Table of Contents
- Summary
- UEM Primer
- Report Methodology
- Decision Criteria Analysis
- Evaluation Metrics
- Key Criteria: Impact Analysis
- Analyst’s Take
- Methodology
- About Paul Stringfellow
- About GigaOm
- Copyright
1. Summary
Endpoint management is one of the most significant challenges in the enterprise today. Distributed and flexible work arrangements are quickly becoming the norm, and businesses must respond accordingly if they want to remain competitive. Those that fail to do so risk losing key resources to employee turnover.
However, providing employees access to the data and services they require to do their jobs effectively, whether inside or outside a physical office, comes with significant risk. It demands that access be granted to one of the most important assets a business has—its data—via a high-risk distributed network of devices and locations.
Thus, enterprises must solve two issues: how to provide users with access to the applications and data they need in an effective and flexible working environment, and how to do so in a way where security and control of business-critical data assets is maintained.
The solution is to develop a comprehensive endpoint management strategy underpinned by a unified endpoint management (UEM) solution. UEM tools allow organizations to fully manage the lifecycle of their endpoint devices starting with initial enrollment, in which they can be deployed with standardized security and controls, and throughout their operational life, ensuring they remain operational and secure. Finally, as devices are decommissioned, all organizational data, sensitive or otherwise, is effectively removed.
As covered in our initial report released in 2021, UEM solutions have traditionally provided organizations with asset management, software delivery, patching, and basic controls. However, in response to an ever-widening range of endpoints, business requirements have changed. Which means that UEM solutions must also evolve.
Today, UEM solutions need to know where endpoints are, how they’re behaving, and if they present a security risk when accessing applications and data. UEM tools must not only track a company’s assets but secure them as well, and, more importantly, secure the business in the process.
The GigaOm Key Criteria and Radar reports provide an overview of the UEM market, identify capabilities (table stakes, key criteria, and emerging technology) and evaluation metrics for selecting a UEM solution, and detail vendors and products that excel. These reports give prospective buyers an overview of the top vendors in this sector and help decision-makers evaluate solutions and decide where to invest.
How to Read this Report
This GigaOm report is one of a series of documents that helps IT organizations assess competing solutions in the context of well-defined features and criteria. For a fuller understanding, consider reviewing the following reports:
Key Criteria report: A detailed market sector analysis that assesses the impact that key product features and criteria have on top-line solution characteristics—such as scalability, performance, and TCO—that drive purchase decisions.
GigaOm Radar report: A forward-looking analysis that plots the relative value and progression of vendor solutions along multiple axes based on strategy and execution. The Radar report includes a breakdown of each vendor’s offering in the sector.
Solution Profile: An in-depth vendor analysis that builds on the framework developed in the Key Criteria and Radar reports to assess a company’s engagement within a technology sector. This analysis includes forward-looking guidance around both strategy and product.