Xeneta is an ocean and air freight rate benchmarking and market analytics platform transforming the shipping and logistics industry. Founded in 2012, Xeneta maintains a global workforce spread across 15 countries, with key operations in Oslo, Hamburg, and New York.
For decades, the ocean and air freight markets have been notoriously opaque, leaving businesses with limited visibility into competitive shipping prices. Xeneta brings transparency to this market by providing businesses with the same comparison tools, consumers have enjoyed for years. By collecting, cleansing, and validating freight rates from various buyers and sellers, it helps enterprises make smarter procurement decisions. However, while Xeneta was solving visibility issues for the market, its internal IT began facing a similar lack of visibility as the company scaled.
The Challenge: Scaling Global IT Across 15 Countries
In July 2015, Zakhar Shapurau joined Xeneta as a senior software developer. Now the VP of Research and Development, he has witnessed the company’s rapid expansion firsthand.
“When I joined, we were around 30 people; now we are more than 200,” Shapurau says. “As the organization grew, it became more challenging to make sure we had control over which tools people use in the cloud and how they use their laptops. Information security became increasingly important over time, too. We work with really big enterprise customers and they care a lot about making sure we’re protecting their data.“
Beyond security compliance, Xeneta also needed to streamline day-to-day IT management to keep pace with hiring.
“We were hiring a lot of people every month,” Shapurau continues. “You need to onboard them, you need to make sure they get access to the right tools and that their name and email is consistent everywhere. And when people leave, you also need to make sure that they don’t have access to the tools and data that they shouldn’t have access to.”
At the time, the company—operating a mixed environment of roughly 50% Mac and 50% PC—lacked a centralized directory service.
“We are heavy users of Microsoft 365,” he explains. “Everyone had a Microsoft account and a Slack account, but they were siloed. There wasn’t a centralized place where you could manage identities.”
The Solution: A Unified “All-in-One” IT Platform
When Xeneta began vetting solutions, their IT manager suggested JumpCloud based on positive past experiences. Xeneta initially deployed JumpCloud to address specific immediate needs but quickly expanded its use.
“We started with JumpCloud as a Single Sign-On (SSO) provider and identity management solution,” Shapurau says. “We wanted a single source of truth where we could define employees and the tools they should be able to access.”
Impressed by the platform’s capabilities, Xeneta adopted JumpCloud as their centralized IT backbone. Key advancements included:
- Automated Provisioning: Xeneta moved to a fully automated workflow by integrating JumpCloud with their internal HR systems. This allowed the team to configure access to every necessary tool from a single console, ensuring new hires were productive on day one.
- JumpCloud Go™: To balance security with user experience, Xeneta rolled out JumpCloud Go, a hardware-protected MFA solution. This provides a combination of device trust and biometric authentication, making logins both faster and more secure.
- Integrated MDM & Asset Management: The team utilizes JumpCloud’s remote commands and policies to enforce encryption and security configurations. Recently, they adopted the Asset Management feature to track laptops and mobile devices deployed across global offices.
- Consolidated Patching & Password Management: Instead of managing multiple vendors, Xeneta leverages JumpCloud’s Patch Management and Password Manager to keep their fleet up-to-date and secure.
The Result: Global Efficiency and “Day One” Readiness
By moving to a centralized platform, Xeneta transformed their IT operations from a source of friction into a driver of efficiency. The results included:
Maintaining a Lean IT Organization Leveraging JumpCloud’s Mobile Device Management (MDM) capabilities has enabled Xeneta to gain total control over their device fleet without increasing IT headcount. The team also relies heavily on the Remote Support feature to assist employees working in different global offices.
We’re trying to keep our IT organization lean, and this is where JumpCloud helps us a lot. I don’t need an additional tool for MDM, and I don’t need as many people in IT to handle onboarding and support.
—Zakhar Shapurau, VP of Research and Development, Xeneta
Automated Security via Commands and Policies Xeneta uses JumpCloud Commands and Policies to ensure security is built into every device by default:
- Zero-Touch Software Deployment: IT uses Commands to remotely execute scripts, such as automatically installing anti-virus software the moment a new laptop is registered.
- Standardized Device Hardening: Through Policies, Xeneta automatically configures operating systems to ensure hard drives are encrypted and screens lock after a specific period of inactivity. “That helps us cover a significant number of security aspects that are important for us,” notes Shapurau.
- Future-Proofing: The team is currently exploring Conditional Access Policies to ensure sensitive tools are only accessible from safe, verified networks.
Streamlined Resource Access with User Groups Managing access to complex environments like Amazon Web Services (AWS) has become significantly more efficient through JumpCloud Groups. By assigning software developers to specific User Groups, IT can provision access to the correct AWS SSO portals automatically. This ensures developers only access the tools required for their specific role, reducing the risk of over-provisioning.
The Final Verdict: Start Early to Scale Fast
Looking back on Xeneta’s journey, Zakhar’s advice to other IT leaders is simple: don’t wait.
It’s much easier to start MDM when you’re small than when you have to do it for 200-plus people from scratch. By implementing JumpCloud early, Xeneta was able to close 80% of their security gaps overnight, proving that you don’t need a massive team to achieve enterprise-grade security and efficiency.
—Zakhar Shapurau, VP of Research and Development, Xeneta
“Over the years,” Shapurau concludes, “JumpCloud has offered us tremendous value.”
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.
