Jamf vs other Endpoint Managers

[#1]

Hello! Wanted to get everyone's opinion on here on why Jamf is a much better solution than other endpoint management solutions like MobileIron or AirWatch.

As a current user of AirWatch, I would like to make the move to Jamf but would really like to see everyone's opinion on this. Jamf would only be used to manage our Mac environment while we use another solution to manage our Windows environment.

I understand that Jamf is a much better product to manage Macs but what really are the key differentiators? I need help to articulate this message to upper management on making the switch :)

Thanks for all the help!

[bpavlov]

What are you currently doing with AirWatch? What are you looking to do?

[#3]

We are using Airwatch to help manage our Android and Windows devices. Basically looking to manage our Macs as well since we do not currently have a solution in place.

[bpavlov]

I'm not a Airwatch customer and I've never used it but my understanding is that they support DEP and MDM and VPP which Jamf Pro supports as well. I don't believe it has built in software deployment like Jamf Pro does. However, some people are using it in combination with Munki which is a very popular open source software management solution for macOS. Erick Gomez has an interesting write-up on it on his blog (I think it's a 6 or 7 post series): http://blog.eriknicolasgomez.com/2017/03/08/Custom-DEP-Part-1-An-Introduction/ I only mention this since you're already a customer of Airwatch.

Anyways, Jamf Pro can do a lot of things. It can do computer provisioning. It can manage preferences on computers. It can help deploy software. It can provide some reporting. With a lot of work and scripting, you can make it do a lot more stuff like patching/software updates and automate a lot of other tasks.

If you reach out to Jamf you can probably get a demo setup. If I were you, I'd compile a list of all the different vendors and tools that can aide in managing Macs and test them all out. Make a list of the specific stuff you want to do and see that all those products can do those things.

[gachowski]

Jamf Support is in a different league, they are by far the best. Everyone else is distance last.

C

[joelande]

Jamf Support is outstanding.
Jamf Pro supports policies in addition to standard Deployment/MDM commands (Configuration Profiles). Essentially by install a binary application on the Mac that runs as root, you can automate just about anything on the Mac.

I'm not sure if either of those products has a tool similar to Composer for building packages/installers (although there are other 3rd party tools to do this).

[slatert]

AirWatch may have changed but last year my experience was they were dedicating a lot of resources to sales but not support for managing Apple devices. We changed to Jamf.