In short: Device visibility and recovery software keeps a persistent connection to your laptops and desktops, so you can locate them, see their health, freeze or wipe them if lost, and automatically repair security and management apps that have stopped working. Some products are embedded in device firmware. Licensing is per device, usually annually.
What is device visibility and recovery?
With staff working from home, travelling and using laptops in public places, devices go missing and security tools quietly break. Device visibility and recovery software tackles both.
Absolute Security is the best-known example. Its technology is embedded in the firmware of many business laptops from major manufacturers, so the connection survives a reinstall of the operating system or a wiped disk. Typical capabilities include:
- Inventory and location: hardware, software and geolocation for every device
- Remote freeze and wipe for lost or stolen laptops, with a message to whoever finds it
- Application resilience: monitoring critical apps such as endpoint protection, VPN and management agents, and automatically repairing or reinstalling them if they fail
- Evidence for compliance: proof that a lost device was encrypted and secured, which supports a UK GDPR risk assessment after a loss
- Secure access resilience in some tiers, keeping VPN and ZTNA connections working reliably
The value is not only in recovering stolen hardware. Many organisations use the visibility data to find devices that have dropped out of management, laptops that have not checked in for weeks, or machines where encryption has been switched off. Fixing those quietly, before an audit or a loss, is often where the product earns its keep.
Device visibility and recovery: vendors and products we supply
- Absolute Security: Firmware-anchored device visibility, control and self-healing resilience.
- Absolute Security Secure Endpoint: Visibility, Control and Resilience editions compared, with Persistence.
- Addigy: Cloud Apple device management for Mac, iPhone and iPad, licensed per device.
- Addigy Apple MDM: Enrol, configure, patch and support Macs, iPhones and iPads from one console.
- CrowdStrike: Falcon endpoint protection, managed threat hunting, Falcon Complete MDR, identity, SIEM and AI security.
- CrowdStrike Falcon Discover: Device, application and account inventory from the Falcon sensor, including unmanaged devices.
- Domotz: Network discovery, monitoring, alerts and remote management for your own sites.
- Domotz Network monitoring: Discover, map, monitor and remotely manage every device on your networks.
- SentinelOne: Singularity endpoint, cloud and identity security with Purple AI and managed detection and response.
- SentinelOne Network Discovery: Find, fingerprint and block unmanaged devices using your existing agents.
What to look for
- Persistence: whether the agent survives reimaging, and which device makes and models support firmware-level persistence
- Self-healing coverage for the apps you rely on
- Integration with your device management and endpoint tools
- Privacy controls for location data, so you collect only what you need and can justify under UK GDPR
- Reporting on encryption status and device health
- Offboarding support: confirming that a returned or retired laptop has been wiped before it is reused, sold or recycled
- Geofencing alerts that warn you when a device appears somewhere unexpected
How device visibility is licensed
These products are licensed per device, usually in tiers. With Absolute, for example, Visibility covers inventory and reporting, Control adds remote freeze and wipe, and Resilience adds application self-healing, with optional modules on top. Terms are usually annual or multi-year. We check device support for firmware persistence before quoting.
Because the firmware component is already present on many business laptops, activation is usually a matter of installing the agent and assigning a licence, with no hardware changes. Licences can normally move between devices as laptops are replaced.
How to choose
- Decide whether you mainly need asset tracking and evidence, theft response, or app self-healing.
- Check that your laptop makes and models support firmware persistence.
- Review overlap with your device management platform, which may already offer location and wipe.
- Agree a lost device process, including when to notify the ICO.
- Decide who will act on alerts about missing or unhealthy devices, so the information leads to action rather than sitting in a dashboard.
For device management more broadly, see mobile security and device management and Forever Group's mobile device management services.
How we help
We supply device visibility licences on your account, confirm compatibility with your hardware and help you set up policies and the lost-device process. Contact us and ask us for a quote.
How Forever Systems supplies your software licences
Forever Systems Ltd supplies business software subscriptions to UK organisations from one account, with one monthly invoice and a UK team who know the products.
- The right edition first time: we check what you need before you buy, so you are not paying for features you will never use
- Monthly or annual terms where the vendor offers them, and help timing renewals and commitments
- Licence changes handled for you: add or remove users, upgrade editions and true-up without starting a new contract
- Deployment and support from engineers who run these products every day, not just a reseller account
- Consolidated billing and renewal reminders so nothing lapses unexpectedly
We work with businesses, schools, charities and public sector organisations of all sizes.
Need a licence quote or a second opinion on your renewal?
Tell Forever Systems what you need and we will come back to you by email with options, not a hard sell.
Contact usFrequently asked questions
Can a stolen laptop be tracked if it is wiped?
With firmware-embedded products on supported devices, yes: the agent is restored after a reinstall, so the device can still be located, frozen or wiped once it connects to the internet.
Is device tracking legal for employee laptops?
Yes for company-owned devices, provided you have a lawful basis, tell staff what is collected and why, and limit location data to what you need, in line with UK GDPR.
What is application self-healing?
Monitoring of critical software, such as endpoint protection or VPN clients, with automatic repair or reinstallation if it stops working or is removed.