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Good Technology MDM Review: Tight Grip On Data
Good Technology's sandbox approach is similar to the approach of most MDM providers in that it requires servers that sit in front of a company's email infrastructure and interact with mobile devices directly. But the agent Good installs on mobile devices does much more than enforce policies. It includes email, contacts, a calendar and a Web browser. Some complain that Good makes people learn a new email interface, but it's not a steep learning curve.
In key IT scenarios -- enrolling many devices, updating devices frequently and giving device users access to company resources -- Good's software worked well in our test. With enrollment, admins can add a device manually or provide a file with all user names and devices for a mass import, or the software lets users do it through a portal. A weakness is that Good doesn't have enough built-in, automated reports on things like out-of-compliance devices.
For security, Good's Dynamics architecture and APIs keep documents such as PDFs inside its container, instead of their opening on a device. Good needs more apps in this architecture, but its list is growing. It also puts a browser in its mobile agent so that admins can limit the URLs users can visit.
As mobile devices proliferate, managing them will become less important; the focus will shift to managing company data on those devices. With steps like Dynamics and browser controls, Good is on its way to data-centric security.
For a longer review, see our MDM Report
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Michael A. Davis is president of External IT, a national managed IT services, cloud services, and IT security provider that focuses on unifying the business IT experience.
