In recent years, the way organizations operate has changed significantly. The adoption of hybrid work models, remote access, and the use of multiple device types have become part of everyday business operations. These shifts place increasing demands on IT teams to ensure that all endpoints remain secure, compliant with policies, and consistently managed across diverse working environments.

Without centralized endpoint management, devices such as employee laptops, office desktops, servers, and mobile devices can easily become security blind spots. Risks including malware, ransomware, delayed patching, and compliance violations are more difficult to control when visibility and control over endpoints are limited.

To address these challenges, Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) has emerged as a centralized and automated approach that enables organizations to monitor, manage, and secure all endpoints from a single console.

What Is Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) and Why It Matters in the Modern IT Ecosystem?

Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) is a platform that allows organizations to manage, secure, and monitor all endpoints through a single, centralized system. This approach combines traditional endpoint management with more advanced security and automation capabilities.

With UEM, organizations can enforce consistent policies, automate patching and system updates, and gain real-time visibility into the health and status of their devices.

As an evolution of conventional endpoint management practices, KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) 15.0 delivers a refined, enterprise-grade UEM solution designed to meet modern IT challenges. With cross-platform management capabilities, richer security context, and more efficient operational workflows, KACE SMA 15.0 enables organizations to implement a structured, measurable, and sustainable UEM strategy.

Getting to Know KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) 15.0: More Than Just UEM

KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) 15.0 represents a significant update to the Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) solution, designed to help organizations manage endpoints more efficiently, securely, and at scale. This latest version focuses on improving user experience, delivering more contextual data insights, and strengthening security controls to support increasingly complex IT environments.

Through a more intuitive web-based interface, KACE SMA 15.0 simplifies daily administrative tasks such as asset inventory, software distribution, patch management, and compliance monitoring. Enhancements to dashboards and reporting also provide IT teams with more relevant insights to support data-driven decision-making.

In addition, KACE SMA 15.0 supports cross-platform endpoint management, including Windows, Linux, UNIX, and Chromebook—through a single centralized console. This approach delivers comprehensive visibility across the entire IT environment while simplifying endpoint oversight, control, and reporting across diverse operational scenarios.

Dashboard Enhancements: More Informative and Customizable Data Visualization

KACE SMA 15.0 introduces significant dashboard enhancements focused on flexibility and ease of data visualization. Administrators can create multiple dashboards tailored to different user needs, arrange layouts intuitively, and leverage widgets sourced from reports or SQL queries.

The widgets support various chart types, including bar, line, gauge, score, progress, and geo charts. Dashboards can also be scheduled for email distribution as HTML snapshots, making them an effective tool for both operational monitoring and management reporting.

Risk-Based Patch Management: More Accurate Security Prioritization

One of the key improvements in KACE SMA 15.0 is the addition of risk context within the patch catalog. Each patch is now enriched with information such as CVSS scores, EPSS scores, known exploited vulnerabilities, and indicators of association with ransomware campaigns.

With data sourced from NIST, MITRE, and FIRST.org, administrators can prioritize patching based on actual risk levels. This approach improves the effectiveness of security strategies and enables organizations to mitigate threats more proactively.

Optimized Linux Patching and Enhanced Remote Support Integration

For Linux environments, KACE SMA 15.0 provides greater flexibility in patching workflows. Administrators can define whether systems receive only security patches or all available updates, aligning with the organization’s change of management policies.

Remote support capabilities through Splashtop Remote Desktop have also been enhanced with features such as:

  • Support for two concurrent remote sessions
  • Streamer version visibility in device details
  • Streamer log uploads to SMA for troubleshooting
  • Direct remote-control access from Service Desk tickets

These enhancements accelerate incident resolution and improve the overall effectiveness of remote support operations.

Use Cases: Supporting IT Ops and SecOps with KACE SMA 15.0

KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) 15.0 supports enterprise needs by providing comprehensive visibility into device health, patch status, asset inventory, and system compliance within a single centralized platform.

For IT Operations teams, KACE SMA 15.0 simplifies daily workflows through automated deployments, scheduled patching, and real-time endpoint monitoring. This enables IT teams to reduce manual workloads, minimize downtime, and ensure endpoints remain in optimal condition to support business activities.

From a SecOps perspective, KACE SMA 15.0 plays a critical role in reducing security risks by ensuring endpoint vulnerabilities are addressed in a timely manner. Risk-based patch management, configuration controls, and integration with incident response processes help security teams strengthen endpoint security posture and accelerate threat mitigation before it impacts business operations.

Strengthening Enterprise IT Strategy with KACE SMA 15.0 and Virtus

A comprehensive security approach relies not only on endpoint protection tools such as EDR or antivirus, but also on centralized and integrated device management. KACE SMA 15.0 enables end-to-end endpoint management—from deployment and patching to compliance enforcement.

Together with Virtus Technology Indonesia, organizations can implement KACE SMA 15.0 as part of a sustainable enterprise IT strategy, improving visibility, operational efficiency, and security across the entire IT environment.

Author: Ary Adianto
Content Writer, CTI Group