Internal Considerations
Topics to reflect on internally when considering a new product or solution.
Top Prerequisites – Technical
Even if you transition from an on-premises Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) deployment to a cloud-based approach, you will still need to carefully assess the gap between the technical features desired by your operations team and those offered by the UEM vendor of choice. The list below enumerates some technical prerequisites that should be considered part of your UEM vendor evaluation process.
Product Architecture
Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) vendors approach the delivery of their product functions differently and, as a direct result of that, vary considerably in these functions' strength and granularity. A microservice & Kubernetes based architecture is entirely different than a monolithic application deployed to an on-premises server or a purely SaaS-based delivery model. Some UEM vendors provide a mixed approach of these architecture types, which might be better suited for your IT environment operationally. Thus, understand the architecture types and delivery mechanisms of UEM vendors to assess your infrastructure's suitability.
Cloud Deployments
Deployment of UEM solutions in the cloud can be the easiest and most cost-effective option, but its feasibility and compliance with security policies and regulations must be carefully evaluated. Also, for on-premise targeted applications and legacy services, understanding how the cloud solution will support those on-premises systems is essential to ensure proper support.
Data Center Infrastructure
If your organization opts for an on-premises UEM product, make sure your data center growth plan can support it. Key considerations are not only processing power and network bandwidth but also storage. Depending on how you architect your UEM system, it may need additional storage space to accommodate large data sets, for example.
Support for Industry Standards
A UEM implementation's success depends on the vendor's flexibility to support related industry standards and protocols. Understand whether the service supports applicable standards out-of-the-box or require customizations using available product APIs, SDKs, or other programmable interfaces.
Technical Knowledge and Skills
The organization should have the relevant technical knowledge and skills to deploy and manage UEM services. If there is a lack of these skills, there should be a training program to grow them or identify technical partners to provide these skills in the short term. Also, consider how managed services can be used in the absence of these skills.