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Higher Education
Securing Every Device, Empowering Every User
How a University Gained Control, Security and Confidence with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
Unified EndPoint Security
Improved Visibility & Compliance
Operational Efficiency & Future Ready Management
The Customer
Higher Education
Client:
Large - Enterprise
Size:
United Kingdom
Geography:
The Challenge
The University faced an outdated endpoint security environment with Sophos anti-virus on all devices, but limited enforcement of critical security controls such as firewall policies, disk encryption, and USB device restrictions.
With 9,000 devices to manage, IT lacked visibility into device compliance and struggled to ensure consistent security policies across both staff and shared-use student devices.
The customer needed a modern, scalable solution that could:
Replace legacy AV without disrupting users
Standardise security policies across multiple device types (Windows & MacOS)
Provide actionable visibility into device health and threats
Equip IT teams to manage endpoints efficiently and confidently
Key Activities
Discovery & Analysis
High Level Design
Tenant & XDR Configuration
Windows & MacOS Pilot Deployment
Sophos Removal
Knowledge Transfer & Documentation
Technologies
Microsoft Defender For Endpoint
Microsoft Intune & SCCM
JAMF (MacOS)
The Solution
To address the university’s legacy endpoint security challenges, Venture 1 designed and implemented a structured pilot deployment of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE) across 100 Windows 10/11 devices and 10 MacOS devices. The solution directly tackled gaps in policy enforcement, limited visibility, and operational burden, while providing a scalable framework for future expansion.
Key elements of the solution included:
Discovery & Analysis: Reviewed existing Sophos configurations, Intune enrolment, and AV policy exceptions to identify gaps in firewall, disk encryption, USB controls, and endpoint protection coverage.
Design & Configuration: Developed High-Level and Low-Level Designs documenting MDE policies, Intune and JAMF configurations, and XDR roles, ensuring standardised, best-practice endpoint security.
Pilot Deployment: Onboarded Windows and MacOS devices to MDE, deployed anti-virus, firewall, encryption, and USB policies, and tested all configurations for compliance and performance.
Sophos Removal: Safely uninstalled legacy Sophos AV, ensuring a seamless transition to Microsoft Defender without service disruption.
Knowledge Transfer & Documentation: Delivered full documentation and training to empower IT teams to manage and monitor endpoint security independently, reducing operational overhead.
By aligning each step with the university’s challenges, the solution ensured consistent security standards, improved visibility and control, reduced manual tasks, and positioned IT teams to confidently scale Microsoft Defender for Endpoint across the wider estate.
Benefits & Results Derived
Enhanced Security & Compliance: Pilot devices enforce best-practice anti-virus, firewall, disk encryption, and USB policies, addressing gaps in endpoint protection.
Improved Visibility & Control: IT teams gain real-time insights into device compliance and threats, solving the challenge of limited visibility across staff and shared devices.
Operational Efficiency & Reduced Risk: Automated policy deployment and Sophos removal reduce manual intervention and support tickets, easing the operational burden on IT teams.
Consistent Security Standards: Standardised configurations across Windows and MacOS devices minimise policy exceptions and ensure uniform endpoint protection.
Future-Ready Endpoint Management: Knowledge transfer and documentation equip IT teams to confidently scale policies to thousands of devices, supporting long-term security governance.
Proactive Device Oversight: Continuous monitoring and advisory support enable fine-tuning of policies and proactive management of endpoint security.
Strengthened IT Governance: Unified policies and automated enforcement increase confidence in device compliance, operational efficiency, and security posture across the organisation.