Here's Who Made Gartner's 2017 Magic Quadrant For Enterprise Mobility Management Suites

Top Products For The Mobile Enterprise

The enterprise mobility revolution of the past decade has forced organizations to rethink their IT strategies and invest in new tools. In tandem, there's been an explosion in vendors offering enterprise mobility management (EMM) suites that aim to oversee and secure what employees are doing with corporate data on their mobile devices. Technology research firm Gartner recently released its 2017 Magic Quadrant For Enterprise Mobility Management Suites, and we went through the report to highlight some of the key findings. In the following slides, we round up the details on the 13 vendors that made this year's Gartner EMM Magic Quadrant.

VMware's AirWatch: Leader

What it offers: VMware's AirWatch is the most frequently mentioned EMM solution on Gartner client short lists, Gartner said. AirWatch has also made major strides toward becoming a robust unified endpoint management offering, with advances in managing Windows 10 and macOS, Gartner said.

VMware

Strengths: AirWatch has proven itself both as capable of supporting large-scale deployments, and as an EMM solution that's appropriate for the majority of verticals. The solution has also featured continued innovation with support for new operating systems and options for unmanaged devices.

Cautions: While AirWatch clients with access to a Technical Account Manager haven't reported support concerns, Gartner said it's gotten complaints about support from clients that don't have such access.

MobileIron: Leader

What it offers: MobileIron is the only standalone EMM vendor among Gartner's Magic Quadrant leaders, and one of the few on the list overall. The company's focus is on smartphones, tablets and PCs -- with support for iOS, Android and Windows 10. A typical use for the solution is as the central point for managing mobile policies.

MobileIron

Strengths: MobileIron has been busy making improvements to its EMM solution over the past year, with improvements reported in security and customer support -- including proactive support such as getting patches to on-premises customers. In addition, MobileIron's Cloud solution is proven to be capable of scaling to more than 100,000 devices, Gartner said.

Cautions: MobileIron faces competitive pressures as a standalone EMM vendor, specifically as a result of many organizations looking to reduce the number of vendors they work with. Gartner also notes that MobileIron falls short on macOS support, and that the company's solution doesn't have "ready-to-use" customizable reporting and analytics as part of its admin dashboard.

IBM: Leader

What it offers: IBM offers both the MaaS360 solution as well as mobile security products in adjacent areas, including threat detection and cloud access security broker. The company is in the midst of transitioning into a full UEM offering, and IBM is now leveraging cognitive computing (via Watson analytics) for its UEM customers.

IBM

Strengths: MaaS360 offers a number of important insights to IT administrators, such as identification of policy violations and related vulnerabilities. The solution also goes beyond mobile device management to support Windows 7, 8, 10 and macOS computers. In addition, customers have told Gartner that MaaS360 is "easier to implement than many other EMM solutions."

Cautions: IBM only offers MaaS360 as a software-as-a-service product, with no options for on-premises deployments (apart from an access gateway for applications such as email). The MaaS360 iOS app is also a larger install than other iOS EMM apps, while some features for managing Windows and macOS computers require both MaaS360 and BigFix, which "are not fully integrated," according to Gartner.

BlackBerry: Leader

What it offers: Along with management of mobile devices, Blackberry's Unified Endpoint Manager -- which debuted in 2016 -- offers capabilities around management of PCs, Macs and IoT devices. The offering includes the integration of the Good Technology portfolio, which was completed in 2016.

BlackBerry

Strengths: BlackBerry continues to offer the "strongest, most widely adopted" personal information management (PIM) solution among EMM vendors, Gartner said. The BlackBerry solutions particularly appeal to customers where regulatory compliance and a security-conscious approach are top priorities.

Cautions: There hasn't been widespread adoption yet for BlackBerry's PC and Mac management capabilities, meaning that organizations seeking the capabilities should-should expect to do "extensive testing" prior to deployment, Gartner said.

Microsoft: Visionary

What it offers: Microsoft's Intune is a cloud-based EMM solution that saw a notable increase in adoption during 2016, according to Gartner. The company began migrating tenants to Azure in December, which has helped to solve some of the weaknesses of the product. Intune is most ideal for customers "who have a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement and view Microsoft as a strategic partner; who will primarily support productivity-oriented use cases based on Microsoft Office 365; and who have deployed or will deploy Azure AD as their IAM solution."

Microsoft

Strengths: Because Intune is integrated with Office 365 mobile apps, it's the only EMM solution that can natively manage the data loss prevention settings of the apps. Intune licensing is also "highly attractive" for customers with a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement and more than 250 users, and the product features strong integration with Azure Active Directory and Advanced Threat Protection, according to Gartner.

Cautions: Problems with initial configuration and setup remains a frequently mentioned issue by Gartner clients. In addition, Intune only provides full integration with Azure Active Directory for identity and access management, and it's not available as an on-premises or hybrid local access gateway.

Citrix: Visionary

What it offers: Citrix's XenMobile is offered both as an independent EMM product and as an additive product to Microsoft's Intune. The acquisition of Octoblu has brought IoT management and analytics technology added to the EMM solution.

Citrix

Strengths: Offering XenMobile as an additive product to Intune is a smart move, according to Gartner. Citrix Secure Mail has gotten positive reviews from clients and Citrix has "strong product synergy" between XenMobile and other products from the company, such as NetScaler and ShareFile.

Cautions: Gartner said it found a functional gap in support for iOS 10 and Android mobile device management features. In addition, some support issues require involvement from an executive, and XenMobile's client management capabilities "are weaker than market leaders' offerings," Gartner said.

Sophos: Visionary

What it offers: Sophos Mobile -- a standalone, on-premises or cloud solution -- integrates with other Sophos security products such as endpoint protection, and is mainly targeted at small businesses. Sophos is one of just two endpoint security platform vendors that made this year's Magic Quadrant (Microsoft is the other one). Sophos is ideal for organizations that are seeking to consolidate EPP and EMM solutions.

Sophos

Strengths: Sophos Mobile offers a multimodal dashboard display using live tiles, as well as user self-help and wizard features for handling common maintenance. Sophos Mobile also offers advantages around portability of files.

Cautions: While Sophos Mobile supports Windows MDM, it's not well-labeled inside the Sophos system. Top-tier support is also not available all of the time, and Sophos doesn't address the issue of unmanaged devices.

SOTI: Visionary

What it offers: SOTI's solution is focused on Android devices and nontraditional mobile devices, such as purpose-built IoT endpoints. The company offers unique capabilities for managing Android devices and is working to address more types of endpoints, Gartner said.

SOTI

Strengths: SOTI continues to "broaden the gap" between its solution and others in the realm of managing Android devices, particularly in remote control and field support, Gartner wrote. The company also "excels" at providing remote control for devices, and is a leader in support Windows CE and other legacy devices, as well as certain IoT devices, according to Gartner.

Cautions: Gartner has heard from clients that there have been issues around execution and engagement during SOTI deployments, while the company also lacks native support for a secure personal information management tool. SOTI's pricing for basic MDM is also generally higher than other offerings, as well.

Ivanti: Visionary

What it offers: Ivanti -- the new name for the company created by the merger of Landesk and Heat Software -- is focused on providing an integration of UEM with endpoint protection, service desk and asset management. Ivanti has been a longtime leader in the client management tool (CMT) space, making it ideal for organizations looking that want "best-of-breed CMT functionality" in their EMM solution, Gartner writes.

Ivanti

Strengths: Advantages include a free-to-use self-service portal for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. The product also includes secure personal information management functionality and a single workflow for deploying applications to both mobile devices and PCs.

Cautions: Organizations with "best-of-breed needs may need to use alternative EMM products," Gartner writes. Ivanti also has "limited" mobile app wrapping capabilities.

NationSky: Niche Player

What it offers: NationSky's NQSky EMM product mostly supports on-premises deployments, though cloud deployments have been increasing, Gartner writes. Windows 10 management support has been recently added, and overall the product is an ideal fit for organizations in China, where NationSky is based.

NationSky

Strengths: NQSky EMM includes an "easy to navigate" console, and the product has "strong technical support and customer focus" overall, Gartner writes.

Cautions: There are limitations in support for Android with NQSky EMM -- the product doesn't support linking to public app stores, for instance -- while macOS is not supported.

Matrix42: Niche Player

What it offers: The Matrix42 Unified Endpoint Management is an "easy-to-use" EMM for both mobile devices and PCs, and is ideal especially for organizations in Europe and Australia.

Matrix42

Strengths: Matrix42 has integrated its EMM and service desk products for quick resolution of mobile device issues, and the company also provides user-based licensing for its UEM bundle.

Cautions: Key features are missing, including dashboard customization, while the company doesn't have a major presence in the Americas -- which can lead to challenges with support and implementation, Gartner wrote.

Snow Software: Niche Player

What it offers: Snow Software's Snow Device Manager includes an EMM solution with support for support for iOS 10, Android 7 and Windows 10 devices.

Snow Software

Strengths: Snow's EMM solution is fairly unique for its tight integration with a software asset management (SAM) tool, Gartner writes. Customer satisfaction for the product's self-service functionality is "very high," according to Gartner.

Cautions: The company's "pace of innovation in device management capabilities has slowed," Gartner writes, as Snow did not release a major new version in the past 12 months.

Cisco: Niche Player

What it offers: Cisco's EMM solution, the Meraki Systems Manager, supports iOS, Android, Windows and macOS devices. Cisco is the only network infrastructure vendor to make the Magic Quadrant for EMM, Gartner notes. The offering will be most interesting for organizations that are conducting MDM as a network operation task, or that specifically want a Cisco solution, Gartner said.

Cisco

Strengths: Meraki Systems Manager offers good support and reliability, an easy-to-understand interface, and is priced lower than many other EMM solutions.

Cautions: Meraki Systems Manager has fewer benefits for organizations that aren't using Cisco/Meraki as their primary infrastructure. In addition, Meraki "labels a domain of managed devices as a network, which administrators consider confusing," Gartner said, and the solution doesn't have a process for handling BYOD.