MiQ Digital is a programmatic media partner that builds bespoke programmatic advertising solutions designed to help marketers and agencies make the smartest decisions for every campaign. They are experts in programmatic trading backed by data science and advanced analytics. The company, which is headquartered in the United Kingdom and has 15 global offices across four continents, employs more than 1,200 people around the world.
Lacking a patch management solution
In September 2022, Apple released a patch for a new zero-day exploit that hackers were exploiting to execute malicious code and gain complete access to devices and data. The MiQ IT team — which manages 1,250 devices, 50% of which are Macs — learned this news at 9 p.m. local time and immediately began looking for a solution.
“Due to the severity of the exploit, it caught a lot of noise in the industry,” says Chaithra U J, a senior systems engineer in IT operations who’s tasked with delivering IT services that meet business needs, ensuring their availability, and implementing new technologies to improve efficiency and productivity.
At the time, MiQ didn’t have any automated patching mechanisms in place.
“We wanted to implement something as quickly as we could,” Chaithra continues. “At that point, the only option was to ask 1,100 employees to take care of it manually and then keep track of who followed through and who didn’t until the issue was fully resolved.”
Extending their relationship with JumpCloud
MiQ had an existing relationship with JumpCloud, the open directory platform that simplifies IT with unified device and identity management. The company had been using JumpCloud to centralize device management. As they began searching for a way to protect their Mac machines, they quickly realized JumpCloud also had a patch management solution.
At this point, the MiQ team reached out to Leo Zandi, team lead of EMEA expansion at JumpCloud, on WhatsApp, inquiring about the patch management product. Even though Leo was on holiday, he responded “within minutes,” Chaithra says.
“He said that we didn’t have to worry about any extra costs — which was very generous of JumpCloud,” she continues. “Before we knew it, technical engineers from JumpCloud hopped on a call to provide quick support and do a short demo. Within a day, we were able to launch the tool, which then notified every employee that they needed to click a button to apply the patch to their machines.”
Expanding a long-term partnership
As a result of this experience, MiQ renewed its contract and expanded its relationship with JumpCloud.
“When it was time to renew, I shared this information with my CTO and explained how JumpCloud helped us solve this problem,” Chaithra explains. “I think the story was key in our decision-making to renew and also to become one of the first PlatformPlus customers. I know it was a small, two-day incident, but our experience with JumpCloud — the level of engagement and trust that was shown — carried a lot of weight.”
Since the company is consistently looking to reinvest in its tech stack to support sustainability and fuel growth, MiQ’s IT team was able to convince management to upgrade its subscription with ease.
A smooth user experience
Thanks to JumpCloud, MiQ easily rolled out the patch to employees around the world who use Mac machines. “We sent them a message to let them know that they were going to be getting a zero-day patch,” Chaithra says. “It was a very smooth process.”
A lot of the MiQ team is client-facing and is often in the field giving presentations that require their laptops. While some employees immediately applied the patch, others who knew they were busy could opt to delay the patch until the next day or the following week.
“It gives users a lot of freedom,” she explains. “Each user received a branded pop-up message and was given the option to update now or update later; they recognized the message was coming from us and could be trusted. None of them had any issues, and none of them were bombarded with tons of notifications.”
A future-proof patch management strategy
With JumpCloud, MiQ has found a patch management solution that addresses their needs both today and in the future. “Patch management is an ongoing, high-priority task that deserves a clear, simple workflow,” Chaithra explains. “Thanks to JumpCloud, patch management is easier than ever.”
The MiQ team has implemented regional groups and policies to future-proof patch management. Now, when new users are onboarded, MiQ adds devices to appropriate groups, and the patch policies automatically are applied.
“We’ve automated patching and simplified compliance,” Chaithra says. “Patching is often a tedious process, especially across heterogeneous IT environments with hybrid users. The JumpCloud Open Directory platform gives us centralized control and visibility across all Windows and Mac machines and enables us to achieve patch management success with minimal impact on users.”
With JumpCloud powering even more critical processes, the IT team can accomplish more every day.
“JumpCloud helps us avoid a lot of manual effort and makes our lives easier,” she says. “In the event there are any issues, we’re automatically alerted, which makes it much easier to resolve problems in a timely manner.”
A collaborative partnership
When MiQ first started using JumpCloud for patch management, the feature delivered a number of customization options for Windows machines. For example, the IT team could set up a time to force restart devices and automatically apply updates; maybe they’d apply a major update overnight and a minor update at some point in the future.
This same functionality wasn’t available on Macs — but not for long.
“We submitted a request to JumpCloud; they responded and rolled out the same feature for Macs very quickly,” Chaithra says.
With a partner as responsive and committed to their success as JumpCloud, MiQ is confident they’ve found a company they can continue growing alongside for years to come.
Learn more about JumpCloud
JumpCloud changes the way IT administrators manage their organizations by providing a comprehensive and flexible cloud directory platform. From one pane of glass, manage user identities and resource access, secure Mac, Windows, and Linux devices, and get a full view of your environment.
Get started with JumpCloud today.