IT organizations are under more pressure than ever. Much of this is centered on the challenge from the following primary sources that make unified endpoint management a tempting response:

• Hyper-empowered end users who demand access to data anywhere, at any time and from any device
• The technological demands of a vibrant variety of devices being adopted by individuals and organizations, and the growing number of applications and operating systems running on them
• An accelerating need for organizational time-to-compliance, which reduces the risk of audit failures and damaged brand equity while lowering labor costs

According to Chuck Brown of IBM, this is all further complicated by today’s significant security risks.

“If an organization is going to effectively manage and secure all their endpoints in a unified fashion, they’ve got to consider those challenges in addition to a significant uptick in security breaches and attacks,” he said. “These threats are only going to get worse and grow in both volume and sophistication as hackers develop continuous and skillfully crafted malware that seems to be able to thwart the most intelligent security platforms.”

Chuck Brown of IBM and Matti Seppänen of Enfo at IBM InterConnect 2015

Matti Seppänen of Enfo, an IBM business partner based in Finland, said the answer may already be here, with IBM BigFix (previously IBM Unified Endpoint Manager, or UEM).

“We saw the market shifting before us,” he said at IBM InterConnect. “And, in order for us to achieve and retain a competitive advantage, we needed an integrated technology that could manage and secure any device, any kind of data in any location, and provide near-real-time visibility and control.”

The combined strength of IBM BigFix and IBM MaaS360 provided just the answer he was looking for.

“Using this combined solution, we’ve now enrolled over 30,000 unique endpoints for clients across Sweden and Finland,” Seppänen said. “And we can’t seem to implement it fast enough — the demand is growing exponentially.”

“That makes perfect sense,” Brown added. “UEM helps clients not only meet, but exceed their challenges. It’s a strategic commitment to viewing all connecting endpoints — from laptops to an employee’s back pocket — as having the same need for security, resiliency, scalability and simplicity.”

The two reminded participants that a good unified endpoint management strategy focuses on more than managing devices. Instead, it goes beyond the devices themselves and incorporates the security and management of applications, content and data.