ITarian MDM review

Every modern workplace needs a system for managing and auditing mobile devices. From general administration to determining security policies, what software is run, and how the devices can be used, Mobile Device Management (MDM) is the answer.

With so many MDM solutions available in a competitive marketplace, it can be difficult to choose the right option. Various tech giants push MDMs and UEM (Unified Endpoint Management) solutions, along with a collection of smaller companies. The advantage is obvious – tech giants are more concerned with the big picture, whereas smaller competitors with a single or small group of products can be more focused on features and support.

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If you're looking for an MDM suite to manage mobile devices in your organization, ITarian (previously known as Comodo One and Dragon RMM) is worth considering. Below, we'll examine its features and pricing.

Features

ITarian offers an MDM option as part of its IT System Management suite. Designed to aid in the protection of your network systems integrity, ITarian offers complete control over iOS and Android devices. This control includes software deployment, app management, GPS location detection, remote wipe, encryption, and more besides.

A simple user enrollment process can be enjoyed by users, with IT teams taken out of the loop completely thanks to the ITarian self-service enrolment portal. Corporate configurations can be automatically applied to enrolled devices, enabling Wi-Fi connections to be instantly set up, email profiles configured, and device-specific restrictions put in place. Granular policy settings enable administrators to determine exactly how a phone and its data might be used, and avoid misuse. This can help in avoiding corporate espionage, other data loss, and ensure regulatory compliance.

Another feature of ITarian is its integration with other, existing systems, such as Active Directory/LDAP. Bundled together, these features and their subsets enable complete visibility of your organization's mobile inventory, with all the controls and configurations needed to manage a secure inventory of devices.

Installation and setup

Samsung for Enterprise, Samsung KNOX, Android Enterprise Management, and Apple Device Enrolment Program are all leveraged to ensure maximum compatibility with ITarian and its features. Placing enrollment in the hands of the end user ensures they can add their device to the ITarian environment as and when, but in the event of issues, manual setup of individual devices is also supported.

The ITarian user interface is web based, with the data hosted in the cloud, so no additional software is required for administration. 

As a result, your organization's mobile devices can be administered from anywhere. 

Compatibility

ITarian supports Android and iOS devices in its guise as an MDM, although there is extended functionality available in the IT Endpoint Manager suite that brings Windows, macOS, and Linux compatibility.

This makes ITarian MDM far more limited than some alternatives that offer Chrome OS or Windows 10 device compatibility, along with iPadOS. 

Usability

ITarian's cloud dashboard is straightforward, with the interface split on the left into sections (Devices, Users, Configuration Templates, etc.) and across the top by Applications (useful if you have multiple products from the publisher), Management, Reports, Store, and Tools.

With many features available in ITarian, there is the possibility of confusion. Happily, the user interface (UI) is uncluttered, with everything you need sensibly arranged for access. For example, to manually enroll a device, the option can be found as the first button in the Device Management screen. 

Similarly, accessing remote tools, checking and editing owner details, managing device profiles, and everything else you would expect from an MDM is easy to find and use.

Plans and pricing

Compared with competing MDM solutions, ITarian offers quite an unusual pricing structure. 

Initially, the first 50 endpoints can be managed free. Every additional device beyond that is just $1.25 per device per month, a figure that reduces as more devices are added. To illustrate, 500 devices work out at $1.10 per device per month, 1000 devices for $0.95 per month, etc. 

The savings may not be hugely impressive, but they can be offset. ITarian offers a "cost-neutral model" when it comes to third party software. Currently, that is limited to Comodo Advanced Endpoint Protection (AEP) and Comodo Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR). What this essentially means is that existing outlay on either of these products is deducted from the ITarian subscription.

This aside, a price of $1.25 per device per month makes ITarian almost certainly the best value MDM product available in 2021.

Final verdict

Usable, compatible with current mobile platforms and with a smart user interface for the administrator and easy enrolment for device users, ITarian has much to offer.

Note, however, that sales material and even the help files on the website and YouTube channel are unclear about a lot of things concerning ITarian. The link to Comodo is played down aside from the licensing discount; its capabilities as a UEM solution is also overlooked, while ITarian's knowledge base regularly refers to IT Endpoint Manager instead. As such, this makes for a confusing experience which would negatively impact any evaluation.

So, while essentially free for most small organizations, and with a smart user interface and all the features you would expect from an MDM, ITarian isn't quite the finished product. Sure, it's very affordable, but would you really want to get stuck in a troubleshooting scenario where the only reference materials available explain the process on different software?

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