Windows Intune Product Comparison vs. Mobile Device Management Market Leaders #sysctr #windowsintune
With the announcement of Configuration Manager 2012 R2 and Windows Intune (wave E) Microsoft offers a mature Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution which it emphatically (re)positions itself in the market of enterprise device management software. Various publications including Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Mobile Device Management Software (May 2013) shows that Microsoft plays no significant role in the market of enterprise mobile device management software.
Figure 1Gartners Magic Quadrant for MDM software.
Successors System Center Mobile Device Management 2008 wasn’t that success and was too early with the lack of suitable hardware. With the current version of Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 and Windows Intune (wave D) Microsoft is working on it closing the gap by providing base MDM functionality. But was it good enough to be a serious competitor in the market of enterprise MDM solutions? With the announcement of Configuration Manager 2012 R2 and 4th generation of Windows Intune (wave E) I am convinced this will change!
Goal of this article is to provide a high-level overall product comparison of Microsoft MDM solution based on Configuration Manager 2012 R2/Windows Intune (wave E) versus the current MDM market leaders Airwatch, MobileIron, Citrix and Good Technology. The product comparison is based on the following areas: platform support, infrastructure complexity, features and licensing & pricing.
Platform Support
As mentioned the product comparison is limited to the four market leaders as there’re too many MDM vendors available. What stands out is the scope of traditional mobile devices is changing and expands more and more to tablets and regular computers. The mobile workforce of both enterprise managed and private held device is increasing. Consumerization of IT is not without reason one of Microsoft business goals for 2014. This because hardware and software becomes ‘cloud-enabled’, devices are anywhere anytime anyplace connected to the internet.
This trend is reflected to the platform support overview below where both Windows 8 and Mac OS supported.
Table 1. Platform support.
Most vendors supports all the major mobile platforms including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Microsoft Windows Phone. You should wonder ‘What type of mobile devices will we support?’ will help you choosing a solution which best fits your needs.
Infrastructure
Besides which platform we do need support to come ‘What is the best mobile architecture for our organization?’ There are a number of things to consider to get an answer to this question. First you need to consider what your current IT infrastructure looks like and then structure your MDM evaluation around what is already in place. Not the other way around. Also you will need to address cloud-based solutions vs. on-premise solutions, hosted vs. self-supported and the scalability of the MDM solutions as your mobile device population grows.
Table 2. Most vendors provides support for both on-premise and off-premise.
Enterprise Mobility Management AirWatch offers Mobile Device Management on per subscription, perpetual or (shared) cloud based including Mobile Email Management (MEM) and Mobile Application Management (MAM). AirWatch provides furthermore additional offerings complementary to MDM; Mobile Security-, Content- and Multi-user management.
Mobile Solution Bundle Citrix provides Citrix Mobile Solution Bundle which is based on XenMobile MDM, CloudGateway and ShareFile each which are made up of individual sub-products (XenMobile Device Manager, XenMobile SMG, XenMobile SharePoint DLP, AppController, Access Gateway, StoreFront). Roughly XenMobile MDM offers mobile device management capabilities, CloudGateway leveraging application deployment (MAM) where ShareFile provides file synchronization and sharing.
Mobile IT platform With Advanced Mobile Management MobileIron provides base MDM functionality which can be extended in modular components like Docs- , Apps- and Web modules.
Good For Enterprise Good Technology MDM solutions are available by Good Mobile Manager (MDM) complemented with Good Dynamics (MAM) and Good for Enterprise.
Unified Device Management Microsoft MDM solutions consists of Configuration Manager 2012 R2 and Windows Intune (Wave E). Both solutions provides independent a complete MDM solution, but together they form an enhanced full featured MDM solution with extended capabilities.
Features
What this product comparison makes complex and challenging is most vendors provides a partial (modular) solution instead of an overall MDM. For example mobile application management (MAM), mobile content management (MCM), mobile email management (MEM) and so on are available as additional components to base MDM functionality.
As mentioned before this product comparison provides a high level overview which applies to features as well. Features are categorized by general topics which are most imported for a MDM solution. Each product provides more in-depth feature set or overlap by additional components supplementary to basic MDM functionality. For a more in depth feature set I would recommend to visit the according vendor website.
Table 3. Highlevel feature overview.
Licensing Model
If you thought product comparison is challenging well costs and licensing models are even more! License models differs per vendor and may vary from per-user, per-device based and/or supplementary with annual support cost or server licenses.
Table 4. License model overview.
If user have more than one device a per-user based licensing model suites best where per-device based licensing suites best if users has only one device. A per user-based license might be most obvious as we’re owning more and more devices (smartphone, tablet, laptop).
Pricing
Where Microsoft and Citrix calculates per-user based license model AirWatch, MobileIron and Good Technology calculates costs on per devices-based license model.
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Conclusion
With Configuration Manager 2012 R2 and the 4th generation of Windows Intune Microsoft provides a competitive and mature MDM solution which certainly will rise to a challengers segment in the Magic Quadrant for Mobile Device Management. If it is mature enough entering the leaders segment is hard to say and depends on many factor including adoption of Microsofts vision of Consumerization of IT.
In the area of platform support and features it provides substantially the same functionality as by most other vendors. Although Microsoft may not provide the most comprehensive MDM solution certainly when it comes to integration and interoperability with Microsoft architecture it is definitely the best choice.
In brief Unified Device Management (Configuration Manager 2012 R2 and Windows Intune) is a more than interesting MDM solution for managing your increasing mobile workforce!
Get started with Windows Intune and request a free 30-day trial here.
Disclaimer
This comparison has been created with the utmost care and is constant a subject to change by developments in the market and therefore a snapshot. Nevertheless it might contain inaccuracies. No rights can be derived and/or liability imposed for this publication
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Great article. Yesterday, Good announced they are now supporting a per-user license model. As the number of users with more than one device (e.g. smartphone, tablet and PC) increases, a user-based pricing model can save money
Thanks Chris for your feedback!
awesome post. Very usefull information!
Hi Ronny,
this is a very valuble Article.
What I think has not been mentioned often enough ist that with the Combination of Intune and SCCM 2012 SP1 or R2 you have with this infrastructure the possiblity to manage everything from phone, over tablet,to Desktop and Server. There Microsoft is the only Player, who can do this in a single platform and infrastructure
Adrian Michels
Hi Adrian, thank you for your positive feedback. I agree with Unified Device Management proposition Microsoft delivers an end-to-end crossplatform Mobile Device Management solution. It provides a single class of management for both tradditional (on-premise, desktops, laptops, etc) and mobile devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc). Additional benefit is the product choice depending on you needs and organisation, Windows Intune native or best of both worlds Windows Intune in combination with Configuration Manager 2012 R2.
Regards,
Ronny
a very interesting article. Thank a lot!
Hey Ronny – that was a good high-level comparison. But a quick question though – it seemed as if you touched upon only the tip of the iceberg, correct? My understanding is that while Microsoft can handle the features as you listed in the table but there are caveats in the support across Windows, iOS and Android devices and that configuration settings & features/options for devices other than PCs were far far fewer than the competing MDM solutions. Their first initial stab at supporting iOS and Android devices were pretty basic but have steadily enhanced their support over time.
Also – enterprises are looking for bulk enrollment – something Microsoft actually will address in Q4 of this year (2014) – at least of iOS and Android devices. So in Q4 of 2014 they will focus on addressing managed mobile productivity (managed applications and data protection) and IT enhancements, including bulk enrollment and support for Apple Configurator.
Just a short while ago Intune added support for Samsung KNOX. So these updates they are making including the forthcoming Q4 updates are nice added features with MSFT’s own flavor to it but I believe they are just taking steps catching up to the other vendors.
But nevertheless – can be good enough and adequate for a lot of customers.
This article from late Oct 2013 also has an interesting perspective as well:
http://www.citeworld.com/article/2115162/mobile-byod/microsoft-intune-collision-course-airwatch-mobileiron.html
Take it easy,
KC
Hi Kenny, thanks for your broad comment which I high appreciate! Technological developments are characterized by a high rate of development, not excepting to Mobile Device Management (MDM) or broader Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM). Besides these characterizes the large number of vendors becomes a challenge to create an up-to-date overview which covers every aspects, this is a study on it’s own ;-) But indeed this post was meant providing a high-level overview.
Microsoft is moving forward fast and I am sure they will be next on the Gartners MQ for Enterprise Mobility Management. Just a matter of time. Rumors about Android on Nokia by Microsoft devices is a strategic step forward embracing and serving a high potential market share. In short, interesting developments await us!
Take care,
Ronny
Ronny… any updates available on your full comparison publication? Very informative
Ronny,
I’ve noticed a huge influx to the market of downmarket solutions targeting SMB, such as HP (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CEkQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.itbusinessedge.com%2Fblogs%2Fit-unmasked%2Fhp-unfurls-mobile-device-management-service-in-the-cloud.html&ei=wimTVOPfApTloAShwYKgCw&usg=AFQjCNEy4Szl_2hNPgphFItIXOj5854pBQ&sig2=nE8jcdPDSxJrceBOdzPp0A&bvm=bv.82001339,d.cGU&cad=rja) or the next IBM MDM or Bushel ( http://www.bushel.com )?
Sorry, meant to say, does this change your views of the quadrant or comparisons to Intune?
Great post.