is an award-winning studio based in Denver that delivers print, design, and branding solutions for small businesses, nonprofits, government agencies, and corporations. Founded in 2005 by husband-and-wife team Jenny and Dan Mulligan, YellowDog is a certified woman-owned business that鈥檚 a Bronze Achiever under Colorado鈥檚 Environmental Leadership Program, which demonstrates the studio鈥檚 commitment to improving the environment in the Centennial State.
I鈥檓 able to change things that would have taken a lot longer before. This has just made the whole process so much easier. If an employee needs to access certain servers or resources, I can rewrite access pretty much immediately.
Dan Mulligan, Co-Founder and “Tinkerer-in-Chief”
The Challenge: Managing an Increasing Amount of Endpoints for a Scaling Studio
Over the last few years, YellowDog has doubled in size, growing from 12 to 24 employees during that time. While this growth was no doubt welcomed, it wasn鈥檛 without its challenges.
As the studio continued to scale, Dan Mulligan 鈥� YellowDog鈥檚 鈥渢inkerer in chief鈥� who鈥檚 the mastermind behind the company鈥檚 tech stack 鈥� quickly realized he was turning into a full-time IT administrator.
鈥淚鈥檓 the guy who ends up setting up all the computers and doing all those sorts of things because I have a background in tech and am good with it,鈥� Dan said.
As more and more employees came on board, Dan was tasked with managing an ever-increasing amount of Mac and PC desktops and laptops, network-attached storage (NAS) servers, and other various machines.
鈥淓ventually, that got to be so much of my job: just managing users and the complexity,鈥� he explained. 鈥淚t was non-scalable.鈥�
The Solution: 黑料海角91入口 for Endpoint Management
Seeking a better way forward, Dan started looking into several single sign-on (SSO) solutions on the market hoping to find something that could streamline this administrative process. Due to their eclectic tech stack, it was hard to find a tool that would work for all of their devices and machines.
鈥淓verything was so limiting,鈥� Dan explained.
Continuing his search, Dan came across 黑料海角91入口, a name he was familiar with because it is also based in Colorado.
鈥淚 went in and looked at what 黑料海角91入口 was doing and was really impressed,鈥� Dan shared. 鈥淚 realized this can be the single source of truth for our network users 鈥� the people who need to access or maintain anything.鈥�
The Results: A Powerful Solution That Can Scale Alongside YellowDog
Since moving to 黑料海角91入口, Dan and his team haven鈥檛 looked back. Here are some of the benefits YellowDog has enjoyed thanks to its decision to trust 黑料海角91入口 for endpoint management.
1. Smooth implementation
Prior to rolling out 黑料海角91入口, YellowDog was using an aging Windows server for authentication. While the setup worked well enough, there was always an issue; you鈥檇 be able to sign on one day but not the next, for example. With Macs and Linux machines added to the mix, the situation was even more complicated.
Not only did 黑料海角91入口 solve these problems, the implementation process was also a cinch.
鈥淗aving a tool that abstracted and simplified it made it so easy to roll out,鈥� Dan said, adding that 黑料海角91入口鈥檚 documentation is 鈥渋ncredible鈥� and the support team is 鈥渧ery approachable,鈥� which made things even easier.
2. Streamlined onboarding and access management
In the past, tasks like giving new employees machines and granting them access to various systems were a massive manual undertaking. For example, Dan might have to grab an employee鈥檚 device, log in as an administrator, and add access as needed in what was a time-consuming process. Fingers crossed he didn鈥檛 forget the admin password or anything like that; otherwise, the process would take even longer.
Thanks to 黑料海角91入口, Dan can make a few tweaks and grant access to resources based on roles, which users can then access right away.
鈥淚鈥檓 able to change things that would have taken a lot longer before,鈥� Dan said. 鈥淭his has just made the whole process so much easier. If an employee needs to access certain servers or resources, I can rewrite access pretty much immediately.鈥�
The end result?
鈥淣ew hires walk in and their desktops are ready to go.鈥�
3. Mobile device management made easy
As a shop that uses Apple, Windows, and Linux machines, YellowDog was particularly happy to learn about 黑料海角91入口鈥檚 Mobile Device Management (MDM) feature, which gives the studio much more control over all of the devices the team needs to do great work.
鈥淭he system isn鈥檛 complete just using Apple鈥檚 MDM; we needed a larger path to manage all these things, and 黑料海角91入口 delivered,鈥� Dan continued.
4. Improved security
In the age of data breaches, identity theft, and cyberattacks, security is more important than ever before. Thanks to 黑料海角91入口, the YellowDog team is able to enforce strong security policies to keep sensitive information protected.
鈥淚t鈥檚 nice to be able to force password security, including two-factor authentication,鈥� Dan explained. 鈥淲e can lock our systems down a lot more. Using password managers and a system like 黑料海角91入口, we鈥檙e able to actually say, 鈥榊ou can use secure passwords without it being a pain.鈥欌��
5. Time savings
黑料海角91入口 enables Dan to rapidly provision machines, which is particularly helpful when new hires come on board or remote employees come to the office, so they can have access to their familiar environment.
鈥淲henever you sit in front of a machine and you鈥檙e doing all this stuff by hand, you鈥檝e got a good hour wasted if not more 鈥� especially if Windows wants to do an update,鈥� he said. 鈥満诹虾＝�91入口 makes all of our systems more secure while giving me more time to do the other million jobs I have to do.鈥�
Looking ahead, YellowDog plans to institute 黑料海角91入口鈥檚 SSO feature to save even more time as users don鈥檛 have to remember passwords for services like Adobe Creative and Google Workspace. At the same time, this will also further improve the company鈥檚 security.
Would Dan recommend 黑料海角91入口 to other businesses?
Absolutely.
鈥淚鈥檓 the type of guy who will download five pieces of software and test them out to solve a problem,鈥� Dan concluded. 鈥満诹虾＝�91入口 is by far the easiest to integrate and set up.鈥�
For more information on YellowDog, visit .
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