Mastering Mixed-Platform MDM

What is Mobile Device Management?

Mobile device management (MDM) provides enterprises the ability to oversee, control, and secure devices such as laptops, tablets, and phones within an organization's network. Managing devices is an important component of risk management and mitigation for an organization, enabling administrators to perform a variety of tasks including:

• Onboarding and offboarding of employees
• Managing lost devices, including remote tracking and locking and wiping functionalities
• Distributing applications
• Patching operating systems and applications
• Enforcing security standards including passwords, screen locks, firewalls, and disk encryption
• Underpinning compliance

Dual-Solution Approach Addresses Fundamental Platform Differences

Cybersecurity is notoriously fragmented, and MDM is no exception. There are currently no single-pane-of-glass solutions that provide a seamless management experience across both Windows and Mac operating systems. This has led most businesses with mixed environments to opt for a dual-solution set-up of industry-leaders Intune (for Windows devices) and Jamf (for Macs).

For Macs, Jamf is the most powerful MDM available. It has tons of fine-grained controls, a powerful API, and automated remediation with sub-minute response times. It offers zero-touch provisioning through Apple Business Manager.

On the Windows side, Microsoft's Intune offers direct integration into the Microsoft stack. It offers the best collection of ready to use configurations through its settings catalog, providing flexibility and control over device configurations. Integration with Autopilot allows for zero-touch provisioning for new devices.

As previously mentioned, there are many platforms who tout the promise of Unified Endpoint Management (UEM), including Microsoft Intune. However, even when a single platform provides agents for multiple platforms, the management experience is still bifurcated by platform to accommodate each platform's uniqueness. This has left the promise of UEMs unfulfilled, and leaves users without an improved management experience, and still with less powerful solutions than best-in-class alternatives.

Set-Up Considerations

Internal Resources

Both Jamf and Intune have steep learning curves when it comes to implementation and management, which can make it difficult for companies with small IT teams. For organizations with the resources to support onboarding and ongoing management, we recommend creating a project tracker with timelines and milestones to help keep teams moving forward. For support or help with questions that arise during implementation, we recommend a few resources: Jamf Nation Community, Mac Admins Slack workspace, Microsoft Intune Support Hub, and product specific subReddits like r/intune, r/jamf, and r/sysadmins.

For companies without in-house expertise or bandwidth, Zip Security can help. Our platform makes it easy for users to onboard and deploy MDM solutions. We are able to get clients up and running within two weeks of contracting. Our software and customer success team handle the bulk of onboarding, with about 4 hours of meeting and follow-up work required on the client side. Our software builds on top of MDM solutions, eliminating the need for a technical background to set-up or manage.

Identity Solutions

Utilizing an MDM solution alongside identity and access management can unlock additional functionality and benefit. For example, Zip's platform integrates MDMs and IdPs to create a user-first approach to device management, simplifying tasks like onboarding and offboarding employees. It also provides a clear view of the set of devices people are using to access corporate data, improving transparency and control.

Simplify Security & IT with Zip

Zip Security is an all-in-one cybersecurity and IT platform that ensures corporate assets are secure by default. Its easy-to-use platform eliminates the need for technical expertise - employee onboarding, antivirus deployment, setting configuration and more takes seconds thanks to platform automations.

Because we're a software company, our solution costs a fraction of the price of similar services like MSPs.