Today, Ivanti is introducing a new platform, Ivanti Neurons, that uses automation bots to both self-heal and self-secure devices. It is specifically targeted at the remote workforce that has so grown in numbers since the pandemic began earlier this year. Early adopters of the solution have reduced unplanned outages up to 63%, and resolved up to 80% of endpoint issues before users reported them, reduced time to deploy security updates by 88%, and discovered 30% more assets, improving security posture.

Nayaki Nayyar, Ivanti’s executive vice president and chief product officer, emphasized that Ivanti Neurons is a unique solution because it takes advantages of the combined capabilities unique to Ivanti in terms of being able to deliver them from a single vendor, and enhanced that with the latest artificial intelligence capabilities.

“This is an awesome opportunity for us to take Ivanti’s position of strength to the next level,” Nayyar said.

Nayyar defined that strength as the ability to play in three major categories –endpoint management – patch management – and service management.

“Only Ivanti does all three, so is able to combine them,” she said. “The UEM providers don’t have the service management capabilities. ServiceNow doesn’t have the UEM capabilities to manage the endpoints. We are unique in having this position of strength, which is so important now, with COVID having transitioned many employees so remote. In that sense, the timing of this launch is perfect.”

The Ivanti Neurons platform uses automation bots to autonomously discover, secure and service endpoints at the edge.

“The Neurons platform’s hyperautomation capabilities and self heal capabilities allow it to detect and auto-remediate issues, and is where the platform really stands out,” Nayyar stated. “At launch we are releasing between 60 and 70 different automation bots.

The platform’s Ivanti Neurons for Edge Intelligence lets IT query all edge devices with sensor-based architecture and natural language, and get real-time intelligence across the enterprise in seconds. It provides quick operational awareness, real-time inventory, and security configurations across the edge leveraging sensor-based architecture.

“Edge intelligence gives a full 360 degree view of the edge,” Nayyar said. “In the past, our UEM had some ability to discover, but didn’t have this degree. Our security didn’t have a discovery angle to it. This is a convergence of these three pillars, with the ability to run bots on demand. We never had that level of power on one Workspace before.”

Ivanti Neurons for Discovery provides visibility in real-time using active and passive scanning and third-party connectors, to deliver accurate and actionable asset information. This includes normalized hardware and software inventory data, software usage information and actionable insights to efficiently feed configuration management and asset management databases.

Ivanti Neurons Workspace’s visibility lets first-line analysts resolve issues previously escalated to specialists, leading to faster end user resolution.

Ivanti Neurons for Healing is the capability that uses the army of automation bots to proactively detect, diagnose, and auto-remediate configuration drift issues, performance issues, compliance issues, and security issues for endpoints.

“In the last 3-4 months, we really accelerated the AI to get deliver the self-healing edge capability,” Nayyar said.

Nayyar also emphasized that Ivanti Neurons isn’t intended to replace any of Ivanti’s existing platforms – or for that matter, competitor platforms.

“The beauty of Neurons is the convergence and automation of the UEM, Security and ITSM stacks,” she said. “It’s not a rip and replacement for our own tech – or a competitor’s tech. It brings the next level of automation on top of the existing level of automation. Our intent is to provide that next layer of automation. This is a vertically agnostic solution for customers who are trying to get to that next level of automation, with the intent being to use the increased automation to augment individuals and move those who have been doing the automated tasks to more higher-value work.”

The Ivanti Neurons release unfolds against a backdrop of major channel changes that went into effect a few months ago. The stated intention was to reduce the number of partners with whom Ivanti works closely to the 10% or so that did 80-90% of their business. They also moved all but the most powerful partners like CDW from a reseller to a two-party gross model, and took direct control of renewals to improve customer satisfaction.

“We have direct sellers carrying quota, but partners will be able to build and implement their own Neurons for use cases that we did  not think of,” Nayyar said. “The beauty here is they can build these new ones and make it available for their customers.”

Nayyar also indicated that some big strategic partnerships with key vendors in the ecosystem around Neurons would be forthcoming in the next two to three weeks.

“One of the things we are trying to do with this is make sure people understand who Ivanti is, and how we can truly help organizations go to this next level of automation,” Nayyar concluded. “Every quarter, we will also be releasing more Neurons capabilities. It will be a constant drumbeat.”