Endpoint protection has always been a vibrant marketplace. From the early days of intense anti-virus competition to the security package wars between McAfee, Symantec, and Trend Micro, this has never been a dull area. And as the security threat horizon continually shifts in unforeseen directions, endpoint protection has stayed in the spotlight.

Endpoint protection now takes in a wide range of tools including anti-malware, spam filtering, endpoint detection and response (EDR), patch management, data loss protection, vulnerability management, mobile threat defense, ransomware protection, and others. Some vendors offer several of these tools inside their packages; others try to provide them all.

Here are four of the top trends in endpoint protection

Smartphone and BYOD Support

The latest endpoint protection tools and platforms now offer much better smartphone and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) support than they ever did. As a result, BYOD policies have gotten stronger, enabling more efficient and streamlined workflows between mobile and enterprise applications.

Some tools, for example, make it possible to deploy apps and accounts securely to personal devices, as well as give IT some management and enablement features for end users.

Endpoint Management Meets Patch Management

IT managers are so pushed for time and so limited in resources that they don’t have time to move from screen to screen and app to app as they address the different facets of endpoint management. They need automation and efficiency. That’s why it is now possible to find patch management and endpoint protection being combined in Syxsense and other tools.

This is good news for IT. Folding patch management into device management ultimately means better security as endpoint patching no longer remains an area of neglect.

Platforms Converge

This trend of endpoint management being combined with patch management is part of a larger convergence trend within the world of IT management and security. With threats becoming so virulent ransomware forever changing the cybersecurity landscape, and threats becoming increasingly blended, it is not enough to address one area such as endpoint anti-virus or patch management of devices.

Convergence is driving the market and is leading to all-encompassing packages that bring together patch management, vulnerability scanning, remediation of threats, general IT management, and Mobile Device Management (MDM).

Such platforms are particularly needed in light of recent vulnerabilities such as PrintNightmare. To remediate this threat, IT had to conduct a series of unifying actions: patch endpoints and then remediate two separate security misconfigurations before the issue was fully resolved. IT no longer has the time to fiddle with several systems to accomplish such tasks. They want to have one automated system that takes care of all of it.

Convergence to the Nth Degree

If anything, the tendency toward convergence is accelerating. Gartner is struggling to come up with enough acronyms to cover the amount of change and convergence taking place right now. There is Unified Endpoint Management (UEM), Unified Endpoint Security (UES), and some are now coining terms such as Unified Security and Endpoint Management (USEM), which brings together the best of UEM and UES in one package.

This new class of USEM tools offers management of computers and mobile devices through an employee-centric view of endpoint devices running Windows, Google, Android, Chrome OS, Apple macOS, iPadOS, and iOS. They enable IT to apply data protection, device configuration, and usage policies that simplify endpoint management. By consolidating disparate tools and streamlining processes across devices and operating systems, deeper integration and greater protection are achieved while reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of endpoint device management and security.

Syxsense Enterprise brings the best of UEM and UES together. It is the world’s first Unified Security and Endpoint Management (USEM) solution, delivering real-time vulnerability monitoring and instant remediation for every single endpoint in your environment, as well as IT management across all endpoints. This represents the future of threat prevention. Breaches can now be detected and remediated within one endpoint solution. It can scan for all vulnerabilities on any device, block communication from an infected device to the internet, isolate endpoints, and kill malicious processes before they spread. Syxsense Enterprise can automatically prioritize and deploy OS and third-party patches to all major operating systems, as well as Windows 10 feature updates. IT and security teams can use Syxsense Enterprise to collaborate on the detection and closing of attack vectors. It offers management, control, and security for any and all desktops, laptops, servers, virtual machines, and mobile devices.