So we finally pulled the trigger on rolling out Umbrella to our lovely, far-flung family of 500 contractors. You know, the ones who consider "company device" to be a dirty phrase and whose home networks are probably held together with digital duct tape and hopeful thoughts.
The good news: it works. Like, shockingly well. Phishing attempts that used to slip through are now getting politely shown the door. Our help desk tickets for "weird browser redirects" have plummeted. The DNS-layer blocking is the silent, grumpy bouncer we never knew we needed.
The bad news: the rollout was... an experience. I now have a deep, spiritual understanding of the phrase "end-user education." Getting the roaming client on personal devices required a flowchart, three explanatory videos (one of which was just me sighing), and the patience of a saint. We also learned that approximately 37% of our contractors have their DNS manually set to 8.8.8.8 "for gaming," and changing that was apparently a declaration of war.
The verdict after 90 days? It's a powerhouse for security, no joke. But if you're dealing with a non-corporate-issued device brigade, budget double the time for hand-holding and prepare for some truly creative excuses. My favorite so far: "My smart fridge needs that specific DNS to update my grocery list." Sure, Jan.
- Happy eval-ing