Challenge
Rapidly scaling a hybrid workforce while maintaining strict security standards
Like most of the world, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, Carahsoft’s team transitioned to a hybrid workplace overnight. Unsurprisingly, this created an urgent need to efficiently manage and secure its now distributed endpoints.
“Our biggest day-to-day challenge is maintaining our security posture while providing updates and services through the help desk and development team to our end users,” said Ryan Wagoner, Carahsoft’s Director of Technology.
At the time, Carahsoft used multiple solutions for screen sharing, patch deployment, and endpoint management. The disjointed set of tools made maintaining strict security standards and supporting a hybrid workforce an uphill battle. It also prevented the IT team’s ability to scale. Carahsoft’s previous patch management and remote control tools taxed the team’s time with cumbersome, multi-step processes such as the need to connect to a VPN and turn on file and print sharing.
As Carahsoft continued to secure more and more government contracts and grow at a breakneck speed, a new solution was clearly needed to scale and modernize its operations.
Solution: Why Carahsoft Chose NinjaOne
An all-in-one, easy-to-use endpoint management platform
“We were very impressed with NinjaOne,” said Carahsoft’s Chief Information Officer, Michael Moore.
“We’d initially set out to replace our screen sharing tool and discovered that NinjaOne not only checked that box but also offered built-in remote control and patch management.”
After scoping other tools, NinjaOne’s cloud-native, unified endpoint management platform became the clear choice. “We chose NinjaOne because it offers a combined set of solutions all wrapped up into one easy-to-use product. Now, our help desk and patch management teams can access the tools they need from a single, secure platform,” Wagoner said.
Added Moore, “NinjaOne helps us bolster our security profile by keeping our machines up to date on the latest patches. NinjaOne also enables us to push out security configurations easily and remediate endpoints more efficiently. It’s incredibly intuitive for our team to use.”
Carahsoft deployed the NinjaOne agent across thousands of endpoints in just one week, bringing endpoint management, patch management, and remote control into a single pane of glass.
Results & Outcomes
Value-driving innovation
“NinjaOne drives value for the help desk team by streamlining work so we can deliver a seamless experience to our colleagues,” said IT Operations Manager Cassidy Harrilal.
Because NinjaOne is a cloud-native solution, technicians can now connect to an end-user’s device as long as it’s connected to wifi. With NinjaOne Remote, technicians and end-users no longer have to download additional apps, turn on file sharing or administrative share, or connect through a VPN. It has also significantly reduced the need for any over-the-phone interaction. “NinjaOne has enabled our team to operate the computer remotely as though it is right there in front of us,” Moore said.
Harrilal estimates the streamlined workflow saves her team as much as 15 hours per week.
Another source of time savings is attributed to NinjaOne Patch Management’s ability to streamline patch deployments. “NinjaOne’s automatic patching capabilities have helped our patch management team stay on top of security vulnerabilities. They find it much easier to deploy patches and remediations at scale across the workforce,” said Moore.
“Our software library used to be saved on a separate server. With NinjaOne’s software library, we can just approve patches rather than take time to download the server, find the patches, create them, and deploy them ourselves,” said IT Specialist Connor Buckley. “It saves us an average of 10 minutes per deployment. Multiply that across hundreds of software applications and endless updates, and that time really stacks up.”
Additionally, NinjaOne’s monitoring and alerting gives the team the ability to detect when an endpoint needs attention, enabling much faster remediation. “The monitoring tools have given us unparalleled visibility into our endpoints,” Wagoner said. “It’s saved our team a lot of time when rolling out common security patches and updates.”
Leveraging NinjaOne to enhance security
As a top-ranked government contract holder, Carahsoft maintains compliance with the highest cybersecurity standards. It helps ensure that government data is protected and the certifications give government agencies and public education institutions the assurance that their sensitive data remains secure.
“We leverage NinjaOne to help us in our security posture and we’re able to successfully achieve complete adherence to the strictest public sector compliance frameworks,” said Moore.
“NinjaOne provides a number of role-based access controls and single sign-on capabilities that allow us to tie into our NIST 800-53 security requirements and deliver a secure platform,” added Wagoner.
Plus, thanks to NinjaOne’s automated patch management, the IT team can keep apps compliant and secure endpoints with the latest updates, remediations, and patches.
Conclusion
NinjaOne enables the team at Carahsoft to fully embrace a hybrid work environment while maintaining the high level of security required by its customers. With NinjaOne, they can meet rigorous compliance standards, improve operational efficiency, and effectively manage their workforce.