Enterprise mobility 2024: Welcome, genAI

Generative synthetic intelligence (genAI) has develop into a focus for a lot of organizations over the previous yr, so it ought to come as no shock that the know-how is shifting into the enterprise mobility area, together with unified endpoint administration (UEM).“Generative AI is the latest trend to impact the UEM space,” says Andrew Hewitt, principal analyst, Forrester. “This has been the main topic of interest in the last year. We see generative AI having impacts in multiple areas, such as script creation, knowledge-based article creation, NLP [natural language processing]-based querying of endpoint data, and help desk chatbots. All of these are considerations for inclusion within the UEM stack.”There is “tremendous potential” for genAI to reinforce digital office operations, however there’s been restricted adoption inside UEM instrument distributors to this point, says Tom Cipolla, senior director analyst at analysis agency Gartner.“We expect this [to] rapidly change as vendors realize the additional revenue opportunity associated with genAI-augmented tools and customers fully embrace genAI as a force multiplier,” Cipolla says.[ Free download: UEM vendor comparison chart 2024 ]GenAI makes its UEM debutIn December 2023, VMware introduced it was making genAI-powered scripting capabilities accessible in its Workspace ONE UEM platform for US clients on a tech preview (pre-beta) foundation. This is the primary characteristic enabled by genAI for the platform. The new characteristic permits customers to generate scripts robotically primarily based on a immediate offered by the product’s administrator. The scripts use finest practices, however the admin has the chance to evaluation and modify the output, in accordance with VMware.The genAI engine helps a number of scripting languages comparable to PowerShell, Bash, and Python, supporting customers who swap between completely different languages inside Workspace ONE for each Windows and macOS platforms. Microsoft in November 2023 introduced that its Security Copilot, a genAI-assisted cybersecurity instrument, might be built-in with its cloud-based UEM providing, Intune. This permits organizations to make use of endpoint knowledge to tell the well being and safety of their digital property, in accordance with the corporate.Microsoft, which made the brand new functionality accessible as a non-public preview for choose clients of the Security Copilot Early Access Program, says it offers safety groups “unprecedented visibility” throughout safety knowledge with full gadget context, real-time steering when creating insurance policies in Intune, and the power to find and remediate the basis reason for gadget points sooner.Consolidation guidelinesOver the previous yr there was an rising push towards consolidation in gadget and consumer administration, Hewitt says, not simply when it comes to shifting administration of all working techniques beneath one roof but additionally bringing third-party instruments comparable to patch, digital worker expertise (DEX), and distant management into the UEM platform stack as properly.“While the convergence of UEM with endpoint security has not materialized, we do see increasing interest in bringing vulnerability management data into the patch management stack,” Hewitt says. “Overall, IT admins are facing significant pressures to reduce cost, and consolidation is one of the key ways to do that.” For instance, analytics instruments are rising as new options in UEM merchandise, says Phil Hochmuth, program vp, enterprise mobility, at IDC. These embrace DEX instruments that assist IT groups determine how customers work with their gadgets and what areas of frustration might be mounted, he says. They might help groups analyze telemetry knowledge gathered from UEM platforms. “Also, automation and AI-based features around patching anomaly detection and remediation are emerging,” he says.Another key pattern underway is the usage of low-code automation with techniques. “Low-code is something frequently offered within the UEM platform as a way to orchestrate policy,” Hewitt says. “Ivanti and VMware both support this today.”State of playWhile there haven’t been main modifications within the UEM market over the previous yr, the business is watching to see what occurs with VMware now that Workspace ONE might be spun out from Broadcom within the wake of Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, Hewitt says. “This could have a significant impact on the UEM market, helping VMware to double down on the market but also giving other competitors a significant opportunity to gain market share,” he says.And whereas there have not been any new UEM entrants this yr, “we have seen increasing interest in client management tools that focus on Windows, Linux, and macOS primarily, without a focus on mobile,” Hewitt says. “Tanium, NinjaOne, Automox, and Datto are examples of vendors that have come up frequently.” Organizations stay centered on rising patch velocity and effectiveness, “which has driven the majority to migrate from on-premises solutions to cloud-hosted UEM platforms over the last three years,” Cipolla says. “New vendor entrants to this market face challenges gaining market share, due to vendor lock-in, the technical and logistic complexity of migration to a new product, and fear of patching process disruption.”The UEM market “is highly mature, with relatively consistent major feature capabilities displayed among the vendors,” Cipolla says. “Differentiation in the UEM tools market is exhibited primarily within the breadth and depth of the vendor’s [operating system] support, as well as their capabilities to accelerate and automate routine operations such as patching and configuration management.”Pricing of platforms is on the rise, Cipolla says. “With most vendors, we have seen price increases to keep pace with inflation and rising costs,” he says. “Perpetual licensing continues to be phased out in favor of subscription-based licensing as well.”Pricing fashions are nonetheless related to some years in the past, “but we are seeing more bundling of UEM with other products from vendors with larger software portfolios,” says IDC’s Hochmuth. Among the merchandise UEM is being bundled with are cybersecurity, IT service administration, and patch administration, he says.Looking forward“We will likely see greater convergence between endpoint management and DEX tools this year,” Hewitt says. “The value of data is increasing within the UEM space, as it is an important driver of automation within the toolsets.”Among the rising UEM options and tendencies Cipolla is seeing are integration with risk intelligence providers to offer further context, integration with real-time vulnerability scanning, and third-party utility bundle repositories to offer pre-packaged apps for speedy deployment. The way forward for the market is autonomous endpoint administration (AEM), Cipolla says. AEM combines gadget patching and administration capabilities from UEM instruments, risk intelligence knowledge to find out priorities for remediation, and endpoint efficiency and stability knowledge from DEX instruments to offer insights and remediation for impacts associated to patching.“Currently, AEM is mainly an approach made possible through using multiple tools,” Cipolla says. “However, some UEM vendors are in the process of adding native features as well as integrations with other tools to complete this vision.”Over the following two to 4 years, Gartner anticipates that the shortcoming of enterprise IT leaders and managed service suppliers to scale staffing ranges and ability units to fulfill ever-increasing enterprise and cybersecurity calls for will quickly gas the demand for AEM.Read subsequent: This story was initially printed in June 2015 and most lately up to date in February 2024. Click by way of to subsequent pages to see how mobility administration has advanced over time.