Why IT Admins Need OS Management Tools

Operating system (OS) management is more complex than it seems and experienced IT administrators can all recount horror stories of being ill-equipped for an OS update—and the chaos that followed.

Imagine an IT admin rolling out a routine OS update across hundreds of devices, only to find that it caused a compatibility issue with the company’s customer-facing app. Customers are suddenly unable to access key features, leading to a surge in complaints and lost sales. IT scrambles to fix the issue, but hours of downtime cause major disruption to business operations and damage customer trust.

These cautionary tales often end with a commitment to adopting an OS management tool to streamline and safeguard future updates.

What is OS management? And why is it critical for enterprise mobility?

Operating system management refers to how IT teams check, test, and deploy OS updates—which improve functionality, efficiency, stability, and remove vulnerabilities—on mobile devices.

For a mission-critical business with anywhere from tens of thousands of devices to update at once, managing an update rollout is a critical task that requires preparation, caution, and testing.

Before launching an OS update (whether for a sole employee’s work phone or the devices of the entire workforce), owners and administrators alike must consider the following risks:

Business-critical apps might not be ready for the change. New major OS versions often introduce underlying functionality changes or deprecations that could affect the behavior of enterprise apps optimized for the previous OS version.
End users need time to adjust. A new OS often comes with changes to the user interface or new features, requiring a transition period as users adapt. During this time, users may also lose access to personalized profiles or data they need, potentially disrupting their workflows.

The above issues threaten productivity, both to the employees who need to use devices that may be rendered useless by a bad update, and to the IT admins who will have to handle these crises, pushing back their vital tasks.

Proper operating system management and monitoring tools can defend against these risks and provide even more benefits for administrators to exploit. For example, enforced compliance is a major benefit and flagship feature of OS management. When employees can update their work devices whenever they please, businesses risk facing serious problems called, OS fragmentation.

How OS fragmentation threatens your enterprise’s efficiency

OS fragmentation (a phenomenon IT admins dread) occurs when some devices in a fleet have been updated to a new OS version while others haven’t, leaving the fleet split across multiple versions. When this happens, IT management becomes vastly more challenging.

As mentioned, app compatibility issues are just one of the problems worsened by OS fragmentation.

An OS update might unexpectedly break a business-critical app. Under normal circumstances, IT teams clear off their schedules and start working on a fix.

But when OS fragmentation is a factor and a crucial app breaks due to an unsanctioned OS update, app development teams break into a cold sweat, waving goodbye to their weekend and scrambling to deliver a hotfix. With multiple OS versions in play, IT admins are forced to develop and test several versions of critical apps simultaneously, exponentially increasing their workload. Ultimately, OS fragmentation doesn’t just complicate device management—it also creates app version fragmentation, amplifying the problem even further.

However, OS fragmentation's greatest risks are security vulnerabilities and reduced IT agility. If a threat emerges and essential patches need to be deployed quickly and accurately, OS fragmentation again means more testing is required, which means more time is required. That might mean living with vulnerabilities for longer than necessary.

The stakes are high in an OS update deployment scenario at any business. To reduce risk in facing these and other challenges, IT admins rely on solutions like Knox E-FOTA.

Reliable operating system version management with the right tools

Knox E-FOTA is synonymous with OS management. E-FOTA—or, Enterprise Firmware Over The Air—does what you expect from the name and much more. It grants unparalleled control over the Android OS and firmware versions in Samsung mobile device fleets to ensure devices operate on the OS version best suited for your business. Knox E-FOTA provides enterprises with the following features:

Selective OS updates. Part of the E-FOTA charm is its selective update feature, which allows IT admins to verify if a given update is ready for deployment and pre-test it to ensure compatibility with mission-critical business apps. This alone eliminates significant risks to the productivity of a mobile-enabled enterprise. Specifically, Knox E-FOTA can update Samsung devices with a fully tested and compatible OS version. Samsung prepares various OS versions for business customers, ensuring the most reliable OS version can be updated. This capability guarantees app stability without any security concerns, as only thoroughly tested OS versions are deployed. In addition, Knox users can employ beta-testing on sample devices first and deploy fully qualified OS versions to Samsung devices with no unwanted surprises.
Ensures fleet compliance. Using Knox E-FOTA also means that, instead of relying on traditional B2C firmware over-the-air (FOTA) processes which can be untimely, IT admins get to determine if and when a device is updated, so they don’t have to live with the fear of OS fragmentation.
Granular update options. The control Knox E-FOTA grants isn’t just powerful; it’s intelligent. Want to segment a group of devices so you can properly beta test a new OS in the field before pushing it to the wider workforce? Or define device state criteria that must be met before updating, like minimum battery life, download/update action time window, or Wi-Fi connectivity, to minimize unwanted disruptions? Knox E-FOTA grants that power. With the ability to set the optimal update schedule, updates can be executed outside of business hours, ensuring no disruption to productivity. Furthermore, it allows IT admins to commit to gradual rollouts instead of an all-at-once deployment, providing them with greater granularity over OS updates.

The granular OS version control management capabilities of Knox E-FOTA for reliable OS updates lead to smooth operations and maximize productivity. Let’s explore how.

Simplifying device deployment and management

Colruyt, a Belgian supermarket chain with over 12,000 employees across more than 220 CLP discount stores, was using outdated devices designed with just one function. To meet the needs of their growing workforce, Colruyt opted to replace these with Samsung XCover Galaxy Enterprise Edition handsets, ruggedized for workplace demands, providing a more efficient, all-in-one solution.

The standout feature of Galaxy Enterprise Edition is its inclusion of a one-year subscription to Knox Suite - Enterprise Plan, which enables efficient management of the complete enterprise mobility journey, including device setup and ongoing administration. Thanks to Knox Suite's streamlined device deployment and setup capabilities, replacing Colruyt’s fleet was easy. The Knox security platform, integrated into each handset's hardware and software, protected against malware and other malicious threats as soon as the device was turned on.

Try Knox Suite today

The next challenge was maintaining that level of protection through routine software updates. The fear was that an update could be triggered during a busy workday for this supermarket giant. Business-critical devices could be shut down for what might be a lengthy update process, and productivity would screech to a halt as employees were forced to wait for an OS update before they could scan items, communicate with colleagues, or even sell to customers.

This risk of an uncontrolled, disruptive update is precisely why Knox E-FOTA, included in Knox Suite, is invaluable for operating system management. At midnight, while stores are closed, Colruyt uses Knox E-FOTA to test, schedule, and finalize a rollout of fully tested OS updates to their entire fleet.

That’s more than 12,000 devices updated without impacting work hours, bothering employees, or terrifying IT admins. That’s 12,000 employees remotely prepared for work at the press of a button.

Read the full Colruyt success story here.

Samsung Knox for seamless OS updates

Thankfully, OS updates will always be a part of IT management. Without them, devices would remain vulnerable to every malware vector and bug discovered. While updating to a new version will, most of the time, involve very few risks, OS management tools like Knox E-FOTA mitigate the chance of painful disruptions to business and reduce the ongoing OPEX costs (administrative, support, and more) of company-wide OS and firmware updates. IT teams simply can’t afford to update without one.

If you’re interested in using Knox E-FOTA, it’s included in Knox Suite - Enterprise Plan, which helps you get the most out of your UEM.

And if you’re already using an EMM, you can integrate Knox E-FOTA and enhance OS version control for Samsung mobile devices.

Tip: If your EMM is a part of our Knox Validated Program, you can try Knox Suite - Enterprise Plan for free. Simply search for your EMM by selecting the filter “Enterprise mobility management” on our list of partners.