One of the new entrants in this Magic Quadrant this year, BlackBerry is a global public company with headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario. It ended its fiscal year in February 2013 with $11.1 billion in sales, including $4.2 billion in software and services. BlackBerry's focus has been on developing the new BlackBerry 10 (BB10) devices to compete with existing smartphone platforms. The vendor launched its first cross-platform MDM server, called Mobile Fusion, after the last Magic Quadrant research was developed, so it did not qualify. Its latest MDM product was released in January 2013 as part of the BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES 10) announcements to support the new devices. BES 10 has limited experience supporting non-BlackBerry devices, but still leads the way for mobility management based on its own platform. Although there hasn't been much adoption of cross-platform MDM from BlackBerry, there has been significant interest among its core base. Its success in MDM will rely on uptake of the new BB10 devices and the updating of older versions of BES to BES 10. BlackBerry is not considered much of an innovator in cross-platform MDM; although it does manage Android, it does not yet support advanced Android APIs from Samsung Safe-certified devices, but does have the strongest offering to manage and support BlackBerry devices. Although some vendors offer limited BlackBerry device support, these devices have a closed system that doesn't allow deep support outside the devices' own servers. BlackBerry has also created a unique and secure way to route MDM traffic through its infrastructure, eliminating the need to use a separate VPN. BlackBerry is positioned in the Niche Players quadrant and should only be considered for BlackBerry management or for cross-platform if iOS is needed and BES 10 has been purchased.
Evaluation Criteria
Ability to Execute
Gartner analysts evaluate technology providers on the quality and efficacy of the processes, systems, methods or procedures that enable IT provider performance to be competitive, efficient and effective, and to positively affect revenue, retention and reputation. For MDM, this involved providing on-premises-based or SaaS/cloud delivery capability, with the required number of features to manage the software, security and hardware of a midsize or large (more than 1,000 devices) organization. We also look for diversity in channel support and operations capability, and the ability to support a global organization.
Table 1. Ability to Execute Evaluation Criteria
Evaluation Criteria
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Weighting
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|---|
Product/Service
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High
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Overall Viability (Business Unit, Financial, Strategy, Organization)
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High
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Sales Execution/Pricing
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Standard
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Market Responsiveness and Track Record
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Standard
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Marketing Execution
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Standard
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Customer Experience
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High
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Operations
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Standard
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Source: Gartner (May 2013)
Completeness of Vision
Gartner analysts evaluate technology providers on their ability to convincingly articulate logical statements about current and future market direction, innovation, customer needs, and competitive forces, as well as how they map to the Gartner position. Ultimately, technology providers are rated on their understanding of how market forces can be exploited to create opportunities for the provider, which is especially important in a diverse mobile world, with no platform standardization, a quickly moving market and rapidly changing technology. MDM providers should have a significant vision of the evolving market, including software delivery methods, innovative and differentiated features, and geographic sales diversity.
Table 2. Completeness of Vision Evaluation Criteria
Evaluation Criteria
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Weighting
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|---|
Market Understanding
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High
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Marketing Strategy
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Standard
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Sales Strategy
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Standard
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Offering (Product) Strategy
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High
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Business Model
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Standard
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Vertical/Industry Strategy
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No Rating
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Innovation
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High
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Geographic Strategy
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Standard
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Source: Gartner (May 2013)
Quadrant Descriptions
Leaders
Leaders demonstrate balanced progress, effort and clout in all execution and vision categories and are the first to envision, develop and launch new MDM features, partnerships and strategies. If they are not among the leading MDM providers in sales, they are, at a minimum, the most critical competitive threats to their peers in open competition. A leading vendor is not a default choice for all buyers, and clients are warned not to assume that they should buy only from the Leaders quadrant. To stay on the right side of the chart, Leaders (and Visionaries) must offer features that remove significant roadblocks to the complex challenges that enterprises face when attempting to treat mobile consumer devices as business tools. One example of a competitively disruptive activity might include delivering a sandbox method to prevent data leakage between personal and business applications. Another is the ability to support enterprise and third-party applications, provide a deeper security capability, and actively partner for technology capabilities.
Challengers
Challengers have attractive products that address the typical baseline needs for MDM, with competitive visibility that is strong enough to demand attention in RFPs, but may not show up as often, nor win as many clients as Leaders. Challengers may win contracts by competing on a limited selection of functions or a limited selection of prospective buyers by industry, geography or other limiting factors, even if, on speculation, their products have broad functions. They may be perceived as a threat by other vendors, but that threat will be primarily focused on a limited class of buyers, rather than the MDM market as a whole. Challengers are efficient and expedient choices for defined access problems.
Visionaries
Visionaries are able to demonstrate long-term strategies for MDM that point to the product and service approaches that will be most competitive in the future. Visionaries might affect the course of MDM, but they lack the execution influence to outmaneuver Challengers and Leaders. Also, Visionaries may not have the funding nor the capability to scale their businesses and provide robust operations and customer support. Marketing and mind share are also weak areas for Visionaries. Buyers may pick Visionaries for best-of-breed features, and for broader infrastructure investments than Niche Players. Smaller vendors may take risks on potentially disruptive technologies, while larger vendors may be in the process of building out their next-generation portfolios. Buyers of Visionaries' products may base their selections on specific technology features and by participating in the vendor's road map.
Niche Players
Niche Players meet the typical needs of buyers, and fare well when given a chance to compete in a product evaluation, but are usually smaller, and many buyers may be unaware of their services. Larger companies in the Niche Players quadrant may not have fully articulated a vision or strategy, and may have fallen behind the competition as the market moves forward. They may not be as invested in the MDM market as other companies, and are focused on more of their core market offerings. Niche Players generally lack the clout to change the course of the market or have not yet made the investment to do so. They may offer an uncommon delivery mechanism for products and services. They may rely on a self-limiting business model, and/or have limited influence outside of a particular industry or geography. Niche Players may target clients that, for various reasons, prefer not to buy from larger network players. In many Gartner market studies, buyers report that Niche Players tend to provide more personal attention to their needs.
MDM Market Data
MDM has seen rapid growth during the past two years as companies have adopted more consumer-designed smartphones and are looking to enforce policies across multiple mobile OS platforms. In 2012, Gartner saw license revenue run to $784 million worldwide, and it is expected to rise to over $1.6 billion in 2014. Of that, 83% of lines were managed in on-premises servers, with cloud accounting for 17%, up from 5% in 2011. Although penetration has hit about 30% in North America, it is still growing and is much lower in other regions. The additional growth in smartphones, tablets and BYOD is driving adoption of MDM and will continue to do so for the next few years at a similar rate. The expansion into additional security products, such as DLP, containerization and VPN, as well as mobile content management areas, such as EFSS and MAM-like app stores, will continue this growth.
Increased competition, the movement toward cloud services and the impact of larger MDM companies will continue to put pricing pressure on this segment. In 2012, Gartner saw per-seat pricing decrease by up to 30% on average from the beginning to the end of the year. Increased product expansion into mobile software and content management can delay this in 2013, but continued competition on a global basis will push pricing in a downward trend. Potential mergers and acquisitions could delay some of the pricing pressure.
As in previous years, North America has seen the biggest number of MDM sales in 2012, with 65% of revenue gained in North America. Western Europe was second, at 17%, with the rest of the regions in single digits. Financial services led the way with 25% of sales, followed by manufacturing and healthcare and government. MDM is also being adopted by companies of all sizes, with over 70% of sales at 500 seats or lower. Gartner expects continued adoption and growth in all segments through 2014.
MDM Market Drivers
The growth of consumer-based devices in the market continues, with 63% of companies in North America planning for iOS to become the primary platform in the next 12 months.
1 Android, the most popular smartphone platform (see "Forecast: Mobile Phones, Worldwide, 2011-2017, 1Q13 Update"), at 50% market share for both the consumer and business markets at year-end 2012, has under 20% in enterprise-only market share today, which varies based on region. However, Gartner believes that, by 2016, over 40% of enterprise-supported mobile devices will be Androids, so cross-platform MDM will be in even greater demand. The drive for many companies to support individual users' mobile devices (both smartphones and tablets), as well as to secure corporate data and support mobile users, are the primary drivers for MDM adoption.
MDM is typically introduced as a method to implement and support mobile data security on smartphones and tablets. Most adopting companies are already supporting basic mobile device policies through EAS (see Note 2) before they adopt a more thorough MDM solution. This is because they are looking for more detailed mobile data security capabilities and are looking to support more-complex mobile computing and communications processes. For 2013 and beyond, the main trends will be:
Security Trends
- Application-based VPN — Using a VPN for every app transaction can drain battery life and also increases data traffic for nonbusiness needs. There is a movement to enforce application-based VPN on business apps to guarantee security.
- Data containerization — Companies are assessing the opportunity to separate business data from personal data, either by application or by putting it into separate workspaces, as a way to increase data integrity and management, while affording additional privacy to personal data. This is especially important for BYOD programs.
- NAC — The use of NAC and identity management with MDM is to enforce segmented policies, and can use the network to allow, deny or grant limited access to devices, based on their compliance with these policies.
Mobile Enablement Trends
- EFSS — These offerings enable productivity and collaboration for mobile workers who use multiple devices by allowing file sharing for internal and external use. Consumer-grade products are dominant today, but enterprises are evaluating solutions that will afford them increased data security and management.
- App catalog — Companies are looking for solutions that will provide access to secure and manageable third-party apps commonly found in application markets, but want to be able to add enterprise policies and controls. MDM providers are partnering with ISVs and third-party app developers to configure enterprise-grade apps and provide them in an extensive app catalog. An app store is used independent of the apps available in a catalog.
- Application provisioning and support — As part of a total mobile software management solution, enterprises need the ability to provision and support third-party, ISV and enterprise mobile applications. Many want an easier way to support apps across different types of users, with multiple policy possibilities. MDM is well-positioned to provide this as part of advanced mobile app management capabilities.
- Application virtualization — Also in the app area, companies are assessing the use of mobile workspace aggregation, where the app would run in the cloud versus on the endpoint. While this is compelling because it would reduce the need for app customization based on the mobile platform, it would require an optimization of the app to run in the network as well as require increased network access. Offline requirements are also important when mobile users are disconnected, but still need access to data.
There are many vendors to choose from and the MDM software Magic Quadrant is the guide to use to help create a shortlist of MDM vendors to assess. Not all MDM vendors could be included in the deeper assessment if they did not meet the inclusion criteria. These vendors are listed in Note 3; they were not included in the Magic Quadrant, but have some type of MDM offering.
The Future of MDM and Enterprise Mobility Management
As companies support mobile users, devices and content, the challenge of putting together an enterprise mobile solution continues. Because of the lack of standardization in mobility and the fact that users have different mobility profiles and application requirements, there is no one size fits all when it comes to providing this mobile solution. Today, enterprises often have to sew together a number of point solutions to enable a mobile solution. Often, those point solutions come from a nonmobile legacy and are not optimized for mobility, leading to a poor user experience and an expensive option that is underutilized.
As MDM adoption grows, it is expanding out of a pure policy management function to incorporate an enterprise mobile management and enablement solution. Many companies see the MDM platform as the main tool to both implement and manage a mobile solution. Since the EMM concept was introduced by Gartner last year, MDM has evolved to become a broad system management offering, what we call enterprise mobility management. This entails many of the services for optimizing and enabling mobile applications and data on the device, as well as for ensuring the security of that data. Many products are still evolving in this area, but it will be the primary focus of many MDM providers during the next few years.
Additional research contribution and review: Song Chuang, Bryan Taylor, Ken Dulaney, Leif-Olof Wallin
