Action1 > Case Studies > carwow Enhances IT Security for Remote Endpoints with Action1

carwow Enhances IT Security for Remote Endpoints with Action1

Technology Category

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms
Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Device Management Platforms

Applicable Industries

Equipment & Machinery
National Security & Defense

Applicable Functions

Procurement

Use Cases

Tamper Detection
Time Sensitive Networking

Services

Cybersecurity Services
System Integration

About The Customer

carwow is an online marketplace that facilitates the buying and selling of new and used cars. The company operates a reverse marketplace model, eliminating the need for customers to negotiate with dealers when buying or selling cars. With headquarters in London, UK, carwow has a global workforce of over 400 employees. The company operates a hybrid work model, meaning many of its employees work remotely most or all of the time. This model presents unique IT security challenges, particularly in ensuring all devices comply with Microsoft’s security baseline and preventing users from having local administrator rights on their devices.

The Challenge

carwow, an online marketplace for buying and selling cars, operates a hybrid work model with over 400 employees worldwide. This model means that many of its endpoints are remote most or all of the time. The company's IT team faced the challenge of ensuring all devices complied with Microsoft’s security baseline and promptly remediated any settings that deviated from the recommended configuration. A key concern was preventing users from having local administrator rights on their devices, a common method attackers use to gain control of machines and deploy malware. Their existing mobile device management (MDM) system, Intune, could not automatically enforce these crucial security policy settings for remote devices. Instead, the IT team had to manually perform all necessary fixes, a process that was both time-consuming and labor-intensive. The search for a cost-effective tool that could provide visibility into endpoint configurations and streamline policy deviation remediation led them to Action1.

The Solution

After reviewing several tools, carwow's Lead IT Engineer, Luke Wolfenden, chose Action1. This tool perfectly addressed the company's needs and complemented their existing MDM tool by providing what it lacked. Action1 is a cloud-native platform that offers customizable reporting and enables easy pushing of scripts to remote endpoints. It also provides unexpected features like policy-based deployment of software and updates. The platform's 100-endpoints-for-free-offering allowed carwow to deploy the platform on a representative number of devices to ensure its effectiveness. Action1's custom reports provided actionable information about the state of their endpoints, including their adherence to security baselines. The platform alerts when a device is out of policy and automatically remediates the problem, eliminating the need for manual checks and fixes.

Operational Impact

In addition to providing reporting and automated remediation, Action1 has helped carwow manage endpoints in ways that their MDM system does not cover. They can now automatically deploy printers, remove specific applications, and deploy Windows feature updates. For instance, they used Action1 to uninstall their old MDM client from some of their older devices. The platform was also instrumental when they had to deploy Windows 11 on a certain group of devices. The ease of performing these tasks has been a significant operational benefit for the company.

Quantitative Benefit

Action1 reduced the time to align the environment with the critical security baseline from 6 hours a week to just 20 minutes a week, an 18-fold improvement.
The platform's 100-endpoints-for-free-offering allowed carwow to test the platform on a representative number of devices before full deployment.