MaaS Must-Have Attributes

Vendors that “host” their existing on-premises solutions and label it SaaS can’t offer the economic and technical advantages of true SaaS for mobility because too many resources are used maintaining multiple versions of their solution.  Unfortunately, the misuse of the terms “SaaS” and “cloud” are creating confusion because vendors make the business model the focus, rather than the underlying technology used to deliver the service.  With the mobile device management space moving as quickly as it is today, it is essential to take the time to assess “SaaS” solutions in terms of the following set of core attributes that define cloud-based services for mobility.

Multi-tenancy

• Vendor delivers mobility capabilities to all customers from a single instance of their platform
• Strong security walls are established to isolate users
• Vendors make continual enhancements and all users have access to the latest features much faster and easier than traditional solutions

On-premises and imposter “SaaS” solutions could require time consuming and risky updates and upgrades on a monthly basis.

Integration

• Robust APIs and integration options
• Quickly and easily fits with your existing infrastructure
• Seamlessly extends your enterprise capabilities to a mobile environment, including Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, Lotus Traveler and Active Directory

Hosted or on-premises solutions necessitate drawn out implementation and migration cycles, which simply do not work in the fast-paced world of mobility.

Security and compliance

• Provides visibility into device-level information, along with the ability to manage, secure, and control devices
• No personal, private, or company confidential information is stored in the cloud; it remains in existing corporate systems and mobile devices
• Vendors should be able to provide a SAS-70 Type II certification, which assesses the operational effectiveness of internal controls within service organizations

With many hosted solutions, a major risk of data compromise exists; encryption is a very limited resolution to privacy concerns.

Manageability

• Provides the fastest way to gain secure mobile control without any on-premises hardware to install and manage
• Workflows and best practices are automatically applied
• Easily configured to adapt to the needs of individual customers
• Users are always on the latest version of the product without any additional costs or downtime interrupting your operations
• Service Level Agreements guarantee uptime, backup, and disaster recovery for high availability and mobile business continuity

And with the growing diversity of mobile devices, having one system to secure all smartphones, tablets, and laptops with centralized policy management across multiple platforms delivers greater IT operational efficiencies.

Scalability

• Eliminates any barriers preventing the addition of mobile devices, while allowing quick scaling as mobile device requirements change
• Same platform scales downward for small groups, without any minimum commitments, and upward to meet the needs of the largest global enterprises
• Devices and users can be added as needed, when needed, without installing new appliance or databases
• Allows customers to pay for only what is actually used

Traditional hosting and on-premises deployment environments are not designed to easily support elastic scalability or rapid growth in user adoption.

Vendor Viability

• Has a reliable reputation with existing customers and financial strength
• Has been offering true SaaS for mobility for several years, and the expertise and best practices that accompany such experience
• IT and operations teams are substantial, established and can provide 7x24 support
• If a vendor claims to offer SaaS, hosted applications and on-premises options, can they really afford to offer true SaaS benefits while managing all delivery methods and underlying technology infrastructure?

If a vendor touts SaaS delivery, but still does all maintenance and operations to your infrastructure manually, it can create errors, downtime and increased operational risk for you.