Patch Management: BYOD Environment

[BFish]

Hello,

 

Our school became an Impero customer this past year and one of the requirements from the Admin was that they wanted the student laptops to be patched. Within the tech department we found a horrible trend that students do not update/patch their computers of important software/os changes and as such, many standardized testing software would misfire when we got to exam season. In almost every scenario it was because the computer was not maintained/patched properly. I've evaluated Impero for a few months and unfortunately, their patch management solutions just aren't what I expected. It's severely buggy, the reports are limited or do not work, it only supports Windows (was not told that when I purchased the addon...), and just feel it could be significantly better. I really do hope they spend some time making improvements to this utility; however, my impression of Impero currently is very mixed and I do not know if it will be a long term solution at the international school I represent. (Hoping they improve).

 

So I am looking for a new solution in terms of Windows/Mac support. Our school uses Manage Engine Desktop, which is amazing for all of our staffing machines; however, that requires that the laptops be on the domain and it gets very expensive to add 200 BYOD computers onto that license. As you are aware, BYOD laptops are not going to be a part of group policy/active directory. I'm trying to find something independent that will download updates to our server and then push out to any student byod laptop that has the client software installed when they are connected to our network.

 

Any advise is greatly appreciated?

[robyholmes]

Are these true BYOD devices (IE owned by students) or school own 1:1 device? My view on BYOD is yes have it, but don't touch devices other than to connected them to the WLAN. If the device is student owned its down to them to insure its up to date. If you install a patch which causes a BSOD or even worse data loss, who's responsible? Tricky ground if you start installing software on personal own equipment. We only force students to install the Smothwall HTTPS cert, after that they can use Office 365 for everything else.

[BFish]

It's a strange mix that I have not seen before in a school environment on whether it is a 1:1 or BYOD, but seems to be very popular and works pretty well. A parent can apply for up to a $1,000 USD credit once every 3 years on the tuition for their children's laptop (student must stay enrolled for 3 years from the date of the credit or it will be re billed before they leave). The laptop is owned by the student and the student is free to choose where to purchase from, although the school recommends several different devices from local vendors with great discounts. On the flip side, the student is required to install all school software and follow the BYOL policies. The laptops are not part of the domain. Therefore, it's not a true BYOD and it is not a true 1:1. Somewhat of a hybrid I guess.

 

Regardless, I've been set with a task to make sure that the kids keep their OS systems patched and up to date so I need to find one application that will work.

Edited November 19, 2016 by BFish

[mukz]

It's a strange mix that I have not seen before in a school environment on whether it is a 1:1 or BYOD, but seems to be very popular and works pretty well. A parent can apply for up to a $1,000 USD credit once every 3 years on the tuition for their children's laptop (student must stay enrolled for 3 years from the date of the credit or it will be re billed before they leave). The laptop is owned by the student and the student is free to choose where to purchase from, although the school recommends several different devices from local vendors with great discounts. On the flip side, the student is required to install all school software and follow the BYOL policies. The laptops are not part of the domain. Therefore, it's not a true BYOD and it is not a true 1:1. Somewhat of a hybrid I guess.

 

Regardless, I've been set with a task to make sure that the kids keep their OS systems patched and up to date so I need to find one application that will work.

 

I would get in touch with some of the universities over here in the UK. I remember Brunel Uni making me ensure i had a fully patched, antivirus updated, and certain features turned on/off before i could access the network. Cant for the life of me remember what it was called (9 years ago)

[Arthur]

So I am looking for a new solution in terms of Windows/Mac support.

Duo has a feature whereby you can block users access to your network if they are running old software and/or unpatched OSs.

 

https://duo.com/solutions/features/endpoint-visibility/self-remediation