VMware AirWatch - Review 2022

VMware acquired popular mobile device management (MDM) suite AirWatch (which begins at $iv.33 per device per month) approximately three years ago. For VMware, aiming for the meridian and picking upwards the marketplace leader (according to Gartner and others) was a central strategic move and the company has capitalized on it in spades. When we terminal reviewed it more than a yr agone, we gave VMware AirWatch our Editors' Choice award and rightly so. It remains at the pinnacle of the heap with this update. We put the latest version through its paces and found information technology to be ane of, if non the, easiest-to-utilise MDM tools nosotros tested. The VMware AirWatch Software-equally-a-Service (SaaS) awarding offers many of the same spider web-facing management tools y'all get from the other vendors in this review, including IBM MaaS360 and Microsoft Intune, especially when it'south combined with Microsoft's Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) Suite.

While other tools, such as Citrix XenMobile, have fallen back in the pack, the VMware atomic number 82 has actually widened, at least from a capability perspective. Much of that is due to VMware's Workspace One product, which brings the company'due south identity management capabilities and its app management and delivery technology under ane management umbrella.

That's fundamental, since information technology means combining VMware AirWatch and Workspace 1 lets administrators deliver and manage apps for both mobile and desktop machines. This blurs the lines between current MDM solutions and where the marketplace seems to exist headed, which is in the direction of uncomplicated device management regardless of form factor or mobile capabilities. Other vendors are bringing desktop direction features to their products as well. Much of this comes from customer demand, from customers looking to consolidate the number of management consoles their Information technology staff must monitor.

Installation and Device Enrollment

Getting signed up for a VMware AirWatch trial demo takes but a few minutes on their website. Clicking on the Free Trial link launches a sign-upward folio where y'all must enter your contact info, including a visitor electronic mail accost. The typical procedure includes a call from an business relationship representative to better understand your needs. I was able to skip that step for this review and go straight to testing the product.

An introductory email includes links to a personalized website and log-in information. After getting by the log-in screen, I was greeted with a Getting Started page that included a number of steps that needed to exist accomplished prior to registering devices. VMware AirWatch requires an Apple tree Push Notification (APN) certificate as does every other product in this comparing. To obtain that certificate, I had to first download the VMware AirWatch certificate request, which is so uploaded to an Apple website. The concluding step is to generate the APN certificate and register information technology for future apply.

I went through the enrollment process on all three platforms to get a experience for the flow. For Android and Apple iOS, you can use a QR code provided in the enrollment electronic mail to fill in the necessary account information. On the Microsoft Windows 10 Mobile device, I had to manually enter the information from the Setup/Accounts page. This wasn't a big deal merely did crave some boosted steps not required on the other devices.

VMware AirWatch - Device Overview in the Hub

On Apple devices, you lot must offset download the VMware AirWatch MDM app from the Apple Store and then launch the app to begin the registration procedure. The easiest way to do this is to use the QR lawmaking provided from the VMware AirWatch enrollment email to enter the necessary credentials. Information technology is also possible to apply the QR code on the other supported platforms every bit well. During the registration process, I was taken to the iPad settings screen where I had to okay and install the requisite VMware AirWatch services.

Enrolling an Android device also requires an app download from the Google Store, followed past a series of data pages. Once again, using the QR lawmaking helps eliminate whatsoever typing errors at this point. The terminal few steps involve approving the installation of the amanuensis and a device-specific app, which takes care of locking and wiping, if necessary.

Management Interface

The dashboard on the VMware AirWatch console lets you quickly scan for problems based on colors. Red ways something is wrong and helps to speedily identify where your focus should be. Clicking on any of the colors volition drill down into that specific issue with more detailed information underneath. The interactive graphs are responsive, and each graphical widget tin be customized to bear witness the information in just the way you lot desire to run across information technology. New features include expanded reporting options plus the ability to deploy apps through the Workspace One unified app itemize.

It is a relatively simple process to create a policy to require a personal identification number (Pin) should the device not have i turned on. I created this for the Windows telephone and clicked Publish. The next time the phone screen went bare, it required me to prepare a PIN upon waking up the phone. This does raise the event of ensuring the phone is in the possession of the owner when this process is initiated.

Reporting is a primal feature I wanted to evaluate for each vendor. VMware AirWatch particular screens include the power to export the information to a CSV file to use in reporting or for further analysis. Information technology's also possible to build filters to show devices by whatever number of unlike categories to get a quick written report on problems, compliancy issues, or any 1 of a number of custom attributes. New reports in the latest version add the power to run across app details by device, detailed device inventory, and more.

A Competitive Toll

VMware AirWatch pricing starts at $iv.33 per device per month and goes up to $9.33 per device per month for their full-featured cloud offering. On-premises pricing starts at $50 per device per twelvemonth and goes upwardly to $130 per device per year plus a maintenance fee.

VMware AirWatch provides everything you lot need to get control of your enterprise mobile devices. The price is slightly more than some of the other products in this review but not significantly enough to be a real blocker. With other features bachelor and a articulate upgrade path, it'south a product you can commencement with slowly and then expand as your needs abound.