IBM MaaS360 vs Xamarin Platform comparison

Microsoft Intune is a comprehensive cloud-based service that allows you to remotely manage mobile devices and mobile applications without worrying about the security of your organization’s data. Device and app management can be used on company-owned devices as well as personal devices.

In an increasingly mobile workforce, Microsoft Intune keeps your sensitive data safe while on the move. Microsoft Intune makes it possible for your team members to work anywhere using their mobile devices. Microsoft Intune provides both the flexibility and the control needed for securing all your data on the cloud, no matter where the device with the data is located.

Microsoft Intune Device Management Key Features

With Microsoft Intune Device Management you can:

• Ensure devices and apps are compliant with your security requirements.
• Rapidly deploy and authenticate apps on all company devices.
• Remotely access devices to troubleshoot issues or to remove data from them.
• Generate reports for all devices in the system.
• Monitor the way users access and share information to protect company information.
• Set rules and configure settings on personal and organization-owned devices to access data and networks.
• Create user groups and device groups, allowing you to rapidly access many users and devices simultaneously.

Mobile Application Management

Mobile application management in Intune is designed to protect your organization’s data at the application level.

With Microsoft Intune Application Management you can:

• Configure apps to run with specific settings enabled.
• Update existing apps that are already on the device.
• See reports on which apps are used and monitor their usage.
• Selectively wipe organization data from apps.
• Add mobile apps to user groups and devices.

As part of Microsoft's Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) suite, Intune integrates with Microsoft Entra ID for access control and with Azure Information Protection for data protection. It also integrates with Microsoft 365 Applications.

Reviews from Real Users

Microsoft Intune stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its ability to secure all devices under its management and the flexibility that the solution offers its users.

A computing services manager notes, "Its security is most valuable. It gives us a way to secure devices, not only those that are steady. We do have a few tablets and other devices, and it is a way for us to secure these devices and manage them. We know they're out there and what's their status. We can manage their life cycle and verify that they're updated properly."

The head of IT engineering at a financial services company writes, "The one feature we find most useful is the Mobile Application Manager. There are two types: we have the complete MDM and the Mobile Application Manager (MAM). We don't give our users phones, it is their own personal phone, and we need to allow them to have access to the company details on their phone. We need to create a balance between their own personal data and the company data. We deploy the Mobile Application Manager for them so that we won't be able to interfere with their own personal data."

IBM MaaS360 is an EMM solution that allows you to configure devices for enterprise access and protect corporate data on smartphones and tablets – all from a single screen. As a robust integrated cloud platform, MaaS360 simplifies mobile device management (MDM) with visibility, rapid deployment, and control that spans across apps, mobile devices, and data. It also secures apps, laptops, smartphones, tablets, wearables, desktops, the Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and data so you can rapidly scale your remote workforce and bring your own device (BYOD) initiatives.

IBM MaaS360 can help you build a zero-trust strategy with modern device management. Deployment is so fast that in just a few clicks, IT admins can start enrolling devices and quickly manage the entire mobile device lifecycle. They can do everything from enrollment to enterprise integration, support, configuration and management, monitoring and security, analytics, and reporting.

IBM MaaS360 Features

IBM MaaS360 has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

• Workforce management: Manage and secure any remote workforce in minutes with rapid deployment.
  
• Information security: Support a safer way to access, create, sync, and edit all business documents on mobile devices.
  
• Manage security risks: Provide users with seamless data access while remotely managing threats.
  
• Secure access: Grant secure access to company resources from any mobile device, without a VPN.
  
• Identity management and security: Integrate seamless identity and access management with United Endpoint Management.

IBM MaaS360 Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing IBM MaaS360. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

• Provision, manage, and protect your devices from a single console.
  
• Configure email, contacts, calendar, Wi-Fi, and VPN profiles over-the-air to quickly onboard users.
  
• Experience launch day support for the latest mobile operating system releases for iOS, Android, and Windows.
  
• Set and enforce security policies with automated compliance actions like requiring a device passcode and blocking a compromised device.
  
• Use robust dashboards and reporting to manage both personal and corporate devices.

• Increases security and compliance enforcement.
  
• Easily integrates with your existing infrastructure.
  
• Reduces cost of supporting mobile assets.
  
• Enhances application and performance management.
  
• Contains powerful management and security to address the entire mobility lifecycle.
  
• Helps ensure better business continuity.
  
• Increases productivity and employee satisfaction.
  
• Simple and fast, with an exceptional customer experience.

Reviews from Real Users

MaaS360 stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Some of these include its mobile device and laptop management, robust security, and complete sync with Active Directory. PeerSpot users take note of the advantages of these features in their reviews:

Claudia G., a Cybersecurity Consultant at Telefónica, mentions, “My customers value the ability to control all their devices from a central point in IBM MaaS360. I rate IBM MaaS360 a nine out of ten.”

Okoro A.., a CEO at a ITANDT Solutions Limited notes, “The most valuable features are mobile device management and security (which allows you to quarantine infected devices).”

Xamarin is an open-source platform for developing modern and performant applications for iOS, Android, and Windows using.NET. Xamarin is an abstraction layer that manages how shared code is communicated to the platform's underlying code. Xamarin is for developers with the two following goals:

• Cross-platform sharing of code, tests, and business logic.

• Writing cross-platform apps in C# with Visual Studio.

Xamarin allows developers to share an average of 90% of their program across platforms. This enables programmers to achieve native performance, look, and feel on each platform while writing all of their business logic in a single language (or reusing existing application code).

Xamarin applications can be created on a PC or a Mac and compiled into native application packages, such as an .apk file for Android or an .ipa file for iOS.

Xamarin Platform Features

Xamarin Platform has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

• Complete binding for the supporting SDKs: Xamarin includes bindings for almost all of the underlying platform SDKs in iOS and Android.
  
• Java, C, Objective-C, C, C++ Interop: Xamarin gives you the ability to use a variety of third-party code by providing tools for directly invoking Objective-C, Java, C, and C++ libraries.
  
• Modern language constructs: Xamarin applications are written in C#, a modern language with many capabilities that Objective-C and Java do not have, like lambdas, LINQ, parallel programming, generics, and more.
  
• Strong base class library (BCL): Xamarin apps use the .NET BCL, a large collection of classes with streamlined features, like powerful XML, database, serialization, IO, string, and networking support, among others.

Xamarin Platform Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing the Xamarin Platform. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

• Native UIs and APIs: Xamarin delivers comprehensive access to each platform's native SDK and UI controls, projecting the entire native API of each device into C#. Therefore, the apps you develop are native instead of write-once/run-anywhere programs that look alien on every platform. Xamarin provides you access to all of the capabilities that distinguish each platform.

• Share code between platforms: With Xamarin, you can share all code across platforms while providing a native user interface tailored to each individual device. With Xamarin, you can execute the same C# code on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. With Xamarin, your software is compiled to a native binary rather than being interpreted, in contrast to other cross-platform frameworks. Even in the most demanding situations, native compilation provides users with excellent app performance. Xamarin provides responsive, multi-user input and feedback, fluid scrolling, sophisticated graphics and animations, complicated data visualization, and realistic high frame rates for games.

• Code with C#: Write shorter, more concise, and more maintainable code by leveraging advanced language features, such as Language Integrated Query (LINQ), delegates, lambdas, events, garbage collection, and many other features. With Xamarin's fully extensible platform, you can include libraries written in C, Objective-C, C++, or Java. In C#, you have access to the entire native ecosystem of components and libraries.