Customer Leverages IT Lifecycle Management Capabilities by HCL BigFix

Introduction

Enterprises require efficient, scalable, and secure endpoint management solutions, now more than ever. HCL BigFix stands out as a leading platform in endpoint management, known for our ability to automate patching, compliance enforcement, and Server IT Lifecycle Management across diverse environments—physical, virtual, and cloud.

Renowned for our speed, automation, and scalability, HCL BigFix empowers organizations  to manage thousands of endpoints with unparalleled accuracy through server lifecycle management capabilities. Its real-time visibility and automation capabilities ensure companies achieve high compliance rates, reduce labor costs, and prevent vulnerabilities—making us the trusted choice for enterprises worldwide.

Staying compliant with SLAs and keeping costs under control is essential. This success story highlights how a major enterprise leveraged IT Lifecycle Management by HCL BigFix to transform their patching efficiency, save millions in costs, and scale operations.

Key Challenges Before HCL BigFix

Before implementing HCL BigFix, this customer struggled with inefficiencies that hindered their IT operations. 

Patching compliance was inconsistent, fluctuating between 56% and 76%, making it difficult to meet SLAs. High licensing costs from legacy tools strained budgets, while manual job management across thousands of servers created bottlenecks that slowed down operations. 

These challenges underscored the need for a more automated, cost-effective, and reliable endpoint management solution.

The HCL BigFix Transformation

By adopting HCL BigFix, our customer was able to completely transform their IT operations For example, IT lifecycle Management resulted in impressive improvements in compliance, cost efficiency and scalability. Below are more key areas where HCL BigFix made a measurable impact:

1. Unparalleled SLA Compliance

Before HCL BigFix, this customer struggled with maintaining consistent compliance with their patching SLAs, with compliance percentages fluctuating between 56% and 76%. These gaps left potential vulnerabilities and could result in security risks and penalties. After implementing HCL BigFix, the customer achieved an average compliance rate of 99.9%, maintaining this high standard continuously from 2021 onward. This dramatic improvement not only reduced the security risks but also aligned their operations with industry standards, ensuring a smoother and more secure environment.

HCL BigFix’s centralized platform allowed the IT team to automatically deploy patches across thousands of endpoints in a fraction of the time compared to manual processes. With HCL BigFix, the customer was able to fit all necessary patching into the tight 2-hour maintenance window without missing deadlines. The tool's automation capabilities helped ensure compliance across their entire infrastructure, and the real-time visibility HCL BigFix provided made tracking and managing patching tasks much easier.

2. Significant Cost Savings

One of the most significant advantages of implementing HCL BigFix was the cost savings obtained over a five year span. Prior to HCL BigFix, our customer relied on a different Server Management Tool and Database Automation, which were not only costly in terms of licensing but also required substantial manual effort to maintain and manage. By replacing these legacy tools with HCL BigFix IT Lifecycle Management, the customer saved approximately $6 million over five years.

Additionally, HCL BigFix’s improved patching compliance helped the customer avoid costly penalties associated with missed SLAs. By maintaining 99%+ compliance, they significantly reduced the risk of SLA violations, resulting in substantial cost reductions. Labor costs also decreased as HCL BigFix streamlined workflows, eliminating the need for manual intervention and saving the customer an estimated 1,200 manpower hours per month.

3. Massive Scalability Improvements

The scalability offered by HCL BigFix played a pivotal role in the customer’s ability to expand their operations without sacrificing efficiency. In 2021, the customer managed approximately 400 customers and 17,000 virtual servers, and processed around 800 automation jobs during each maintenance window. By 2024, thanks to HCL BigFix’s powerful features such as the BigFix Server Automation Plan Engine, the customer had scaled their operations significantly. They now manage 700 customers, 26,000 virtual servers, and run 2,450 automation jobs per maintenance window—all with ease.

The shift to HCL BigFix’s Server Automation version 9.5.69 (which introduced a multi-threading feature) further enhanced throughput, increasing processing speed by 60%. This allowed for more jobs to be executed in parallel, accelerating patch deployment and reducing downtime.

4. Improved Security and Operational Efficiency

Our customer also benefitted from improved security measures and operational efficiency through HCL BigFix's versatile capabilities. For example, during the August 2024 maintenance window, HCL BigFix enabled the customer to:

• Secure over 1,450 WMS servers by creating custom Fixlets for a known vulnerability.
• Deploy a critical upgrade for one of their business applications on 15,500 servers, enhancing endpoint security.
• Conduct a VM rightsizing project, optimizing 479 servers to maximize resource efficiency.
• Complete a JVM upgrade on 132 application servers, ensuring that critical software systems remained up-to-date and secure.
• Introduce pre-patching for Linux security patches in non-production environments, with plans to extend this to production servers in the future.

Moreover, HCL BigFix’s ability to automate vulnerability resolution played a crucial role in remediating over 4,500 external vulnerabilities using the HCL BigFix IVR (Intelligent Vulnerability Remediation) feature. This helped the customer minimize security risks and comply with regulatory requirements without requiring manual intervention. Additionally, vulnerabilities on one of their core Business Applications were resolved on 249 servers by creating custom scripts and Fixlets tailored to address the specific security gaps.

The Results

HCL BigFix has empowered our customers to scale operations, enhance security and drive massive cost savings while ensuring top-tier SLA compliance. Their success story showcases how automation and efficiency can redefine enterprise IT lifecycle management.

Conclusion

With HCL BigFix, organizations can transform their endpoint management strategy, streamline patch management  processes, and scale operations efficiently. This success story demonstrates how robust automation and centralized control can reduce operational costs, improve SLA compliance, and enhance overall security posture.

HCL BigFix’s ability to support thousands of virtual servers and automate complex maintenance tasks empowers IT teams to focus on innovation instead of manual effort. By leveraging features like the newly introduced Multi-threading Server Automation Plan Engine, organizations can scale seamlessly while maintaining peak performance.

Thousands of enterprise companies are currently facing challenges like inconsistent compliance, escalating costs, or scalability issues, and for them HCL BigFix provides a proven solution. It’s time to embrace a smarter, faster approach to IT operations and achieve tangible results. Don’t let outdated tools slow your progress—unlock operational excellence with HCL BigFix.

References

BigFix (2024). HCL BigFix Endpoint Management. HCLSoftware.
https://www.hcl-software.com/bigfix

BigFix Lifecycle.
https://www.hcl-software.com/bigfix/products/lifecycle

BigFix Server Automation. Help Center.
https://help.hcl-software.com/bigfix/11.0/lifecycle/lifecycle_sa.html