Cross platform endpoint management tools help you manage the multiple devices and multiple operating systems that access your system. This proactive approach can strengthen your security posture and help you comply with mandatory and voluntary security regulations. But cross-platform endpoint management isn’t the only solution for managing devices and isn’t right for every company.
When is cross-platform endpoint management the best solution for your IT department, and when should you consider something else?
What Is Cross-Platform Endpoint Management?
At its core, cross-platform endpoint management is managing all the endpoints on your network that use different operating systems. For example, one team uses Windows-based desktops, another uses macOS laptops, and yet another uses Linux. The end goal is to deploy patches and updates as well as check the endpoint’s current configuration to ensure it complies with your standards and remains secure.
Your IT team will likely use multiple tools to manage these endpoints, with each tool optimized for each OS.
What Is Unified Endpoint Management?
Unified endpoint management (UEM) is, as the name implies, a more unified approach to endpoint management, including cross-platform endpoint management.
Like individual endpoint managers, UEM tools enable cross-platform endpoint management but without toggling between different tools. Instead, IT can manage multiple endpoints on different operating systems using a single, unified platform, simplifying endpoint management tasks.
How Are Cross-Platform Endpoint Management and Unified Endpoint Management Different?
Cross-platform endpoint and unified endpoint management have a similar goal: to keep every endpoint secure, up-to-date, and compliant with current company configurations. The difference lies in how each tool accomplishes the job and what you can and can’t do within each.
Say your company provides Windows and MacOS laptops for staff, iPhones to executives, and Android-based tablets for the warehouse. That’s three types of devices and four different operating systems you have to monitor and manage.
When you’re cross-managing these endpoints, you need to push critical updates and patches, enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA), or wipe a lost device. In this scenario, you’re using multiple and separate tools to manage each device and perform these tasks, like Microsoft Intune for Windows devices and Jamf for Mac and iOS.
While each tool is optimized for each operating system, IT has to change tools every time they need to do something on a different operating system. So, if someone needs a password reset on a Mac device, that’s one tool, but if someone on a Windows device needs help rebooting after a patch, IT has to switch to a different tool.
Beyond daily endpoint management tasks, IT has to manually coordinate and upload security policy changes and updates across these endpoints and OSs and into the individual endpoint managers. So, if the policy changes and now staff need to change their passwords every three months instead of six, IT has to update the configuration and enforcement across multiple tools.
Each cross-platform endpoint management tool (and the team) can get the job done, but updating all of these configurations can be a slow process that leaves room for errors, which could increase your attack surface.
To be clear, not all cross-platform management requires multiple tools. For example, Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (SCCM) is great for managing Windows devices, and you can add Mac support. However, the Mac support isn’t perfect, and it’s not centralized within SCCM. It often requires a separate configuration and third-party add-ons, meaning IT may need to use a different dashboard to manage Mac-based devices.
A unified endpoint management tool allows IT to manage every device from the same dashboard. They can easily switch from managing an iPhone to a Windows desktop to a Mac laptop from the same dashboard, and it’s easy to enforce the same rules across all devices.
For example, you can add and set up your security configurations in a single dashboard instead of adding them to multiple tools. What’s more, you can fine-tune each configuration to work with the particular operating system.
While you can fine-tune and adjust your security configurations in multiple cross-platform endpoint managers, using a UEM tools keeps all of the information in one place, making it easier to update the configurations for each operating system at once and enforce configurations across devices, like deploying a missing patch, whenever an endpoint connects no matter which OS it’s using.
Choosing Between Cross-Platform Endpoint Management and Unified Endpoint Management
If it sounds like unified endpoint management is the way to go, that makes sense. Using a UEM to streamline cross-platform endpoint management tasks frees IT up for other tasks. However, a UEM isn’t the right choice for every business or IT department.
Cross-Platform Endpoint Management Pros
Small companies that only manage one type of device (say, only desktops and laptops) and don’t allow personal devices on the network may not need a UEM tool. Even if these endpoints use Windows and Mac, a unified endpoint management tool may have a lot of bells and whistles you don’t need. Cross-platform endpoint managers are optimized for the operating system or systems you use, ensuring they integrate seamlessly with your current equipment.
Individual cross-platform management tools and solutions are often less expensive than UEMs, even if you have to use several tools. The cost savings alone may make cross-platform endpoint manager tools the better choice for your business.
Cross-Platform Endpoint Management Cons
Cross-platform endpoint management generally isn’t the right solution for large companies with multiple endpoints on multiple operating systems, remote employees, or that allows people to bring and use their own devices on the network. The IT team may have difficulty effectively managing all the endpoints, keeping them up-to-date, and updating the security configurations across multiple tools.
Companies that need to audit and demonstrate compliance with required or voluntary security regulations may need to steer away from cross-platform endpoint management. While the individual tools can generate critical reports, proving you consistently and automatically enforce endpoint compliance can be difficult across multiple tools. You may get different data from the different reports, making it challenging to create a single, cohesive report that you need for an audit.
Unified Endpoint Management Pros
Large companies with multiple endpoints running on different operating systems benefit from using a unified endpoint manager. A single dashboard or admin console makes managing every endpoint easier. It’s easy to see which endpoints comply with current configurations, enforce updates when necessary, and respond quickly to security threats (like quarantining a device).
Unified endpoint management also simplifies auditing and reporting in highly regulated industries. Most tools can generate a single report that documents endpoint compliance with current security configurations no matter which OS they’re running and makes it simple to enforce security measures like encryption or requiring MFA.
Unified Endpoint Management Cons
Even large companies may find the UEM tools include add-ons and features they don’t need or are too complicated to configure and use. Given that most UEM tools cost more than multiple cross-platform tools, it may be hard to justify paying for a product that IT doesn’t take advantage of.
But even if IT isn’t using a lot of the features, there may still be an unwillingness to switch due to vendor lock-in. Many UEM solutions are proprietary, meaning if you decide to switch, you’ll need the time and resources to retrain staff, migrate the data, and possibly rewrite or reconfigure all of your security policies.
Adaptiva for Endpoint Management
Adaptiva is an endpoint management solution that can help your IT team quickly deploy patches and software updates as well as enforce security configurations. We can help you manage your Windows-based products and enhance your security posture. Contact us today for a demo.
