Cisco offers Meraki Systems Manager (SM), an enterprise mobility management platform supporting the monitoring, provisioning and securing of mobile devices across an enterprise network.
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IBM MaaS360
Score 8.3 out of 10
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IBM MaaS360 is a mobile security offering developed by Fiberlink, acquired and owned by IBM since early 2014.
It was the most affordable and provided our company with the features we needed. Even after multiple re-evaluations, we were still able to justify the on-going use of Cisco Meraki SM over the the more expensive options. The others provide some more features, but Meraki provides …
I believe MaaS360 has many more policy based choices than Meraki when it comes to Apple mobile device management. The MaaS360 suite seemed better suited for our SMB needs. However Meraki is also a decent MDM and is professionally built for enterprise use. In the end we chose …
It is very helpful if you need to restrict the apps a student or employee can have on their device. I had teachers using Netflix on the iPads before I brought them under management. Restricting them will make you unpopular with some of your employees, however, I advise them the device is being provided for business use and, therefore we have the right and responsibility to manage it.
Enrolling bulk devices through the Device Enrollment Program (DEP) is simple, straightforward, and quick. Multiple methods for device enrollment are available, including barcode scanning, email, and manual entry via the platform. App synchronization between Apple Business Manager (ABM) and the MaaS360 platform occurs swiftly. Additionally, app distribution and removal are efficiently managed on the platform.
Limited ability for "command line" functions. For example, we had a laptop that was stolen and showed to be online, but we could not wipe it. We were able to access a command prompt, but it would not accept DISKPART or FORMAT commands to try and make the PC unusable.
The GPS location is not terribly accurate and frequently it "guesses" location based off of an IP address rather than actually activating the GPS on the device. This makes tracking lost/stolen devices very difficult.
Difficulty getting devices to correctly show their status in the dashboard. For example, I can have a PC that is online and connected to the Internet, but shows to be offline in the dashboard. Only after refreshing many times would it indicate that the PC was actually online, thus allowing me to administer it.
MaaS360 with Watson has a lot of features and capabilities, which can sometimes make it difficult for us to navigate. Improving the user interface and making it friendly could help make the platform easier to use.
Expanding integrations with other systems to provide better support for a wider range of systems and platforms.
I'll gave it a 10, because we have not come across any negative point with MaaS360. In a real comparison with other UEMs / MDMs you will find out that other providers that claim to be "free" or "included" don't have the capeabilities that MaaS360 has. Some features are just not available and others would require you to pay for them. In that case the product would not be "free" anymore.
It has is easy to use overall and is very powerful. The learning curve for the system is very small and I have found it easy to train members of our team to use it. It can fit any size organization and the support is excellent. The ROI is well worth it. If you have a multiplatform ecosystem, this tool is near perfect.
Having years of experience with MDM and experiencing the evolution of the granularity of the functionality MDM's have had to evolve, no MDM is ever "easy" to use. MaaS360 rises to the top however, because zero day changes are always ahead of the competition. A huge benefit with MaaS360 and IBM's approach to supporting these changes is that they seldom change configuration work flows. Competing Vendors always arbitrarily change workflows which requires a significnat ongoing learning curve in order to maintain technical competence
We have found that Cisco Meraki has always had very good customer support. In the rare case, when we have needed assistance they have always been quick to respond and solve the issue.
MaaS360's phone support has been decent the few times I have used it. In addition the person who on-boarded us has been available for additional questions after the process was over. However IBM could do a much better job in creating a user-friendly search engine and white-paper database to help people find topics. Right now finding info is more based on searching through white papers themselves.
To implement IBM Security MaaS360 with Watson, follow these steps: Set up the platform, enroll devices, configure policies and settings, monitor and manage devices. Implementing it can help organizations to securely manage and monitor the use of mobile devices and related resources in their networks, improving security and productivity for their users.
The only product I have used that is similar is Apple Configurator. While a powerful solution, it requires physical access to the devices which is not always possible, especially on a large site. Meraki is able to achieve many of the same functions as the Apple configurator but without ever needing to physically access the device, other than initial setup and registration.
Ease of use and management of mobile devices are easier and has protection against the Cyber threats. The security controls implementation on our devices are perfect and in one place. I love the responsiveness and prosctivenes of the support. Seamless integration with all security devices. The ability to wipe and control days remotely is perfect easy to control all our company information by locking down lost and stolen devices.
It’s scalable up to a point and will scale well from small to a medium business, however, as a business grows and policies get more mature or detailed, you might have to later upgrade to a more appropriate enterprise solution such as MaaS360 or AirWatch. This solution however, will last quite a long tome for a growing business.
We worked with an IBM SE who was incredibly competent and extremely professional in handling our questions in addition to ensuring the Knowledge Transfer was completed properly
Our immediate take away has been a savings of thousands a year in MDM fees. We were paying around $3.00 a device with our previous MDM and our average with Meraki is about $1.88 per device. That while providing far more functionality than our previous provider.
