{"id":69068,"date":"2022-09-23T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T15:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/?post_type=resource&p=69068"},"modified":"2023-07-18T13:31:40","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T17:31:40","slug":"akitabox-uses-jumpcloud","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/resources\/akitabox-uses-jumpcloud","title":{"rendered":"AkitaBox Uses JumpCloud to Centralize IT Management while Improving Security and Compliance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AkitaBox<\/a> is a software company that builds and implements applications designed to help organizations optimize facilities management. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, the company has roughly 50 employees, some of whom are scattered across the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managing a Cacophonic IT Environment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When Nathan Vergin, AkitaBox\u2019s director of IT, joined the company nearly four years ago, there wasn\u2019t a centralized internal IT infrastructure in place. All of the company\u2019s workstations \u2014 including Windows, Mac, and Linux machines \u2014 were using local user accounts. At the same time, AkitaBox was relying on a number of SaaS tools, including Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Zoom, LastPass, and the Atlassian suite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was nothing from an IT perspective pulling it all together or managing access to these systems,\u201d Vergin explains. \u201cPretty much everything was done ad hoc as the mindset was more to simply make it work than to make it work right from a centralized, managed IT perspective. My first project was to bring order to that chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bringing Order to Chaos with JumpCloud<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since its inception, AkitaBox has been a cloud-first organization without any on-prem infrastructure outside of a local network and a printer. To solve the problem, Vergin began searching for a cloud-based directory solution that would support all three major operating systems. The right solution would also support mobility and be flexible enough to adapt to evolving business needs and operational requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to find a solution from a company that was still young and agile enough that rapid innovation in the platform was still taking place \u2014 and that real-world user feedback and feature requests would actually help shape the product,\u201d Vergin continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After researching the market, Vergin found that \u201cJumpCloud was the only product that not only met those needs but went above and beyond them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Becoming the Backbone of the Business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After deploying JumpCloud, Vergin quickly established a centralized directory to manage all of AkitaBox\u2019s devices and user accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter that first huge win, I kept the momentum going by systematically implementing additional features and capabilities offered by the platform,\u201d Vergin explains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, JumpCloud has continued to play a pivotal role in helping to secure, streamline, and transform the business in a variety of ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs new features are introduced, we continue to implement them, bringing further consolidation and standardization to our business,\u201d Vergin says. \u201cTo this day, when I\u2019m going through our IT onboarding orientation with new employees, I describe JumpCloud as the backbone of not only our IT infrastructure but, by extension, the business itself.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that in mind, here are some of the additional benefits AkitaBox enjoys thanks to using JumpCloud to manage its IT environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happier, more productive employees<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

JumpCloud enables AkitaBox to centrally manage users and devices, bringing standardization and simplicity to the environment, which results in fewer issues overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen problems do arise, it\u2019s much faster and easier to resolve them,\u201d Vergin says. \u201cThis results in higher employee satisfaction and happiness, and less stress from an IT perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since happier employees are more productive, the entire AkitaBox team accomplishes more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Support for a remote workforce<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When the pandemic struck, AkitaBox seamlessly transitioned from an office-based, mobile environment to being 100% remote \u201cliterally overnight,\u201d Vergin explains. Subsequently, the company has now embraced a hybrid environment. While remote-first is the standard, the company maintains an office employees can use when they desire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cApproximately one-third of our company now works out of state, most of whom have never been to our physical office,\u201d Vergin says. With JumpCloud in place, supporting a hybrid workforce and ensuring devices work properly is a cinch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Single sign-on (SSO)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The AkitaBox team implemented JumpCloud\u2019s SSO solution<\/a>, which \u201cdramatically reduced the number of passwords our employees need to remember,\u201d Vergin says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, employees can easily move between applications swiftly and securely, and AkitaBox can rest comfortably knowing that only authorized users can access tools and systems. What\u2019s more, JumpCloud SSO has helped the company secure its own AkitaBox SaaS application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of our employees leverage that when accessing our platform internally,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increased IT productivity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to JumpCloud, AkitaBox has been able to significantly reduce the time it takes to build and rebuild computers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe went from a purely manual process spanning multiple hours to a largely automated affair that now takes less than an hour in most cases,\u201d Vergin explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, the company is in the middle of migrating to Macs as their primary operating system. Vergin is now leveraging Apple\u2019s Automated Device Enrollment and JumpCloud MDM<\/a> to provide a largely automated, light-touch build process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe hope for true zero-touch deployments in the future,\u201d Vergin says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Improved onboarding<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

AkitaBox has optimized its onboarding processes using JumpCloud. By leveraging orchestration workflows in Freshservice, HR can easily initiate the IT onboarding process through a simple form, which creates new accounts instantly. Not only does this create a repeatable process, it reduces onboarding overhead considerably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve built one of the best onboarding experiences,\u201d Vergin says. \u201cNew employees often tell us just how great it is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Security and compliance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

JumpCloud has enabled AkitaBox to significantly strengthen its approach to security and compliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of our systems adhere to reasonable password policies, enforce full disk encryption, and leverage SSO via JumpCloud to help us meet our security and compliance requirements,\u201d Vergin says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, AkitaBox uses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n