Lightcast is the world’s leading labor market data company helping governments, educational institutions, and enterprise organizations make informed decisions about training and work. The company gathers labor market data from sources across the globe, cleaning, categorizing, and drawing meaning from it before passing it along to its customers in the form of insights.
For example, a company building a data center might contract Lightcast to learn more about the area they’re considering for construction. Does it have the supply of available talent the company needs? Does the local labor pool have the education credentials the company requires? Using Lightcast’s data, they can answer these questions.
Founded in 2000, Lightcast has offices in the United States, India, and Europe and has more than 650 employees.
Needing to meet more robust security requirements post-acquisition
Lightcast was formed out of a merger of two companies and has since made several acquisitions of its own. It knows that, when bringing together disparate systems and employees, a robust security posture is important.
Endpoint security is critical to our data business. So we implemented JumpCloud. And as the company’s first IT manager, six-and-a-half years ago, I started working on meeting all the necessary security requirements.
Dale Courtney, IT manager
Using JumpCloud to solve more and more IT problems
When Justin Snell was hired as a help desk manager in Lightcast’s IT department, JumpCloud was already in place.
“But it was nowhere near what it currently is,” Snell says. “We’ve been continuously adding elements to our JumpCloud to foster cohesion and standardization, and it’s been a great tool for us as an alternative to our former directory service. The ease of use and the ability to set things up on the fly using Jumpcloud has made a significant impact.”
As a feature-rich solution, JumpCloud helped Courtney eliminate another headache, too.
“It also helped us get rid of our SSO provider,” Courtney adds. “JumpCloud is significantly cheaper than the platform we were using, and that platform didn’t provide endpoint security, either. So there was no reason for us to stick with them.”
Snell shares that sentiment.
Using JumpCloud instead of our previous SSO solution is a no-brainer for me. Why not pay less for something that does more?
Justin Snell, help desk manager
When Lightcast was born post-merger, it was using two systems and leadership needed to make a choice on the go-forward IT environment.
“There was a lot of back and forth over which system wins out, which backbone gets to be the backbone of the new company,” Snell explains. “I was very vocal to try and keep the JumpCloud system in place because I knew of the inherent risks that come with the other option. I’ve been in IT for a long time, and I’ve heard and experienced plenty of horror stories. That’s why Dale and I pushed to stay with JumpCloud for directory and endpoint management. It’s superior from a security perspective and makes day-to-day tasks quicker and easier.”
Snell and Courtney’s pitch proved to be persuasive.
“Thankfully, we ended up staying with the feature-rich solution that we trusted: JumpCloud,” Courtney says. “The first step was getting everybody migrated off our old directory service, then we were able to start rolling out robust JumpCloud features.”
Shoring up security & streamlining critical processes
Fast-forward to today, and Lightcast continues to leverage more and more JumpCloud functionality to manage its environment that consists of Windows, Mac, and Linux machines and 683 total accounts. Thanks to JumpCloud’s support for cross-OS device management, Lightcast can manage all of these machines through a single pane of glass.
The team uses JumpCloud as a directory for all users, for user group management for SSO access to the company’s 50-something apps, and to enact policies on endpoints.
“It’s tied directly to our Apple business account,” Snell explains. “Every MacBook that we purchase from Apple comes from the factory basically ready to be onboarded into the JumpCloud system, which is super helpful.”
A stronger security posture
Using several JumpCloud features together in tandem — including RADIUS, patch management, and multi-factor authentication — Lightcast has been able to sharpen its security posture considerably.
The company also has a conditional access policy based on geolocation to protect devices when employees visit “unsafe countries.”
“It’s very helpful,” Snell says.
On top of this, the company utilizes JumpCloud Go™, which enables users to verify their identities using biometrics.
“We got a lot of complaints because people were having to put in their username, their password, and their MFA every morning,” Snell says. “When we rolled out JumpCloud Go, there was a collective sigh of relief, ‘I don’t have to do this every morning? I can just put my fingerprint in and I’m in?’ So that’s been a huge success for us. It’s not a requirement to use JumpCloud Go, but it makes life a lot easier for people, which is why we’ve seen extremely high adoption.”
When we rolled out JumpCloud Go, there was a collective sigh of relief… [s]o that’s been a huge success for us.
Justin Snell, help desk manager
Lightcast has also been able to keep sensitive company data safe when laptops get stolen or aren’t returned by outgoing employees. In addition to ensuring all disks are encrypted, the team has also used JumpCloud to remotely wipe devices.
“I’ve definitely created a brick, then never seen the machine again. But they can do absolutely nothing with the machine after the wipe. It’s just a paperweight — good luck,” Snell continues. “It’s vitally important for us as a business to ensure none of our data stays on machines that shouldn’t have it, and this JumpCloud feature helps us maintain that security.”
Exceptional support
As is the case with any piece of technology, it’s only a matter of time before users encounter issues. Whenever Lightcast’s run into any problems, they’ve been impressed by the high-touch support the JumpCloud team consistently delivers.
“We’ve had some issues and every time we’ve reached out to JumpCloud support we’ve been able to come to a really good understanding of how things work or fix the issue,” Courtney says. “I can’t say enough about how great the JumpCloud support team is. To be able to go on the support site, launch a chat, and have one of the engineers immediately pop up and fix my issue right then is absolutely amazing. I’ve never been disappointed.”
Automating processes via APIs
The Lightcast team has also leveraged JumpCloud’s APIs to speed up the onboarding and offboarding processes.
“If I know someone is going to be separating three weeks from now at 5 o’clock, I can use the API to make sure their access is suspended at that exact time,” Courtney explains. “I don’t have to manually go in at that time and do it myself. JumpCloud is our source of truth for all of our users.”
Directory Insights & System Insights
Using Directory Insights and System Insights, it’s easier for Courtney and Snell to troubleshoot issues.
“We have RADIUS set up for WiFi here in the building,” Snell says. “If someone’s having trouble logging in, I can verify that the problem isn’t the system, it’s that they aren’t correctly logged into that RADIUS authentication — things like that. I can look in the insights and find data that gives me an idea of what’s actually going on behind the scenes.”
Each month, Courtney runs a script from Directory Insights to find out who’s not logging into JumpCloud.
“Sometimes a contractor’s term with Lightcast expires and we don’t get told in advance that we need to cancel their credentials,” Courtney says. “So I have a script that looks to see who hasn’t logged into JumpCloud for the last 30 days. Then the system automatically generates a ticket to tell me why this person accessed the system. Directory Insights has been very, very helpful for us when this occurs.”
Courtney also uses System Insights to receive daily reports about software that’s been compromised and needs to be patched.
“I can just do a call on JumpCloud System Insights, all of the endpoint devices, and find out immediately which devices have that piece of software installed on them,” he says. “What version is on them? Have they been patched? And we can immediately create tickets if we have to get them upgraded. System Insights is a fantastic tool for keeping tabs on these issues.”
I can just do a call on JumpCloud System Insights, all of the endpoint devices, and find out immediately which devices have that piece of software installed on them. What version is on them? Have they been patched? And we can immediately create tickets if we have to get them upgraded. System Insights is a fantastic tool for keeping tabs on these issues.
Dale Courtney, IT manager
ISO 27001 compliance
With a new CISO on board, Lightcast sought out and achieved ISO 27001 certification.
“We use Directory Insights and System Insights for that, too,” Courtney says. “Both have been invaluable for us.”
Using these tools, Courtney and Snell are able to show the CISO which laptops are compliant and which aren’t, for example.
“These tools help a lot,” Snell says.
Both Snell and Courtney are quick to recommend JumpCloud to other IT teams needing a solution like it.
“It’s intuitive, easy to use, and very easy to roll out to end users,” Courtney says.
Snell encourages teams to not only use the basics of JumpCloud, but to use it to its full potential.
“Consolidate as much as possible into JumpCloud,” he concludes. “We’ve added so much into our JumpCloud instance that it’s made the onboarding process and both user and device management seamless. No more having to go to a bunch of different tools and try to bring all the information together — JumpCloud has it all!”
About JumpCloud
JumpCloud® delivers a unified open directory platform that makes it easy to securely manage identities, devices, and access across your organization. With JumpCloud, IT teams and MSPs enable users to work securely from anywhere and manage their Windows, Apple, Linux, and Android devices from a single platform.
To see the power of JumpCloud yourself, request a demo or start a 30-day trial today.
