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JumpCloud® just released a new feature that allows IT administrators to utilize existing local user accounts and onboard their devices in the cloud directory platform.
With the JumpCloud Directory Platform, you can centrally manage authoritative identities and extend them to virtually all resources, including applications, cloud infrastructure, networks, and Mac®, Windows®, and Linux® devices. That way, users have one set of secure credentials to access the resources they need to get their jobs done.
With this new feature, you can take over existing local user accounts on Mac and Windows devices and extend secure credentials to them — no matter their naming convention. You can then manage those accounts and user permissions, as well as security configurations, from JumpCloud.
Frictionless Onboarding & Device Management
If you want to onboard existing devices in bulk — including when using JumpCloud for the first time or during a merger or acquisition — you can use the new Local User Account field.
How Does it Work?
All you need is the existing local user account name for each device. Then, simply download the JumpCloud agent onto each device (which you can do remotely and without physically interacting with the devices) and enter the existing local user account names in your JumpCloud Admin Portal.
Next, you can bind users to their devices using the Local User Account name, and they will continue to use the same name to log into their device. Then you can define a separate JumpCloud Username to get them up and running with their other resources. This field is what users enter to authenticate to most of their resources, so it’s important that the JumpCloud Username field follows a standard naming convention that’s simple, easy to remember, and scalable (i.e., first initial, last name).
By using the JumpCloud Username and new Local User Account fields in tandem, you can onboard users with a standard naming convention across your organization without renaming their device accounts, even when those accounts do not match the standard naming convention.
What Problem Does this Solve?
Previously, IT administrators needed to use the core JumpCloud Username field to take over existing local user accounts profiles on their devices, which is easier said than done. If the devices had non-standard names, admins either had to rename all the accounts during onboarding, create new blank accounts, or roll out a non-standard naming convention across their organization.
This feature removes those hurdles and gives you a new way to onboard users quickly and efficiently, and ensure that users have a standard and easy-to-remember username to access their work resources. It’s particularly useful during bulk onboarding scenarios such as mergers and acquisitions, when the organizations merging might have competing naming conventions. This gives admins a path to manage that transition without renaming hundreds or more devices at once.
Complete Device Management from the Cloud
JumpCloud gives you the tools you need to manage and configure Mac, Windows, and Linux devices, no matter where you or your end users are located.
Once devices are onboarded, you can:
- Deploy pre-built Configurations (Policies) in bulk, such as enforcing full-disk encryption or disabling mass storage device access
- Execute custom commands for further device configuration
- Remotely distribute and install software
- Monitor and report on device hardware, software, and configuration data and user authentications
- Require multi-factor authentication (MFA) at login
With these tools, you can ensure the security or your remote devices and demonstrate compliance. Join or watch our Nov. 17 webinar featuring platform experts with insights about how to enforce, prove, and pass audits.
Learn More
If you’re interested in testing this new feature and cross-platform device management, create a JumpCloud Free account and manage up to 10 users and 10 devices with full platform functionality for free. Use 10 days of free in-app chat support with JumpCloud support engineers to get up and running faster.
Otherwise, take a tour of JumpCloud’s cross-platform device management capabilities.
