One of the toughest parts of running a small or even one-person IT department is managing and securing all the different endpoint devices that keep the business running. From laptops to IoT devices, endpoints are both essential and risky. After all, each one you add to your network creates an additional attack surface. It also adds additional monitoring and management overhead for IT.
Of course, it’s IT’s job to support the business and keep the devices secure and operational, so the key is figuring out how to efficiently monitor and manage your endpoints. With the right strategy, processes, and tools, even small teams can scale their endpoint monitoring without overloading themselves or context-switching between dozens of different dashboards.
In this article, we’ll deep dive into endpoint monitoring including what it is, why it matters, and how small IT teams can solve their endpoint monitoring challenges.
What is endpoint monitoring?
Endpoint monitoring is the continuous and automatic monitoring of endpoint devices in a network.
Endpoint monitoring helps IT address endpoint visibility challenges. Worded differently, it tells you what’s broken or unpatched before you find out the hard way. “An endpoint” can be just about any network-connected virtual or physical device, including:
- Computers and laptops
- Storage devices
- Virtual machines
- Tablets
- Printers
- Robots
- Medical devices
- Servers
- Handheld scanners
- Mobile devices
- IoT devices
Endpoints are often the cornerstone of how business gets done. They are also common targets for threat actors. Attacks such as phishing, ransomware, polymorphic malware, and ransomware are common. And unfortunately, many of these attacks can go undetected by traditional antivirus software.
Endpoint monitoring helps IT keep track of endpoint health, detect unpatched systems, and take a more proactive approach to maintenance. With the right monitoring strategy and tooling, you can detect potential cybersecurity threats, prevent outages, and improve network security.
How it works: Agentless vs. agent-based monitoring
Endpoint monitoring can be broken down into two categories: agent-based monitoring and agentless monitoring.
Agent-based monitoring involves installing a software application (the “agent”) on monitored devices. Agent-based monitoring typically provides detailed monitoring information, “store and forward” capabilities to send monitoring data back to a centralized console if the endpoint gets disconnected from the network, and may even support remote management capabilities. For example, on Windows systems running the Syncro agent, IT can view patch status, detailed system metrics, and even configure patching policies.
Agentless monitoring involves the use of standard network protocols to capture monitoring data. The benefit of this approach is that no additional software is needed, and devices that don’t support an agent install may support a standard monitoring protocol. However, monitoring data may be less detailed than what is available via an endpoint monitoring agent. Common endpoint monitoring protocols include SNMP, WMI, and syslog.
With both agent-based and agentless endpoint monitoring, data is aggregated and centralized in a monitoring dashboard that administrators can use to view data and reports. Additionally, administrators can typically set up alerts and notifications for key endpoint-related events.
Why is it important?
In short, it helps IT proactively detect and address operational and security issues before users complain or, worse, threat actors compromise a system.
Every device connecting to your internal networks presents a new opportunity for cybercriminals. Employees have varying levels of security knowledge, and different devices have different security levels. Even the most cautious employees can fall victim to phishing attempts, malware, or ransomware. What’s worse is that sophisticated malware can remain undetected on an employee’s device for months. Endpoint monitoring helps mitigate these risks by increasing visibility and providing IT with key insights like patch status and detection of insecure configurations.
Additionally, endpoint monitoring empowers IT to take a more proactive approach to addressing system outages, resource utilization issues, and application crashes. With deep visibility into your endpoints, you can detect and resolve issues before users notice.
Finally, in some cases, compliance requirements will drive the need for endpoint monitoring. From regulations like PCI DSS and GDPR to standards like ISO/IEC 27001 and NIST SP 800-53, endpoint monitoring is often an essential component of compliance.
Three common challenges
Endpoint monitoring and management is easy to get wrong, especially for busy one-person IT teams that don’t have the luxury of personnel dedicated to monitoring. Below are three common monitoring challenges and tips for solving them.
Monitoring “everything”
Windows PCs, macOS laptops, Linux servers, Android tablets, and IP cameras are just a few examples of the endpoint devices you’re likely to find on modern networks. Finding a monitoring solution that can support all of your critical endpoints is essential to ensuring you achieve adequate visibility. Otherwise, you’ll be left with blindspots that can increase the risk of outages or security breaches.
Monitoring all of your critical devices effectively will likely require a mix of agentless and agent-based monitoring. For example, with Syncro, IT can deploy powerful lightweight agents to monitor and manage their Windows machines while using the flexibility of SNMP to monitor devices like printers and UPS systems.
“Swivel chair” overload
According to a recent Zylo report, the average small business has 172 apps. IT administrators are jumping from one dashboard to another to get work done and keep up with alerts. This constant “swivel chair” is a recipe for missed alerts, silos, blindspots, and inefficiency.
If you have to use multiple systems to monitor your endpoints or if your endpoint monitoring is decoupled from the rest of your IT management stack, the problem gets that much worse. The best way to reduce “swivel chair” is to converge solutions into “all-in-one” systems where practical. For example, combining endpoint monitoring, remote management, and ticketing in a single platform can drastically reduce context switching and data silos.
Patch management
Regular patching is one of the biggest levers IT can pull to improve security posture. However, anyone who has been in IT long enough knows that sometimes new updates come with new problems. Some organizations adopt an “N-1” approach to updates to balance stability and security. Others make exceptions for legacy systems and programs that the business requires.
Whatever your approach to patch management is, it’s essential to have an endpoint management solution that can support it. One of my favorite Syncro features is the ability to define patch management policies and patch exceptions in a centralized location.
How can small IT teams effectively monitor and manage endpoints?
Implementing a strategic plan is essential to maintaining and securing IT infrastructure efficiently. Below are four key steps small IT teams can use to supercharge their endpoint monitoring.
Integrate and streamline
Tool sprawl and complexity can crush your efficiency and create blindspots in your network visibility. Integrating key portions of your IT management stack can drastically reduce overhead and empower you to do more with less. For example, instead of using a separate ticketing system, monitoring solution, and remote access tooling, IT teams can leverage an integrated remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform that provides all-in-one functionality.
Set up reports and alerts
Effective reporting and alerting is an essential part of proactive IT operations.
Periodic reports about the status of the network or individual endpoints to track network patterns over time and use that data to support capacity planning. Report data may be helpful if, for example, you want to determine how many mobile devices operate on the network at different times of day, or whether you need to upgrade network equipment to accommodate ongoing increases in bandwidth usage.
Additionally, fine-tuning alerts and notifications empower you to stay ahead of critical issues without falling victim to alert fatigue. The simple rule to follow while customizing alerts is: if a human doesn’t need to do anything, don’t send them a notification.
Adopt a zero-trust policy
As a best practice, it’s wise to adopt a “zero trust” policy for endpoint devices, which means that by default, new devices are deemed untrusted and thus denied connectivity until they are determined to be secure. This approach is more secure than the inverse, i.e., trusting endpoints by default and later finding and isolating insecure ones.
To adopt this practice, you must determine which software is running on endpoints to detect unauthorized applications or services. You should also be diligent about tracking the software versions of these applications and services so you know if/when they are out of date and, therefore, subject to potential security vulnerabilities.
When you identify an insecure device, it should be forced off the network, or at the very least prevented from communicating with the rest of the network, until they are secure.
Automate patch management
Automated patch management significantly enhances your ability to manage security and functionality across every client endpoint. By automating patching, IT saves valuable time, reduces the risk of manual errors, and ensures patches are prioritized correctly.
TL;DR – Automating patching is vital as it allows for a more efficient and effective way to manage numerous endpoints. Here are five key benefits of automated patching:
- Improved Security: Timely updates across devices help address vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. By extension, you minimize the risk of security breaches and data loss.
- Consistent Compliance: Automating updates helps to maintain compliance with regulatory standards such as ISO/IEC 27001, PCI DSS, and GDPR.
- Reduced Operational Disruptions: MSPs can schedule patching updates to occur during off-peak hours to minimize the impact on productivity or potential issues.
- Enhanced Efficiency: Manual patch management is time-consuming and prone to human error. Automation frees up IT staff to focus on more strategic or challenging tasks, improving overall operational efficiency (not to mention client service).
- Reliable Results: Automated patch management ensures that all endpoints are uniformly updated, maintaining a consistent security posture across the entire organization.
Simplify IT with Syncro
Syncro’s platform helps IT effectively and efficiently monitor endpoints with a comprehensive suite of tools — including automated patch management, endpoint monitoring, ticketing, and remote access — designed for efficient management and robust security. Syncro is built with simple, efficient, and affordable IT operations in mind. But don’t take our word for it, check out what IT pro Carl H. had to say about Syncro:
“Great combination of functionality, reliability, and value for money. I really like the fact that most of what I want is under one roof and, for my needs, there is integration with the rest. I also love the fact I get a response to my questions or ideas, which on my travels I have found as lacking elsewhere.”
If you’d like to see what Syncro can do firsthand, sign up for a free (no credit card required) trial today!
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