Recovery Beyond the Operating System
Conventional remote support software usually depends on several components running correctly on the endpoint, Bartley notes. If the OS fails, the agent used to establish the remote session may also become unavailable.
“Traditional remote management tools normally require an operating system to be present, a user session and a downloaded agent,” Bartley says. “When you get a ‘blue screen of death,’ all of those are unavailable to you.”
Intel vPro®’s Active Management Technology operates separately from the OS. If Intel vPro® was activated before the failure, and the device retains power and network access, administrators can reach it through Intel Endpoint Management Assistant or Intel vPro® Fleet Services.
Keyboard-video-mouse (KVM) capabilities let IT staff power on the endpoint, inspect its boot sequence and enter the BIOS to distinguish a storage problem from a corrupted OS image.
“We can see exactly what’s going on from boot-up and the splash screen, all the way to the point where it loads the operating system,” Bartley says.
READ MORE: Future proof your healthcare organization's PC fleet.
IT Has Secure Control at Scale
Remote access below the OS must be governed carefully when devices contain protected health information. Intel provides client and administrator control modes that determine whether a user must authorize a support session.
In client control mode, a code appears locally but remains hidden from the remote administrator. The person physically present must provide it before the administrator can control the endpoint.
Healthcare organizations commonly favor this approach because of sensitive data, Bartley says.
“There’s a code only the person sitting right in front of the device can see,” he says. “It doesn’t appear in the KVM session with the administrator; the client must provide that code before it allows the administrator to see everything within the device.”
A consistent, activated Intel vPro® fleet can extend the same recovery process to nursing stations, mobile clinicians and remote care teams far from an IT support location.
“Any of those devices can be remotely managed, regardless of whether the operating system is present,” Bartley says. “Think about remote patient care, where clinicians are traveling to the patient and may be 75 miles from any IT help desk.”
