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JumpCloud’s open directory platform is a complete identity, access, and device management solution for IT organizations. It is a cloud-based directory service that has open integration capabilities with other tools, as well as many built-in features that empower IT departments to get rid of some of the unwanted and disparate tools found within their IT stack, thus unifying and simplifying IT management.
Because of how robust and modern the JumpCloud Directory Platform is, organizations that use it have noticed significant improvements in productivity.
8 Ways JumpCloud Improves Productivity
Not only does JumpCloud increase productivity across the IT department, it also improves productivity among end users. Let’s start with how JumpCloud empowers IT to do more with their time at work each day.
JumpCloud’s open directory platform improves IT productivity through:
1. Centralized Identity, Access, and Device Management
The primary way in which JumpCloud empowers IT to be more productive with their resources is by centralizing identity, access, and device management into a single platform regardless of user and device location, the devices and operating systems used in your organization, or the types of resources employees use. Rather than IT bouncing between different tools to manage users on different devices, in different departments, or in different locations (in-office, hybrid, remote), every user, device, and resource can be managed centrally.
This unified IT management strategy saves IT time and money by lowering their total cost of ownership, because fewer tools are needed to manage the IT environment. Another important advantage of centralized IT management within JumpCloud’s open directory is that IT can use it to automate many of their manual tasks and workflows to save even more time.
2. Automation Capabilities
JumpCloud’s automation capabilities reduce the time IT has to spend on tedious, and often repetitive, manual tasks. Use the JumpCloud directory platform to automate onboarding, role change, and offboarding tasks across the entire identity lifecycle of each employee that joins, moves within, or leaves your organization. These automation capabilities save IT a significant amount of time and empower the IT team to be productive in other realms that need more hands-on expertise.
Within JumpCloud, this automation occurs primarily through user, device, and policy groups. These groups allow IT to make changes at scale and avoid dealing with identity lifecycle management tasks individually.
User groups: Access to relevant resources (apps, networks, LDAP resources, and more) is provisioned to the group itself, so when a new user is added, they automatically get access to all of those resources.
Device groups: Pool together your devices for policy enforcement and user account provisioning at scale. Connect the user groups that will get bulk access, and assign device policies all at once.
Policy groups: Add multiple policies to a policy group, and apply the policy group to a device group to better control and secure devices with just a few clicks.
Further, automate tasks related to passwords, such as password resets, which traditionally eat up a lot of IT’s time.
Upwards of half of all service desk calls are related to password resets, and each of these calls costs money — sometimes upwards of $70 for a single reset.
Specify password requirements and password change intervals in JumpCloud for automated password security, and easily keep track of old or weak passwords using JumpCloud Password Manager.
3. Robust Native Features
So, now that you know how JumpCloud increases IT productivity by centralizing your identity, access, and device management and empowering you to automate processes, you might be wondering what else JumpCloud has to offer.
JumpCloud is flexible and can either sit at the center of your IT infrastructure and connect to other identity sources you currently use to better centralize identity, access, and device management without being the sole source of truth, or it can be your sole directory and identity provider (IdP) that does act as your source of truth for identities, access, and devices in your organization. These options give you the flexibility to choose how you want your IT infrastructure to be set up.
Past that, JumpCloud has robust built-in features that eliminate the need for many point solutions, which makes IT management easier and more cost-effective. Some of those features include but are not limited to:
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- Conditional access
- Password Manager
- Cross-OS and mobile device management (MDM)
- Patch management
- Hosted Cloud LDAP
- Hosted Cloud RADIUS
- Directory Insights and System Insights
- API services
- Remote assist
- Open integrations with other tools
While this is not an exhaustive list of JumpCloud’s capabilities, it does cover some of the major ones. Because all of these are included in the platform, admins that use JumpCloud are able to be extremely productive with their time by primarily working within one tool.
4. Open Tool Integration Abilities
As mentioned above, one of JumpCloud’s native capabilities is an open integration with other tools. This means that you can easily integrate tools from other providers with JumpCloud for a more seamless experience — think: HRIS, other existing directories, productivity suites, and more. No matter your existing IT setup, placing JumpCloud at the center of it can improve productivity in the IT department by connecting with your other resources and providing IT with a better way to manage your users, their access, and the devices used in your organization.
Now, let’s dive into how JumpCloud empowers end users to be more productive.
JumpCloud’s open directory platform improves end user productivity via capabilities that allow for:
1. Simplified and Quick Onboarding
Many of us have joined a company at some point in our career where onboarding was a nightmare. Sometimes it takes hours or even days to get the right access to the resources you need, and getting an account set up for each is time-consuming, boring, and all around unenjoyable.
However, with JumpCloud, when new employees join your organization, they only need a single account and identity that’s then added into the appropriate groups for resource access to be provisioned immediately. What this means is that new users get access to their resources on day one of employment with far less friction than traditional methods. This empowers new users to get right into it and begin being productive right away.
2. Immediate Access Changes
The same story applies to existing employees in your organization changing roles where their access needs are affected. JumpCloud allows access changes to be dealt with easily and immediately on IT’s end, keeping end users productive as their role within the organization evolves. In some cases, the user simply needs to be added to a new group to achieve the appropriate access levels for their new role.
3. The Use of Fewer Credentials
JumpCloud’s open directory platform includes single sign-on (SSO) capabilities that make it so each user in your organization only has one secure identity to manage.
68% of employees switch between 10 apps every hour.
With fewer credentials to remember, it’s easier for users to access each of their resources and stay productive throughout the day. Less time is spent searching for the correct password and/or resetting it.
4. Simplifies the Login Process
Not only does SSO simplify the login process for end users, but layering on some of JumpCloud’s other native features such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) and conditional access, as well as using JumpCloud’s Password Manager ensures that any identities a user may create remain secure.
Using all of these features together simplifies the login process and allows users to spend more time getting work done rather than trying to gain access to their resources. MFA keeps the SSO login process safe and secure, while the conditional access policies you set up work on the backend to ensure only the correct identities and devices are being used to access your resources, and the identities your users create are stored in JumpCloud’s Password Manager for simplified but secure access to each user’s credentials. Password Manager can then autofill credentials across users’ resources, further empowering secure, but seamless access.
Self-Demo JumpCloud for Free
One of the best ways to get to know JumpCloud’s open directory platform and what it can do to improve productivity in your organization is to hop into it yourself and test out all of its features. You can do this for free by creating a JumpCloud account that’s free for up to 10 users and devices. Use your account to poke around in the JumpCloud Console and see if it feels right for your organization.
