GigaOm Radar for Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) Solutionsv4.0

1. Executive Summary

Endpoint management is one of the most significant challenges in enterprises today. This is driven in part by the increasingly large percentages of the workforce that are distributed geographically and need the flexibility to work from anywhere. To remain competitive, businesses must give users access to the services they require to do their jobs effectively.

However, flexibility comes with significant risk because it demands that organizations allow access to what is likely one of their most significant business assets—their data—by a widely distributed, high-risk conglomeration of devices and locations. Enterprises must solve two critical issues: how to provide users with an effective and flexible working environment with access to the apps and data they need and how to do so without compromising security and control of business-critical data assets.

The answer to this challenge is to develop a comprehensive endpoint management strategy, usually one that is underpinned by a unified endpoint management (UEM) solution. These tools enable organizations to fully manage the lifecycle of their endpoint devices, starting with the initial enrollment of a device. The deployed tools of the UEM solution then standardize security and controls throughout the device’s working life, ensuring that it remains operational and secure until it is ultimately decommissioned with all the organization’s information effectively removed from the device.

Traditionally, UEM solutions provided organizations with asset management, software delivery, patching, and basic controls. However, the changing demands of an ever-widening range of endpoints means that these solutions must also evolve to meet new needs. In this update, we explore what businesses need from these solutions today. Now, they must not only track a company’s assets but secure them and, more importantly, secure the business in the process. UEM solutions need to know where all the endpoints are, how they are behaving, and whether they present security risks when they access applications and data. Moreover, the solutions must do all of this without compromising user productivity.

UEM solutions bring user and device management together into one view and enable organizations to:

• Manage all devices through a single console
• Manage device lifecycle from enrollment to deactivation
• Ensure device sustainability
• Create and enforce security policies
• Patch and maintain devices and applications
• Enhance the user experience
• Ensure devices meet the requirements of an overall security strategy

The range and number of endpoints in organizations today, left unmanaged, present a significant risk. Effective ways must be found to manage them because failure to do so puts the business at risk, impacts productivity, and increases operational costs.

This is our fourth year evaluating the UEM space in the context of our Key Criteria and Radar reports. This report builds on our previous analysis and considers how the market has evolved over the last year.

This GigaOm Radar report examines 15 of the top UEM solutions and compares offerings against the capabilities (table stakes, key features, and emerging features) and nonfunctional requirements (business criteria) outlined in the companion Key Criteria report. Together, these reports provide an overview of the market, identify leading UEM offerings, and help decision-makers evaluate these solutions so they can make a more informed investment decision.