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Breaking Down Gartner’s Latest Critical Capabilities Report for Enterprise Mobility Management

Gartner recently released the latest Critical Capabilities report for Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) suites. The tech giant uses the report to analyze the capabilities of EMM vendors based on their features and ability to support various platforms.

In the report, Gartner says EMM “suite functionality is evolving into unified endpoint management, which adds traditional client and select EMM manageable IoT use-case management.”

The report goes on to suggest that those in the research phase of the buying process determine their use cases before they choose a solution in this changing market. It also laid out some key findings, including that many organizations found that there wasn’t a single EMM tool that met all of their needs. In fact, 82 percent of the EMM Magic Quadrant and Critical Capabilities references reportedly said they implemented at least two different EMM platforms.

To improve the ROI on an EMM solution, Gartner suggests that businesses take a close look at which features of their solution aren’t being utilized to figure out if they should be.Mobile application management (MAM) is reportedly the most important feature of EMM as 79 percent of those surveyed said the ability to deploy apps was the most vital reason for buying an EMM tool. Just 5 percent cited client management tools (CMT) as the reason for purchasing and 4 percent claimed to buy an EMM solution for CMT to manage IoT devices, according to the report. About 24 percent claimed to use their EMM platforms without a mobile device management (MDM) profile for some.

Mobile application management (MAM) is reportedly the most important feature of EMM as 79 percent of those surveyed said the ability to deploy apps was the most vital reason for buying an EMM tool. Just 5 percent cited client management tools (CMT) as the reason for purchasing and 4 percent claimed to buy an EMM solution for CMT to manage IoT devices, according to the report. About 24 percent claimed to use their EMM platforms without a mobile device management (MDM) profile for some end users.

In order to qualify for the Critical Capabilities report, a vendor must have a minimum of $12 million in 2016 EMM revenue; the ability to provide EMM support for at least iOS, Android and Windows 10; the capability to offer an EMM suite that incorporates MDM, MAM, mobile identity, MCM and containment technologies; and qualified for inclusion in the 2017 EMM Magic Quadrant.

Landesk made the cut last year but was dropped from the 2017 report after it merged with Heat Software and was renamed Ivanti. Ivanti did make it into this year’s report. Sophos was the only other new addition. The remaining vendors were returning and included BlackBerry, Citrix, IBM, Microsoft, MobileIron, Sophos, SOTI and VMWare.

Each of the products was analyzed on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest. VMWare came out on top in various use-cases including product or service scores for general-purpose, UEM and cloud-centric. Blackberry was the leader in the product or service scores for unmanaged device support and regulated industries. And SOTI was the leader in the product or services scores for special-purpose device support.

Let’s take a closer look at all the vendors included in this report:

BlackBerry

BlackBerry recently changed the name of their EMM product; it’s now called BlackBerry UEM. The move was most likely related to the changing market, according to Gartner. The tool incorporates BlackBerry Work, BlackBerry Workspaces and BlackBerry Enterprise Identity. Businesses focused on security will get strong protection with BlackBerry UEM, according to the analyst house.

Citrix

Citrix offers a complete EMM platform called XenMobile. It may be deployed on its own or as a compliment to Microsoft’s Intune. Citrix provides broad UEM functionalities that focus on apps and desktops.

According to Gartner, XenMobile is moving toward UEM, but “Citrix lags behind other EMMs in features for the support of iOS 10.x and Android (formerly Android for Work), as well as traditional client management of Windows and macOS support.”

IBM

IBM’s MaaS360 is offered by the IBM Security Solutions Division and is often used as part of a larger mobile security tool, according to the report.

“Customers consistently report MaaS360 to be an easy-to-use EMM tool, with a strong focus on integration with other IBM solutions,” Gartner reported.

Overall, IBM offers a solid UEM tool through MaaS360 client-management features and integration with IBM BigFix.

Ivanti

Ivanti holds a strong position in the CMT space and its EMM, Endpoint Manager Powered by Landesk, boasts an integrated console for admins. It also features a licensing strategy, which combines EMM, CMT, endpoint protection and the IT service desk, the report stated.

The company offers a self-service portal for iOS, Android, Windows and macOS. However, its mobile identity support is limited, according to the tech giant.

Microsoft

Microsoft’s EMM offering is called Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS). The suite incorporates Microsoft Intune, which has MDM and MAM capabilities; Cloud App Security; Azure Active Directory (AD) Premium; Azure Information Protection; Advanced Threat Analytics; and on-prem ConfigMgr.

“Strong integration with Azure AD and Threat Protection makes rich security telemetry available in the mobile environment,” according to the report.

It’s also important to note that EMS doesn’t support third-party IAM tools.

MobileIron

“MobileIron has one of the most complete EMM products covering every mobile use cases,” the report stated.

The vendor is a stand-alone EMM provider and doesn’t have much competition in that area, according to Gartner, who also said that they are the only stand-alone EMM vendor that made it into the leader’s section of the Magic Quadrant report.

The vendor is moving into the UEM space with support for both mobile and client management, the tech giant reported. The company also recently unveiled support to come in the future for EMM manageable IoT.

Sophos

Sophos is known for its endpoint protection platform and Sophos Mobile came from the company’s security knowledge. It aims to offer mobile security and management from a single console.

The vendor has plans to extend into the UEM space with support for mobile and client management and recently released an EMM manageable IoT functionality for Android Things and Windows 10 IoT.

SOTI

Gartner refers to SOTI as “the most-established EMM vendor in the special-purpose device management and EMM manageable IoT spaces.”

The company has moved into areas of mobility that are similar to EMM with the SOTI ONE tool that incorporates Snap, Assist, Connect, Insight, and SOTI’s EMM MobiControl.

Businesses that utilize the product’s “Android+” approach allow their clients to have good control over the management of Android devices in the absence of handset-specific APIs, according to the report.

VMware

“VMware’s AirWatch product is one of the most functionally complete EMM offerings in the market. It is broad and targets every major mobile use case,” according to the report.

The vendor provides Workspace One that incorporates VMWare’s IAM, AirWatch as a single combined solution, and software-defined networking tools, Gartner said.

The company is looking to embrace the market’s transition to UEM with enhancements for managing Windows 10 and masOS in a single pane of glass.

Click here to download the entire report.

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