Three reasons that should drive your endpoint management strategy in 2026

As zero trust requirements grow, security and operations continue to converge, and resource constraints intensify, 2026 will be the year many government IT teams either implement their first unified endpoint management (UEM) strategy or replace outdated ones entirely.

But here’s what I keep hearing in conversations with federal, state and local IT teams: They’re not asking the right questions. They want to know about deployment timelines. They want specs and vendor comparisons. They want to know if a platform checks the boxes on their compliance checklist. Obviously, these things matter. They matter a lot. But they’re not the questions that determine whether your endpoint strategy is built for today’s IT landscape.

Does it actually unite your security and operations teams?

The phrase “SecOps-ITOps convergence” was one of the hottest topics of 2025, and rightly so. Like it or not, it is the direction that IT is moving toward. And the industry is shifting to accommodate this change. But walk into most government IT departments, and you’ll still find security teams and operations teams working in parallel universes.

So the question isn’t whether your UEM tool has security features. Of course it does. The question is how well it can integrate with the tools that security teams use. This gives both teams visibility into the same data, the same context, and the same decision-making framework. When your security team identifies a threat, can your operations team see the impact of the response? When operations need to push an update, can security see the risk posture in real time?

Can you separate real AI from marketing AI?

AI is here to stay, and in many industries, it has even become a fundamental part of their workflows. The real risk, however, isn’t skipping AI altogether; it’s picking AI features that don’t fit your needs. Government IT teams are particularly vulnerable to the AI hype because the pressure to modernize is intense. Agency leaders read about AI transforming the private sector and want to know why their IT department isn’t using it. So teams start looking for AI-powered tools without a clear sense of what AI should actually do for them.

Here’s a simple test: Ask your vendor what specific tasks their AI automates and how much time it saves. Not theoretical time. Actual measured time with real customers. If they can’t give you a number, you’re looking at marketing AI, not real AI.

In endpoint management, this results in removing grunt work that bogs admins down. So, what are the capabilities admins should look out for? First, it should eliminate the hunt through documentation. Your technician shouldn’t need to dig through five different knowledge base articles to answer a basic question about device status. AI that actually works will let you ask in plain language and get immediate answers.

Second, it should offer real-time diagnosis and remediation options for common errors. When a device fails to install an update, your technician currently has to identify the error code, search for solutions, contact support if the documentation falls short, wait for a response, and then try the fix. AI changes that workflow completely. It analyzes the device context, reviews the action history, identifies error patterns, and suggests remediation steps right there in the interface. Your technician sees the error and the fix in the same view.

So before you commit to any AI-powered platform, make them prove it. Show me the time savings. Show me the reduction in security incidents. Show me the decrease in help desk tickets. If they can’t, then keep looking.

Does it make life better for the users?

This is a major issue in any industry: the disconnect between the ones managing the devices and the ones using them. And in government IT, even more so. You’re managing tablets for building inspectors, laptops for remote social workers, and smartphones for emergency responders. The sheer diversity itself is a massive headache.

And if you try to lock down devices and users irrespective of their roles and responsibilities, the problems escalate. Because when your strategy makes devices harder to use, people find workarounds. They use personal devices for work. They skip security protocols. They call the help desk for things they should be able to fix themselves. All of that creates security risks and operational costs that outweigh whatever efficiency you thought you were gaining.

For IT teams, a good endpoint strategy should improve digital employee experience by giving you visibility into the actual user experience. Start looking into which devices are running slowly, which apps are crashing, and which configurations are causing problems. Then measure login times, application response times, and system performance from the user’s perspective. These data tell you where to focus your efforts instead of guessing or waiting for complaints to pile up.

Government agencies that get this right will see fewer security incidents because users aren’t working around the controls. They see higher productivity because people spend more time doing their jobs and less time fighting with technology. They see better retention because employees aren’t frustrated by tools that make their work harder.

In 2026, with budgets tight and expectations high, government IT can’t afford to get this wrong. The stakes are too high, and the cost of failure is measured in compromised security, frustrated employees, and citizens who can’t access the services they need.

Before you sign your next UEM contract, ask these three questions. And if your vendors can’t answer them honestly, you’re talking to the wrong vendors.

Apu Pavithran is CEO and founder of Hexnode.

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