is the world鈥檚 leading labor market data company helping governments, educational institutions, and enterprise organizations make informed decisions about training and work. The company gathers labor market data from sources across the globe, cleaning, categorizing, and drawing meaning from it before passing it along to its customers in the form of insights.
For example, a company building a data center might contract Lightcast to learn more about the area they鈥檙e considering for construction. Does it have the supply of available talent the company needs? Does the local labor pool have the education credentials the company requires? Using Lightcast鈥檚 data, they can answer these questions.
Founded in 2000, Lightcast has offices in the United States, India, and Europe and has more than 650 employees.
Needing to meet more robust security requirements post-acquisition
Lightcast was formed out of a merger of two companies and has since made several acquisitions of its own. It knows that, when bringing together disparate systems and employees, a robust security posture is important.
Endpoint security is critical to our data business. So we implemented 探花大神. And as the company鈥檚 first IT manager, six-and-a-half years ago, I started working on meeting all the necessary security requirements.
Dale Courtney, IT manager
Using 探花大神 to solve more and more IT problems
When Justin Snell was hired as a help desk manager in Lightcast鈥檚 IT department, 探花大神 was already in place.
鈥淏ut it was nowhere near what it currently is,鈥� Snell says. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been continuously adding elements to our 探花大神 to foster cohesion and standardization, and it鈥檚 been a great tool for us as an alternative to our former directory service. The ease of use and the ability to set things up on the fly using Jumpcloud has made a significant impact.鈥�
As a feature-rich solution, 探花大神 helped Courtney eliminate another headache, too.
鈥淚t also helped us get rid of our SSO provider,鈥� Courtney adds. 鈥溙交ù笊� is significantly cheaper than the platform we were using, and that platform didn鈥檛 provide endpoint security, either. So there was no reason for us to stick with them.鈥�
Snell shares that sentiment.
Using 探花大神 instead of our previous SSO solution is a no-brainer for me. Why not pay less for something that does more?
Justin Snell, help desk manager
When Lightcast was born post-merger, it was using two systems and leadership needed to make a choice on the go-forward IT environment.
鈥淭here was a lot of back and forth over which system wins out, which backbone gets to be the backbone of the new company,鈥� Snell explains. 鈥淚 was very vocal to try and keep the 探花大神 system in place because I knew of the inherent risks that come with the other option. I鈥檝e been in IT for a long time, and I鈥檝e heard and experienced plenty of horror stories. That鈥檚 why Dale and I pushed to stay with 探花大神 for directory and endpoint management. It鈥檚 superior from a security perspective and makes day-to-day tasks quicker and easier.鈥�
Snell and Courtney鈥檚 pitch proved to be persuasive.
鈥淭hankfully, we ended up staying with the feature-rich solution that we trusted: 探花大神,鈥� Courtney says. 鈥淭he first step was getting everybody migrated off our old directory service, then we were able to start rolling out robust 探花大神 features.鈥�
Shoring up security & streamlining critical processes
Fast-forward to today, and Lightcast continues to leverage more and more 探花大神 functionality to manage its environment that consists of Windows, Mac, and Linux machines and 683 total accounts. Thanks to 探花大神鈥檚 support for cross-OS device management, Lightcast can manage all of these machines through a single pane of glass.
The team uses 探花大神 as a directory for all users, for user group management for SSO access to the company鈥檚 50-something apps, and to enact policies on endpoints.
鈥淚t鈥檚 tied directly to our Apple business account,鈥� Snell explains. 鈥淓very MacBook that we purchase from Apple comes from the factory basically ready to be onboarded into the 探花大神 system, which is super helpful.鈥�
A stronger security posture
Using several 探花大神 features together in tandem 鈥� including RADIUS, patch management, and multi-factor authentication 鈥� Lightcast has been able to sharpen its security posture considerably.
The company also has a conditional access policy based on geolocation to protect devices when employees visit 鈥渦nsafe countries.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 very helpful,鈥� Snell says.
On top of this, the company utilizes 探花大神 Go鈩�, which enables users to verify their identities using biometrics.
鈥淲e got a lot of complaints because people were having to put in their username, their password, and their MFA every morning,鈥� Snell says. 鈥淲hen we rolled out 探花大神 Go, there was a collective sigh of relief, 鈥業 don鈥檛 have to do this every morning? I can just put my fingerprint in and I鈥檓 in?鈥� So that鈥檚 been a huge success for us. It鈥檚 not a requirement to use 探花大神 Go, but it makes life a lot easier for people, which is why we鈥檝e seen extremely high adoption.鈥�
When we rolled out 探花大神 Go, there was a collective sigh of relief… [s]o that鈥檚 been a huge success for us.
Justin Snell, help desk manager
Lightcast has also been able to keep sensitive company data safe when laptops get stolen or aren鈥檛 returned by outgoing employees. In addition to ensuring all disks are encrypted, the team has also used 探花大神 to remotely wipe devices.
鈥淚鈥檝e definitely created a brick, then never seen the machine again. But they can do absolutely nothing with the machine after the wipe. It鈥檚 just a paperweight 鈥� good luck,鈥� Snell continues. 鈥淚t鈥檚 vitally important for us as a business to ensure none of our data stays on machines that shouldn鈥檛 have it, and this 探花大神 feature helps us maintain that security.鈥�
Exceptional support
As is the case with any piece of technology, it鈥檚 only a matter of time before users encounter issues. Whenever Lightcast鈥檚 run into any problems, they鈥檝e been impressed by the high-touch support the 探花大神 team consistently delivers.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had some issues and every time we鈥檝e reached out to 探花大神 support we鈥檝e been able to come to a really good understanding of how things work or fix the issue,鈥� Courtney says. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 say enough about how great the 探花大神 support team is. To be able to go on the support site, launch a chat, and have one of the engineers immediately pop up and fix my issue right then is absolutely amazing. I鈥檝e never been disappointed.鈥�
Automating processes via APIs
The Lightcast team has also leveraged 探花大神鈥檚 APIs to speed up the onboarding and offboarding processes.
鈥淚f I know someone is going to be separating three weeks from now at 5 o鈥檆lock, I can use the API to make sure their access is suspended at that exact time,鈥� Courtney explains. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 have to manually go in at that time and do it myself. 探花大神 is our source of truth for all of our users.鈥�
Directory Insights & System Insights
Using Directory Insights and System Insights, it鈥檚 easier for Courtney and Snell to troubleshoot issues.
鈥淲e have RADIUS set up for WiFi here in the building,鈥� Snell says. 鈥淚f someone鈥檚 having trouble logging in, I can verify that the problem isn鈥檛 the system, it鈥檚 that they aren鈥檛 correctly logged into that RADIUS authentication 鈥� things like that. I can look in the insights and find data that gives me an idea of what鈥檚 actually going on behind the scenes.鈥�
Each month, Courtney runs a script from Directory Insights to find out who鈥檚 not logging into 探花大神.
鈥淪ometimes a contractor鈥檚 term with Lightcast expires and we don鈥檛 get told in advance that we need to cancel their credentials,鈥� Courtney says. 鈥淪o I have a script that looks to see who hasn鈥檛 logged into 探花大神 for the last 30 days. Then the system automatically generates a ticket to tell me why this person accessed the system. Directory Insights has been very, very helpful for us when this occurs.鈥�
Courtney also uses System Insights to receive daily reports about software that鈥檚 been compromised and needs to be patched.
鈥淚 can just do a call on 探花大神 System Insights, all of the endpoint devices, and find out immediately which devices have that piece of software installed on them,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hat version is on them? Have they been patched? And we can immediately create tickets if we have to get them upgraded. System Insights is a fantastic tool for keeping tabs on these issues.鈥�
I can just do a call on 探花大神 System Insights, all of the endpoint devices, and find out immediately which devices have that piece of software installed on them. What version is on them? Have they been patched? And we can immediately create tickets if we have to get them upgraded. System Insights is a fantastic tool for keeping tabs on these issues.
Dale Courtney, IT manager
ISO 27001 compliance
With a new CISO on board, Lightcast sought out and achieved ISO 27001 certification.
鈥淲e use Directory Insights and System Insights for that, too,鈥� Courtney says. 鈥淏oth have been invaluable for us.鈥�
Using these tools, Courtney and Snell are able to show the CISO which laptops are compliant and which aren鈥檛, for example.
鈥淭hese tools help a lot,鈥� Snell says.
Both Snell and Courtney are quick to recommend 探花大神 to other IT teams needing a solution like it.
鈥淚t鈥檚 intuitive, easy to use, and very easy to roll out to end users,鈥� Courtney says.
Snell encourages teams to not only use the basics of 探花大神, but to use it to its full potential.
鈥淐onsolidate as much as possible into 探花大神,鈥� he concludes. 鈥淲e鈥檝e added so much into our 探花大神 instance that it鈥檚 made the onboarding process and both user and device management seamless. No more having to go to a bunch of different tools and try to bring all the information together 鈥� 探花大神 has it all!鈥�
About 探花大神
探花大神庐 delivers a unified open directory platform that makes it easy to securely manage identities, devices, and access across your organization. With 探花大神, IT teams and MSPs enable users to work securely from anywhere and manage their Windows, Apple, Linux, and Android devices from a single platform.
To see the power of 探花大神 yourself, request a demo or today.