, deplorable endpoint performance, and so on.
Not only would the above-mentioned lead to increased security, but would also boost the end-user experience. With enhanced end-user experience being one of the core features of UEM, more and more vendors are now integrating Digital Employee Experience (DEX) capabilities with their UEM offerings, for better insights.
A quick web search about the best UEM tool offers you multiple results. With each UEM solution having a different USP than the other, selecting the right tool for your organization needs a lot of effort and research.
To make things easier, we have collated a list of factors to consider, before choosing an UEM solution.
Endpoint Central, ManageEngine's UEM Solution offers a diverse range of endpoint management functions such as software deployment, patching, operating system deployment, remote control, mobile device management, and many more.
On the endpoint security front, this UEM tool is equipped with advanced functionalities such as ransomware protection, data loss prevention, vulnerability detection and mitigation, browser security, etc.
To make the decision easier for you, we have collated the top reasons why Endpoint Central must be the fit for your enterprise.
Try out a 30-day free trial of this advanced UEM solution with security features, available on the cloud as well as on-premises.
UEM or Unified Endpoint Management solutions are used by IT admins and IT security teams to monitor and manage the network endpoints from a single console. It offers features such as patching, software deployment, remote troubleshooting, and so on.
UEMS is the acronym for Unified Endpoint Management and Security. ManageEngine offers UEMS solutions for enterprises to manage and secure the endpoints in their network from a single interface.
UEM is a much more evolved product than MDM. While MDM manages only mobile devices, UEM offers management of different types of endpoints such as computers, laptops, servers, mobile phones, IoT devices, etc.
An endpoint management platform offers managing and securing endpoints such as computers, laptops, servers, mobile devices, etc. It offers various capabilities such as patching, software deployment, remote troubleshooting, ransomware protection, etc.
ITAM solutions offer holistic visibility on the managed endpoints as well as their components such as software licenses, providing visibility to the decision-makers. UEM solutions incorporate multiple endpoint management capabilities into a single console.
Yes, Endpoint Central is ManageEngine's UEM solution. It also offers users a fully functional 30-day free trial to better understand the solution.
Admins can integrate UEM solutions with various other IT management tools such as IT service management, IT asset management, vulnerability assessment, data analytics, business intelligence, and more.