Unified Endpoint Management Solves K–12 Security and Compliance Struggles

“It’s important to have a single place where you can access all of your endpoints,” says Spurti Preetham Gurram, vice president of product and growth at Scalefusion. “You want to control them so there’s no configuration drift, where devices fall away from your control.”

When school juggle too many different tools, it can lead to tool sprawl, he adds. “It becomes very difficult to have a clear and a confident understanding of the health of your entire fleet. UEM gives you a centralized view of all of your devices in one place.”

The Differences Between UEM and MDM

Schools may already be familiar with mobile device management, but how does UEM compare? 

“UEM comes out of MDM and mobile application management,” says Christopher Reed, field CTO for the Americas at Omnissa. “UEM is a maturation of these technologies that allows for oversight of the endpoint’s operating systems and technical details. Part of the maturation is that it provides a simplified and easy end user experience.”

UEM Benefits for Device Onboarding and Configuration 

One of the big benefits that UEM offers overworked IT teams is the ability to automatically enroll and configure devices.

“The goal is to create a frictionless process for students and staff. Onboarding can be as easy as clicking a link or scanning a QR code,” says Reed. “This gives users access to the school’s hub, or digital backpack. The IT team can then secure and set up the device, giving users access to all of the tools and educational resources they need to be successful.”

EXPLORE: How can configuration services benefit K–12 IT departments? 

Once devices are onboarded, IT staff can automatically deploy and enforce security policies such as encryption and authentication, as well as necessary software updates and patches. With some UEM solutions, device management capabilities can extend to monitoring individual device health and compliance status and taking remote action such as locking or wiping a device if it is stolen.

“Effective lifecycle management is part of what UEM delivers,” explains Gurram. “On average, an IT admin spends close to 45 minutes per endpoint on manual setup. A UEM solution can cut that setup time to under 10 minutes. And at the end of the school year, offboarding users from devices is just as easy.” 

While UEM enables IT staff to access devices and remotely update apps and systems to maintain a strong user experience, the technology’s underlying value is security-focused.

UEM Security Benefits Include Managing K–12 Compliance

The security benefits UEM delivers are seen in the ease with which it aligns school devices to meet regulatory compliance obligations. 

“We try to make compliance as easy as possible,” explains Reed. “We provide the security baselines that can then be applied to a broad array of endpoints, so you understand that the compliance checkboxes are indeed checked.” Omnissa’s Workspace ONE has embedded more than 200 international security baseline standards, including education-specific regulations such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. 

“The biggest challenge today with compliance standards is the fact that schools have too many tools to manage,” says Gurram. “You have to collect data on all of them, and each tool has different data collection and reporting capabilities. So, if you’re struggling with compliance, it’s probably time for you to switch to a UEM solution.”

LEARN MORE: Modern endpoint management imparts three advantages.

UEM Security Benefits Beyond Compliance

The very nature of security threats is that they are unexpected. Compliance provides a strong baseline for security efforts, but it can’t solve for zero-day threats. Luckily, UEM can also benefit school security. 

“Compliance is good, but when you have zero-day threats, you need a platform that allows IT teams not just to measure but also to act on that data in real time,” says Reed. “Our AI-driven vulnerability defense solutions let you respond to these kinds of security threats in real time.” 

DISCOVER: Protect K–12 data with strong policies and backup solutions.

The immediacy of AI-powered UEM solutions saves organizations from having to rely on a weeks-later report to create an action plan. 

For K–12 IT departments struggling with compliance — or those generally overwhelmed by the challenge of managing devices and endpoint security threats — UEM might be the solution. 

“A UEM tool delivers radical efficiency, providing one platform where you can ensure all of your endpoints are secure, configured and set up correctly,” says Gurram. “It lets IT admins easily produce an audit report to prove their devices are meeting specific standards.”