How Fresno Unified School District Manages and Secures 100,000 Device Fleet with Absolute Secure Endpoint

Fresno USD’s sense of urgency to account for all devices grew significantly after rolling out a sweeping 1:1 program, which included more than 75,000 devices for students, teachers, and administrators. When the pandemic hit, the district - like so many across the nation - needed to rapidly equip every student for remote learning. And with an additional 25,000 laptops suddenly in the field, remote device management and data security took on even greater importance. 

Addressing Growing Pains 

Fresno USD originally turned to Absolute Security to track and trace their Windows mobile devices. With Absolute Secure Endpoint uniquely embedded within the firmware of all their laptops, IT could see where they were at any time and remotely lock them if they fell into the wrong hands. But, when the district-owned fleet of devices increased to more than 20,000, it became challenging for IT to maintain an accurate device inventory.

Activating Absolute’s unique, firmware-embedded connection allowed their IT team to track every laptop’s movement at any time, and remotely lock devices if they fell into the wrong hands.

Visibility and Control of 100,000 Device Fleet 

To monitor, manage, remediate risk, and gather precise insights from across their fleet of more than 100,000 devices, Fresno Unified relies on Absolute Secure Endpoint solutions. Using patented Persistence® technology embedded in the firmware of 600+ million devices, Absolute provides a secure, always-on connection between the endpoint and the Absolute Platform. Absolute Secure Endpoint forges an always-on digital tether to every endpoint.

Because the Absolute Persistence technology is factory-embedded in a device’s firmware, it is highly resilient and can survive any attempt to remove or disable it—and it extends this self-healing capability to critical controls such as VPN, anti-virus, and anti-malware applications.

Reducing Loss and Remediating Threats

With the power of the Absolute Secure Endpoint solutions, Fresno USD has saved valuable resources, fueled successful remote learning programs, and greatly reduced risk. Absolute provides their go-to report for inventorying, and the ability to remotely track devices—even when they’re off the school network - has helped with effectively managing their budget.

Of course, ensuring the safety and well-being of their 74,000 students is one of the district’s highest priorities. With Absolute Secure Endpoint providing geolocation details for every device, school officials have helped parents to locate runaway students using location data from school-issued laptops. Lost or stolen devices have also been recovered from various other locations, thanks to the automated message that pops up explaining to the device’s real owner when a machine is rebooted.