Hey guys, we are looking at other MDM solutions and I was wondering if there was anyone on here that manages their mobile devices with the IBM MDM extender for Android and IOS devices?? If so, I was wondering how they compare it to other products such as Ironport, Maas360, etc. Do they like it? Gripes, likes, etc. Any information would be appreciated, thank you
_Jesse
Jesse,
The IBM BigFix MDM product is end of life in favor of MaaS360. There is an integration between MaaS360 and BigFix but it’s simply reporting.
I’ve used AirWatch, Meraki, MaaS360 and Good and I like them all – the functionality is going to be pretty much the same across mobile OSes, you should be able to get Demos from all of the major vendors and see if there is specific functionality that you find particularly interesting.
Crap, got it. So no more direct integration with the IBM MDM extender, we would have to purchase Maas360 to integrate it to use it as a MDM. Good information, thank you
_Jesse
Meraki is free for 100 devices, so it is well worth giving a try. It is what I use, and I recommend it. I very much like the fact that Meraki also has an agent for PCs and Macs. It is much more limited than something like BigFix, but it is nice to have just for unified inventory.
If you don’t currently have an MDM product at all, then I would highly recommend giving something like Meraki a try to get a feel for it and get an idea of what the capabilities are since MDM management is fairly limited, all the products have similar capabilities.
Just don’t go too far with any particular product outside of the testing phase because once you have user devices enrolled, the only way to switch MDMs is through manual intervention. ( OS X is an exception to this I believe )
I just found this option, which I have never tried, which is free for 25 devices: https://www.manageengine.com/mobile-device-management/pricing.html
Correct MDM by BigFix is dead. MaaS360 is the IBM solution to go to.
Thanks for the info guys. @BigFixNinja Do you foresee Maas360 becoming part of BigFix itself, as in included :), just as server automation is now? I didn’t hear anything about this at Interconnect, but I’m not sure if that is something that is ever told to anyone before it actually happens.
Hi @heagsta,
The BigFix team works closely with MaaS360 and we are looking at how they can better compliment each other, however there’s nothing imminent on the horizon.
I would recommend getting a free trial for MaaS360 that’s available here: http://www.maas360.com/
You can quickly spin up a SaaS environment and deploy the agent so you can start getting a feel of it. It only takes a few mins to get the trial up and running.
There are two flavors of MaaS360, cloud and on-premise.
The on-premise version is a full onsite install and the components are deployed and managed via the BigFix platform. There is a content site for it.
Hi @heagsta,
I would agree with Gwyndaf, setting up a trial of MaaS360 is very quick and easy and would probably provide you with the functionality that you’ll probably require - http://www.maas360.com/products/mobile-device-management/
As @BigFixNinja has mentioned there are two flavours of MaaS360, going to the link the Gwyn posted will set you up with a SaaS instance. The On-Premise version would be a wider enagement, its a separate piece of software and its a completely separate install to Bigfix but it can be integrated through the use of APIs.
It won’t be included free of charge, but you wouldn’t pay for a BigFix license for most MDM devices and vis versa. OS X and Windows 10 are exceptions to this, where there are reasons for both MDM and an Agent.
We’ve used Airwatch for a few years. It’s full featured, or a kitchen sink, depending on how you look at it. We use it on-premises, but it’s also available as SaaS.
However, right now I’m rather annoyed because a version upgrade corrupted some deployed profiles. The only recourse is to export the XML and re-import as a new profile. Naturally the bug is fixed in the newest release, but my current profiles are still SOL.
Backups are important, even for profiles.
We’re currently using a SaaS implementation of MaaS360, and I must say, it’s pretty good at doing what it’s intended to do. It is a bit cumbersome in some areas though, but I’m sure that AirWatch and Meraki have their quirks too. A couple of nice things - the unified reporting is pretty nice, and initially it looked as though IBM was moving in favour of ‘one-console’ approach (so there are some limited management commands you can send from BigFix to mobile devices via a management extender). We are using it to provide the basic stuff (mail, security/encryption policies), but we’ve also activated the secure gateway for file access, a secure editor as part of the containerization, and per-app VPN - all in all, not too bad of a tool.