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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Sophos Mobile
Score 8.1 out of 10
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Sophos Mobile is a unified endpoint management option providing mobile data protection and security against mobile malware.
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.
I recommend it for any corporate scenario of companies that have smartphones, tablets, and computers and want to manage them all by controlling what to install, permission to use applications and services, and easily obtaining a report and inventory of everything. We protect against viruses, spam, and the main cyber threats and also physical security against theft. Data can be erased from the cloud from anywhere, and we prevent data theft. It is compatible with all operating systems, and Sophos technical support is available worldwide.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Personally, haven't seen any other MDM on the market, but I feel since Sophos is greatly known to have easy to use products, that the others may not be as easy to use as Sophos Mobile Control. One of the key factors for organizations to choose Sophos Mobile Control and Security is because the Android OS (most attacked OS on the planet) is protected with award-winning antivirus and anti malware from Sophos. We have seen as advisors, how unprotected customers, get huge telecom bills because of the lack of security, since they think that an Android OS is healthy enough... big mistake. One simple thing I always tell friends, family and customers, protect your Android device with Sophos Security (it's free for home users).
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.
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.
