GFI Max MDM is the company’s first mobile device management platform, which will assist MSPs in keeping their customers’ systems secure in the age of mobile.
GFI Max general manager, Dr Alistair Forbes, said the problem most companies are having with BYOD and consumerisation is the clients’ customers themselves. It's this thinking that has shaped the company's new Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform.
“They’ve got used to that ‘at home’ convenience in the business environment - what they don’t expect is the requirement for security as well.”
“It’s about trying to find the right balance with MDM of giving enough control without it getting to the point where users refuse to accept it.”
Forbes said the attitude to mobile is the same attitude that was causing problems with social media 10 years ago.
“People traded their security for convenience, so it’s about trying to avoid that business risk. People thought they could just put anything onto [social media] and it would all be fine,” he said.
GFI Max’s MDM is a bolt on to the existing GFI Max RemoteManagement system that adds standard MDM features such as remote lock and wipe; location tracking and geo-fencing; voice, SMS and data usage and Wi-Fi connectivity on iOS, Android and Blackberry devices.
Forbes said his company’s unique proposition is its focus on SMB customers. This attitude has seen GFI Max RemoteManagement now being used by 8000 MSPs. It’s also a market area the big players tend to neglect.
“They have very capable products, but they’re not generally well tailored to SMB customers. And they’re generally not integrated with the platforms that MSPs are using to manage their overall portfolio services,” he said.
“Our aim is to take the MDM functionality that you require as an SMB and we’re going to deliver it in a platform that you’re already comfortable using, and give you the supporting educational materials to help you go out and sell that to your customers. You don’t see that kind of support from the big players, the supposed household names, such as Airwatch and Good Technology.”
“It’s the same model we have for everything else: a recurring revenue model; its pay as you go. You don’t have to sign a big contract up front.”
The product was originally due to launch today, but a GFI spokesperson told ARN it will be launching “in the following weeks.”
