AirWatch

Submitted by Aaron Freimark on September 25, 2011 - 12:20am
Provider Info
Web Site: 
http://www.air-watch.com/

AirWatch has a free 30-day trial.

5/14-16/12: AirWatch Connect 1st annual AirWatch users’ conference http://www.air-watch.com/connect

10/14/11: InfoTech has published an MDM Vendor landscape highlighting the features within AirWatch:
http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/it-vendor-landscape-mobile-device-ma...

1/4/10: eSecurityPlanet has published an extensive review on using AirWatch for iOS MDM.

Experience

Their web-based management system is HTML5 based. The configuration profiler builder is a clone of Apple's iPhone Configuration Utility, and is quite complete. There are many management features over and above the standard within the iOS5 apis such as location based services, secure mobile browser, secure content locker, an iOS app sdk (provides management libraries to embed within your app for additional functionality)

AirWatch also manages Android, Symbian, Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices.

Deployment

AirWatch offers several deployment options. You may purchase the software (requires Microsoft SQL, among other infrastructure), purchase an appliance, or use it as SaaS (i.e. hosted by AirWatch on their own servers). They are friendly to resellers and the site may be skinned with your company's theme.

The system allows for multiple "Location Groups" and "Locations". You can use these to set up a multi-tennant system where each "Location Group" has it's own LDAP based authentication component & each group pays for its own use. This is useful for resellers.

Packaging
SaaS: 
yes
Appliance: 
yes
Windows Software: 
yes
Mac Software: 
no
Unix Software: 
no
Virtual Machine: 
yes
Reseller Theming: 
yes
Licensing
Recurring License: 
yes
Perpetual License: 
yes
Maintenance
Purchase: 
Mandatory
Includes Dot Releases: 
yes
Includes Major Releases: 
yes
Includes Support: 
yes
Support
12 x 5: 
yes
12 x 7: 
yes
24 x 7: 
yes
Scalability
Locations: 
yes
Location-Specific Admins: 
yes
Role-Based Admins: 
yes
Fault Tolerance
Standalone Server: 
yes
Fail-Over Capability: 
yes
Load Balancing: 
yes
Enrollment
Web Portal: 
yes
iOS App: 
yes
Bulk Upload: 
yes
API: 
yes
Enrollment Authentication
Active Directory: 
yes
Open Directory: 
yes
Other LDAP: 
yes
User Upload: 
yes
Mobileconfig Features
Require Passcode: 
yes
Device Restrictions: 
yes
Exchange Account Seeding: 
yes
WiFi Configuration: 
yes
VPN - L2TP: 
yes
VPN - Cisco AnyConnect: 
yes
VPN - Juniper: 
yes
VPN - F5: 
yes
iOS 5 Mobileconfig
"Push" Retail Apps: 
yes
Encrypted Mail: 
yes
Sandbox Mail: 
yes
Prevent iCloud: 
yes
Wi-Fi Auto-Join: 
yes
On Demand Features
Remove Passcode: 
yes
Remote Lock: 
yes
Remote Wipe: 
yes
Push Text Message: 
yes
Profile Features
Start On Date: 
yes
End On Date: 
yes
Versioning: 
yes
Rollback: 
yes
Triggered by Inventory: 
yes
App Management
Push Web Apps: 
yes
Catalog of In-House Apps: 
yes
Recommended Retail Apps: 
yes
VPP Integration: 
yes
Vendor-provided iOS App(s)
AirWatch MDM Agent
Admin Notifications
Alert When Roaming: 
yes
Alert When No Response: 
yes
Alert on Forbidden App: 
yes
Administration Console
Web: 
yes
API or SDK: 
yes
Desktop App: 
no
Data Export
Device Status: 
yes
App Inventory: 
yes
Device History: 
yes
Integration
Apple GSX: 
no
Microsoft BPOS: 
yes
Good: 
no
Certificate Features
Enterprise SCEP Integration: 
yes
Local CA with SCEP: 
yes
Apply Certs to Exchange: 
yes
Apply Certs to WiFi: 
yes
Apply Certs to VPN: 
yes
LDAP Features
Dynamic Policies by LDAP group: 
yes
Dynamic Policies by LDAP OU: 
yes
Dynamic Policies by LDAP Attribute: 
yes
Custom Message by LDAP Attribute: 
yes
Other Devices
Android: 
yes
Blackberry: 
yes
Symbian: 
yes
Windows Mobile: 
yes
Windows Phone 7: 
yes
Windows Desktops: 
no
Mac Desktops: 
yes
Linux Desktops: 
no