2015 Gartner EMM Magic Quadrant: What’s Changed Since 2014?

We at Solutions Review read the 2015 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Mobility Management and highlighted what changed since the previous version of the report.

It’s been nearly half a year since Garter published the 2015 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM). As always they provided detailed outlines of each of solution provider included in the report highlighting both strengths and cautions for each suite. The quadrant itself provides a nice visualization as to where and how each solution providers stacks up in the marketplace. Depending on what is offered by each provider they are group into Niche Players, Visionaries, Challengers, and Leaders within the quadrant.

While we wait for the 2016 Magic Quadrant this coming June, it’s important to note some changes that have occurred since the publication of this quadrant. The most notable change is the acquisition of Good Technology by BlackBerry. Good Technology was a leader, while BlackBerry has been stuck in the niche category so it will be interesting to see where they will end up in the next few months. We can also expect the introduction of another solution to the quadrant in the place of Globo.

Like it has for many years, the Garner Magic Quadrant reports have laid the foundation for buyers everywhere looking for the best technology in each space. Gartner evaluates each solution included in the quadrant and breaks them down into strengths and cautions and categorizes them based on their completeness of vision and ability to execute into four groups: Leaders, Visionaries, Challengers and Niche Players.

It has been just over a year since their last EMM Magic Quadrant release and the Enterprise Mobility market has evolved and grown quite a bit. So how does this year’s report reflect that evolution? Let’s take a look. Last year, and rightfully so, Gartner shifted away from Mobile Device Management (MDM) and began focusing on EMM which reflected the growth and sophistication of mobility within the enterprise. They stated the MDM was now one of three pillars need to truly secure and manage mobility within the enterprise. The other two pillars being Mobile Application Management (MAM) and Mobile Content Management (MCM).

In their 2015 report they have added a forth core pillar that helps IT manage and secure enterprise mobility –  Mobile Identity. “EMM tools help ensure only trusted devices and users access enterprise applications,” says the report. “Mobile identity capabilities may utilize one or more use of the following technologies: user and device certificates, app code signing, authentication, and single sign-on. EMM tools are increasingly using contextual information (such as location and time) to help inform access decisions.” Again, this expansion in EMM core capabilities reflects the evolution, sophistication and importance of enterprise mobility in today’s organizations.

Of all those included in the 2015 EMM Magic Quadrant BlackBerry and Soti seem to have the most movement within their respective categories. This positive movement can be attributed to the release of BlackBerry Enterprise Service 12 (BES12) towards the end of 2014.

In Soti’s case they move down away from leaders category and deeper into the visionaries category. This movement can possibly be attributed to their heavy focus on Android devices. Version 12.1 and their MobiControl Android+ technology will offer a high level of control in Android environments but may be lacking in iOS.

Gartner also offers a market overview of predictions and focuses for the 2015 EMM market which touches on the different kinds of data mobile strategy will have to deal with his year. Not only are enterprises needing to keep track of email, contacts and calendars, but other data as well, which can include wearables and other technology that will pop up within the next year. This makes the Visionaries category especially important because they are on the right track for the future of EMM.