Ivanti Neurons for MDM is a cloud‑Based Mobile Device Management. Ivanti Neurons for MDM enables secure access to data and apps on any device across the Everywhere Workplace.
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DiskStation
Score 9.1 out of 10
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DiskStation is a line of network-attached storage (NAS) solutions from Synology headquartered in Taiwan.
For devices that require single-app mode (iOS) deployments are easy to manage. We are also able to control which OS features are available at a very granular level. What is often lacking are good guides illustrating how to implement certain features - for example, setting up single-app mode for the first time is not intuitive and should not require opening service requests with the helpdesk.
The tools for remote support require a lot of effort and have made implementation of this capability a financial decision instead of a technical one. By this I mean that it's better to request budget for professional services than to invest mine or my team's time, which makes it far less likely to get implemented. Things that cost money and require justifications to the finance team are disadvantaged from the word go.
The Synology DiskStation is well suited as a NAS solution, easy enough to mirror a Windows file server shares setup. Access to the Hyperbackup utility eliminates the need to purchase a tape backup solution. A portable USB drive can be used as the initial backup target. For air gap purposes can connect Hyperbackup to the various cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, GCP to copy backup data there. Utilizing it as a backup solution has also been great, instead of purchasing a tape solution, tapes and an offsite tape repository. Active Backup for Business is another excellent backup utility for physical servers, VMWare virtual machines, etc. Restoring files is fairly intuitive. Until Synology introduced the dual controller setup, using it as a SAN was less appropriate as there was occasional downtime when the controller had an issue but this was less important for the scenarios we were using it for. It would be more of a concern if we had used it for things that require more robust uptime requirements. Overall we are happy with the features of the Synology DiskStation.
MobileIron has a very easy to deploy architecture. We reviewed other products before making our business decision to deploy MobileIron, and one of the reasons we selected MobileIron was due to the ease of deployment, the low footprint, and the ease of configuration.
MobileIron has a broad range of customizations and add-on products that make it an ideal product for a number of additional use cases. None of these use cases got business backing at BH Media, but Docs@Work and Apps@Work are two features that would make MobileIron an ideal tool for a customer who needs to allow BYOD or company devices the ability to access documents or applications without VPN.
MobileIron is supported by a large number of devices and their operating systems. In a company which allows BYOD devices, you can't always control what device a user is going to bring in. MobileIron has support for older devices and OS versions and is also quick to adopt newer devices, so a new device isn't shut out in the cold waiting for a vendor to update their software.
Synology DiskStation offers lots of options for creating links to share files or request that some uploads files. It makes it really easy to just share a link that can have an expiration or a set number of times it is accessed.
We always had enough storage on our Synology DiskStation, we never had to worry about something being too big to upload or share.
Love how you can create folders that are shared and also have some that are private. This makes it so easy to have shared collaborations with coworkers or clients, but also allows you to have a private place to save things that only you need.
Documentation is hard to find. Most of MobileIron's (MI) documentation can only be accessed through an MI account. This, in itself, is not a problem. The problem is locating specific information. Typically with other MDMs, a quick google search will point you to the location of the documentation within the official website. The way MI has their documentation locked down, I cannot find anything I'm looking for through a google search. Also, there were times documentation is locked by permissions and links provided by support are inaccessible to me due to these restrictions.
Sales - The sales team can sometimes come off as not genuine. I understand the purpose of sales is to sell and make money for the company, but the approach sometimes feels artificial; they say they have to company's best interest in mind, but the push for a sell like a car salesman.
Many of the automation options are not explicitly available into MobileIron Core. I have to use a special scripting language to make MI do the things I need it to do, such as automatically retire devices that have been inactive for 60 days.
While BTRFS is a more advanced file system than ext4, it also is in a perpetual state of development, with many features not fully functional and a plethora of bugs. Synology has managed to overcome many of these limitations by placing BTRFS on top of a LVM, but there are much better file systems that Synology could have used, such as OpenZFS.
DSM's built-in backup software, HyperBackup, while robust, oftentimes runs into issues. Specifically, backups can be working fine for months or years, and then suddenly the backups will fail. Sometimes these failures can be resolved, but oftentimes the backups need to be completely restarted. Fortunately, even when the backup fails, the existing backups are still accessible, it is just that new backups can not be performed.
The underlying Linux OS provides significant benefits, but also adds a fair amount of complexity. Most of that complexity is wonderfully hidden by the DSM interface, but when certain problems arise, delving into the Linux command line is not out of the question.
Perhaps the biggest issue with Synology DiskStation is Synology's support. The issue isn't that the support is bad, but it can be frustratingly slow when dealing with a major issue. Synology does have a very active community that is always willing to help, but nothing beats first-party support.
So far we have been very pleased with MobileIron and it has accomplished many of our goals. We are looking forward to continued improvements on Windows 8 platforms and Android PIM solutions. The only way that we would leave is if a solution came out that was better suited to work with Lotus Notes
It provides us with great ROI compared with other solutions. It is also a versatile product, having NAS and SAN product lines depending on the business requirement. Furthermore, the implementation of dual controller lines would allow us to consider it for more critical applications to supplement the more enterprise-level SAN solution. It also is a wonderful backup solution, having all the applications available after purchase of the appliance without the further need to purchase additional software or licensing.
The Synology DiskStation is fairly easy to use, but maybe a challenge for those who not super IT savvy. With some trial and error, you can pretty much figure out how to configure the NAS the way you want it configured. I would say it is easy to use once it is set up and maintaining the device is likewise pretty straightforward as well.
I have been using MobileIron for years. As with any company, they suffered the constraints of growth. I don't normally deal with call-in support, but in the few instances that I have the level of support has gotten inherently better. My usual support experience is from a dedicated individual(s) from professional services. This is mainly because of the size of the deployment. This offers a resource that is thoroughly familiar with your environment. Another benefit is that you can contact them directly, which eliminates the handing off and starting over with multiple individuals. As a company they are extremely committed in their support structure and making it better. They send out audits and welcome any interaction and if there is a complaint they follow up with efficacy
Unfortunately, the one time I've had to reach out to DiskStation support, it did not go well. My NAS appliance wasn't appearing on the network, and no matter what the support team tried, they could not get it back online. Instead of offering to send me a new unit, they told me to go buy a new one - obviously, this was a disappointing response and not very eco-friendly either! Fortunately, through some internet research of my own, and some ingenuity, I figured out I could restore my NAS to factory settings by removing all the drives and resetting. Only then did I realize I had a bad disk. I had to experiment for a while to figure out which one it was. Once I had done that, though, I was able to get the latest DiskStation loaded back on, no thanks to the DiskStation support crew. If notifications were rock solid, I suspect I would have caught the bad disk before it because an OS problem, but I never received a bad-disk notification.
It is online based, after learning content you can take a test and if you don't pass you get two other chances to pass. Once you pass the test you can print out your certification or save it
We've evaluated a number of other MDM solutions before finally deciding on MobileIron as our choice. These included AirWatch, Good, Citrix and IBM. None came close to the cost price point offered by MobileIron providing the same solutions. The initial setup/configuration was provided for free and training classes were exceptional. Other vendors did not offer the same level of support provided by MobileIron.
Synology DiskStation packs a punch with the latest and greatest feature set which goes above and beyond many other vendors. It allows for a turn-key solution to cover almost every use case in the SMB market leaving other vendors behind.
MobileIron initially was a positive part of our mobile stack. However after two years, we are exploring in-house solutions as Mobile Iron has not been stable enough for our needs. We had a MobileIron-related outage last year that took a week to resolve and cost our business substantially.
I believe MobileIron is more effective with Android devices than iOS.
MobileIron seems better suited to devices that need to be updated/managed infrequently (~ 1/week or less often). For tablets that need daily MDM interactions, MobileIron was not sufficiently reliable.
It has helped us go from printing things out to file them away to going 100% digital with our files and documents because we have a secure place to save stuff.
We are organized. I can't really put a value or number to how amazing this is for us, but when we deal with so many documents and files it can be so hard to keep things organized, but with Synology DiskStation, we have all our files in specific places and it helps us stay organized and definitely saves time because things are so easy to find.
One negative thing has been that our Synology DiskStation relies on us either being plugged into the network in the office or having a strong internet connection at home. With the pandemic and everyone working from home, we have had "outages" where we were not able to sync our data, and things were lost and we had to start over.
