Bigfix Lifecycle - Reduce Cost, Risk of Managing Endpoints
                     BigFix Lifecycle
Reduce cost, risk and complexity of 
managing endpoints using a single 
agent
The convergence of IT functions that has occurred in recent years— operations groups, for example, taking ever-greater responsibil-
ity for security—requires a corresponding convergence of management tools. Without unified, simplified and streamlined capabili-
ties, management tasks in the distributed enterprise run the risk of becoming overwhelming in size and complexity.
BigFix® Lifecycle delivers the comprehensive and powerful approach that IT management needs today. Its’ single intelligent agent 
technology provides real-time visibility into the state of endpoints and gives administrators advanced functionality for managing 
endpoints (laptops, desktops, servers). Now, administrators have a single tool for discovering, managing and securing ALL 
endpoints!  
BigFix Lifecycle provides an accurate and comprehensive “single source of truth” for managing hundreds to hundreds of thousands 
of endpoints from a single server. Deployed in as little as a few hours, this industry-leading solution can shorten update cycles, 
speed endpoint provisioning, improve patch success rates, enhance IT and help-desk productivity, help mitigate cybersecurity risk, 
and boost end-user productivity.
Highlights
• Manage hundreds of thousands of endpoints regardless of location, connection type or status
• Combines device discovery, patch management, operating system deployment, software distribution, remote control, server
automation, modern client management as well as advanced analytics and reporting
• Reduce management and infrastructure complexity, reduce total costs, boost productivity and deliver a high Return on Invest-
ment (ROI)
• Fixlet® messages, delivered regularly by the BigFix development team, wrap the update with policy information which is read by
an intelligent agent so only the relevant updates for that specific endpoint are downloaded and installed
• Using BigFix Insights for Vulnerability Remediation, which is included with BigFix Lifecycle, organizations can speed vulnerability
remediation by automating the manual correlation of vulnerability data from external sources with available remediation Fixlets.
Consolidating and simplifying Hardware-independent imaging in conjunction with advanced 
driver management capabilities takes the guesswork out of 
management enterprise-wide OS deployment by injecting appropriate device drivers as 
needed. BigFix ensures no loss of management, as agent 
It’s no surprise that the number of devices IT Teams need to history is maintained across OS migrations and specialized 
manage are on the rise and maintaining visibility and control of registration mechanisms automatically reassign unique 
those devices is critical to corporate security. Maintaining service identities to duplicate agents resulting from image clones. 
levels and, enforcing security, while not inhibiting employee After deployment of the new operating system is complete, 
productivity is a very tricky balance. The quantity and variety of the solution agent becomes active to install required software, 
management tools continues to increase, while IT budgets and enforce security configuration policies and apply critical 
staff levels remain stagnant or are reduced. The solution to all of patches.
this is using the right tool that has the depth and breadth that 
modern teams need. Patch management
BigFix Lifecycle can help organizations meet these challenges by Patch management includes comprehensive capabilities for 
simplifying and consolidating key management services delivering patches for Windows, UNIX, Linux and, macOS and 
enterprise-wide by: for third-party applications, including Adobe, Mozilla, Apple, 
• Delivering unified real-time visibility into all endpoints, and Java, to distributed endpoints—regardless of their 
regardless of type, OS, connection or location. location, connection type or status. 
• Scaling to hundreds of thousands of endpoints from a
single management server
• Providing a lightweight, flexible infrastructure that
ensures connectivity with endpoints regardless of
location, connection type or status
• Speeding bare-metal OS provisioning and migrations
• Reducing complexity by managing heterogeneous
platforms, including Microsoft Windows, UNIX, Linux and
macOS, from a single console
• Giving users control and curbing the volume of help-desk A single management server can support up to 250,000 
calls through administrator-approved, user self-provision- endpoints, shortening patch times with no loss of endpoint 
ing capabilities functionality, even over low-bandwidth or globally distributed 
networks. 
• Providing remote desktop control of servers and worksta-
tions, streamlining help-desk calls and speeding problem Real-time reporting provides information on which patches 
resolution were deployed, when they were deployed, and who deployed 
them, as well as automatic confirmation that patches were 
• Ensuring security and compliance of all endpoints, applied, for a complete closed-loop solution to the patching 
whether on or off the enterprise network process. BigFix can significantly reduce patch cycles from 
days and weeks to hours or minutes while achieving greater 
• Managing Windows 10 and macOS endpoints alongside than 98% first-pass patch success rates.
traditional endpoints using a single, integrated solution
Software Distribution
For organizations that face distribution challenges brought on 
Delivering functions that address by high-latency and low-bandwidth networks, poor visibility 
into distributed assets and the need to support roaming 
the full systems lifecycle endpoints, BigFix Lifecycle provides policy-based installation, 
closed-loop verification and the ability to manage software 
BigFix Lifecycle includes the following key functions without distribution across Windows, UNIX, Linux and macOS 
adding additional infrastructure or implementation costs: platforms from a single, unified point of control. 
Device discovery Software Distribution delivers high first-pass success rates with minimal impact on network performance. Existing 
Device discovery is no longer a “bean counting” snapshot software repositories are migrated easily through automated 
exercise. BigFix Lifecycle creates dynamic situational awareness content creation capabilities while specialized plug-in tools 
about changing conditions in the infrastructure. The ability to run inspect packages for intelligent targeting and deployment of 
distributed scans on the entire network frequently delivers software. A self-service portal provides administrators the 
pervasive visibility and control to help ensure that organizations ability to approve applications allowing users to install at their 
quickly identify all IP-addressable devices—including network leisure which improves staff productivity and lowers the 
devices and peripherals such as printers, scanners, routers and impact on users.
switches in addition to computer endpoints—with minimal 
network impact. Device discovery helps maintain visibility into all Remote desktop control
enterprise endpoints, including laptop and notebook computers 
that are roaming beyond the enterprise network. The remote desktop control provides support and control for 
Windows, Linux and macOS desktops, laptops and servers a 
Operating system deployment location, on or off of the corporate network. The desktop 
control features enable management and troubleshooting of 
Centralized control and automation simplify bare-metal systems that can streamline IT functions and reduce the 
deployment of Windows and Linux images to new workstations, workload on an organization’s help desk, even across 
laptops and servers throughout the network, as well as OS Internet-brokered connections. 
migration and refresh for existing endpoints. At the same time, 
it reduces management costs, minimizes impact on end users, Remote diagnostics capabilities, a chat function and file 
ensures compliance with organizational OS standards and transfer capability provide powerful tools to administrators 
reduces risks associated with noncompliant or insecure and help desk staff resolving server and workstations issues. 
Power management visibility and control of all assets. BigFix Lifecycle enables users 
to easily deploy and manage servers across heterogeneous 
Power management helps organizations achieve cost savings by platforms using either prebuilt or custom automation. The 
reducing electricity usage while avoiding disruptions in systems automated task sequencing capability can be used for critical 
management. The capability enables IT organizations to apply tasks like server builds (for example, deploying operating 
conservation policies across the organization while providing systems, configuring settings, deploying software, changing the 
the granularity to apply power management policies to a single host name and restarting computer) or it can be used for other 
computer or group of computers. This feature supports common system administrator tasks that need to be carefully 
organizational green initiatives with a comprehensive yet sequenced like automated patching for clustered servers.
simplified capability to manage power options with minimal 
impact on already-stretched budgets and staff.
Endpoint inspection
BigFix query provides a real-time status of all your endpoints, 
enabling accurate identification and inspection of vulnerable 
devices through a user-friendly web interface. You can interro-
gate endpoints and get precise answers back in seconds, 
indicating which policies are enforced and which applications and 
services are installed. 
Analytics and reporting
Organizations need to quickly report their organization’s threat 
posture to executives and perform advanced analysis to drive 
With real-time tracking, system administrators know exactly next steps. BigFix Insights provides a powerful endpoint and 
how much time an endpoint spends in idle, active, standby and integration platform and database for deeper data insights across 
off states, resulting in an accurate view of current power usage traditional on-premise, cloud, and MDM API managed endpoints. 
and cost. Green impact reports can help promote conservation BigFix Insights leverages Business Intelligence (BI) reporting tools 
initiatives, and the graphical reporting data on aggregate power to provide out-of-the-box and customizable reports. BigFix 
usage. Data can be exported to Microsoft Excel for further Insights is included with BigFix Lifecycle.
analysis.
Vulnerability remediation
The ability to wake systems (Wake-On-LAN) is a critical 
capability provided by power management in BigFix Lifecycle. Currently it can take days or weeks for IT Operations to remediate 
The ability to ‘wake’ systems up and perform a management vulnerabilities after a vulnerability scan, exposing organizations to 
action dramatically improves first pass success rate and at the potential attacks. BigFix Insights for Vulnerability Remediation 
same time reduces user impact since actions can be performed automates the typically manual correlation of vulnerability data 
‘off-hours’. It improves security posture since non active from Tenable or Qualys with remediation Fixlets available within 
machines are no longer vulnerable to hackers. BigFix. Using BigFix Insights for Vulnerability Remediation, 
organizations can speed remediation of endpoint vulnerabilities 
Server automation across the enterprise by compressing the time from vulnerability 
assessment to remediation; dramatically reduce errors from 
Server automation helps manage physical, virtual and remote spreadsheet-based, manual processes; and improve an 
servers while lowering operational costs with real-time, enterprise’s security posture by reducing the attack surface 
policy-based management. Seamless physical and virtual server across the fleet of endpoints. BigFix Insights for Vulnerability 
management from the same, single interface greatly improves Remediation is included with BigFix Lifecycle.
BigFix Unifed Endpoint Management
Prerequisites The BigFix Family 
The prerequisites for BigFix Lifecycle are available online at BigFix is the only endpoint management platform that enables IT 
help.hcltechsw.com/bigfix/landing/index.html. operations and security teams to fully automate the discovery, 
management and remediation of vulnerabilities and assets – for 
every endpoint, whether its on-prem, virtual, cloud or mobile– 
regardless of operating system, location or connectivity.
Why BigFix?
BigFix empowers businesses and organizations to find more, fix 
The HCL BigFix endpoint management platform helps IT more and do more, faster.
Operations with Continuous Compliance and Intelligent 
Automation to manage over 100 operating system versions, The BigFix family includes:
enabling streamlined management processes, tool consolida-
tion and operational cost reduction. •   BigFix Lifecycle to automate endpoint lifecycle management 
by enabling software and operating system deployment, 
Unlike complex tools that cover a limited portion of endpoints, continuous compliance, self-service software catalog, power 
the unified architecture of BigFix can effectively manage and management, server automation, and vulnerability remedia-
ensure compliance of all servers, desktops, and mobile devices tion
whether they are in the office, at home or in the cloud. BigFix 
can find and fix endpoints faster than any other solution – •   BigFix Compliance to continuously monitor and enforce 
delivering greater than 98% first-pass patch success rates. endpoint security configurations and ensure compliance with 
regulatory or organizational security policies using thousands 
BigFix integrates with leading vulnerability management of out-of-the-box compliance checklists. 
solutions like Tenable and Qualys to dramatically reduce the 
time required to remediate vulnerabilities. It also extends its •   BigFix Inventory to discover and manage over 100,000 
well-established endpoint management capabilities to AWS, software titles, reduce software license costs and mitigate 
Azure, and Google clouds, enabling organizations to use a security risks of unauthorized software.
single solution to manage multiple clouds and on-prem in a 
consistent manner. •   BigFix Insights unifies and analyzes data from BigFix and 
third-party solution providers with deep analytics, new 
The unique approach of BigFix, coupled with thousands of business processes, and powerful reporting.
out-of-the-box security checks, will enhance your security 
posture and automate the fight against ransomware and other •   BigFix Mobile extends modern endpoint management 
cyberattacks. capabilities to iOS and Android devices.
Visit www.hcltechsw.com/bigfix/offerings/products for more 
information.
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For more information
To learn more about BigFix, contact your HCL Software representative, HCL Business Partner, or visit www.BigFix.com.
About HCL Software
HCL Software, a division of HCL Technologies (HCL) develops, markets, sells, and supports over 30 product families in the areas of Customer Experience, 
Digital Solutions, DevSecOps, and Security and Automation. HCL Software is the cloud native solution factory for enterprise software and powers millions 
of apps at more than 20,000 organizations, including over half of the Fortune 1000 and Global 2000 companies. HCL Software's mission is to drive 
ultimate customer success with its IT investments through relentless product innovation.
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