Utilizing vScope while working remotely

In these last few week businesses all over the world have had to readjust their processes, workflows and routines. With more and more of our users working remotely, we noticed some new and interesting questions in our support channels.
So instead of writing a sensational post about how much we care about our customers, we thought it would be more beneficial for our users to see how they can use vScope to solve the challenges that working remotely presents.

1. Controlling VPN Access

If your organization is working remotely there is a very high chance that you are using VPNs. Most organizations often control access to their VPNs via groups in the Active Directory. However, most employees are not that well versed in VPNs and how they work. They simply want to access the information they need without any hassle, and when they can’t they immediately contact the help desk.

One of our customers noticed that more than often, the problem was simply a faulty group assignment. To quickly resolve these issues and to alleviate the number of tickets at their help desk, the customer created a table that lists all groups that provides access to a VPN. They also included a column for the members of each group.

Now each time the help desk gets a ticket about someone not being able to connect to the VPN, they first use the aforementioned table to see if the user can be found. If they are not found in the table, they can quickly resolve the issue. Freeing up the time to investigating more complex issues.

2. Microsoft Teams Licensing

Not only are organizations forced to use VPNs in times like these, but we are also seeing an surge of questions in regards to video conferencing services such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

Some users have been utilizing vScope to find all license plans that give access to Microsoft Teams. Why do you ask? Well with all the different license plans that Microsoft has to offer, its hard to actually remember what products each plan gives access to. By quickly finding all eligible license plans you can maybe find a couple of more licenses to use before you need to purchase new ones.

However, most customers have been using this information in conjunction with data gathered from the Active Directory. Combining the two datasources in vScope lets you find inactive and disabled users that still have a license assigned to them. That’s why several users have been decluttering their Active Directory to free up some licenses instead of purchasing new ones.

3. Overview your virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)

We’ve also encountered customers that have deployed or improved upon their virtual desktop infrastructure with the help of vScope.

One customer has utilized vScope to document their newly setup virtual desktop environment. This way they do not need to log in to each desktop to check the configurations and by listing the desktops in a table, misconfigurations can quickly be found.

The customer also utilized vScope to see which users were actually logging into these devices and if they were actually being used. This information was helpful for the user as they had never previously utilized virtual desktops and therefore had a hard time determining the number of virtual desktops needed.

4. Finding blacklisted applications

With employees working from home, there’s an increased risk of individuals installing blacklisted software on company devices, both knowingly and unknowingly.

That’s why some of our users have increased their usage of application-related tables & reports to quickly find devices with blacklisted software.

You can also utilize the application list to find outdated versions of different applications to ensure that one is running a version with known vulnerabilities.

Summary

These are just a few ways our customers are using vScope to maintain productivity and efficiency while working remote. But as you probably have guessed the the options and possibilities are endless. Are you unsure whether you can do something in vScope? Don’t hesitate to contact support@infrasightlabs.com and we’ll do our best to help!

If you still have some time left on your hands after reading this post then I suggest you take a look into setting up HTTPS for your vScope web server.