cloud-based mdm makes the grade in education · cloud-based mdm makes the grade in education table...

1

MaaS360.com > White Paper

Cloud-based MDM Makes the Grade in Education

http://www.maas360.com/resources/white-papers/

http://www.maas360.com/

2


Copyright © 2012 Fiberlink Communications Corporation. All rights reserved.

This document contains proprietary and confidential information of Fiberlink. No part of this document may be used, disclosed, distributed, transmitted, stored in any retrieval system, copied or reproduced in any way or form, including but not limited to photocopy, photographic, magnetic, electronic or other record, without the prior written permission of Fiberlink.

This document is provided for informational purposes only and the information herein is subject to change without notice. Please report any errors to Fiberlink. Fiberlink will not provide any warranties covering this information and specifically disclaims any liability in connection with this document.

Fiberlink, MaaS360, associated logos, and the names of the products and services of Fiberlink are trademarks or service marks of Fiberlink and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. All other names, marks, brands, logos, and symbols may be trademarks or registered trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. Use of any or all of the above is subject to the specific terms and conditions of the Agreement.

Copyright © 2012 Fiberlink, 1787 Sentry Parkway West, Building Eighteen, Suite 200, Blue Bell, PA 19422.

All rights reserved.


3


Cloud-based MDM Makes the Grade in Education

Table of Contents

Most Laptops Left Behind ..................................................................................................... 4

BYOD Saves Battered School Budgets ................................................................................... 4

Managing BYOD .................................................................................................................... 5

Benefits of the Cloud ............................................................................................................ 5

Granular Controls ................................................................................................................. 6

Keeping it Clean .................................................................................................................... 6

Separating School and Home ............................................................................................... 7

Real World Example ............................................................................................................. 7

Smart Management = Smart Mobility .................................................................................. 8


4


Colleges and K-12 school districts across the country are embracing mobility in education, seizing the potential of devices such as smartphones and tablets to improve access to learning tools anywhere and at any time, and to chip away at the “digital divide.” As children increasingly become digital natives, more adept at manipulating an iPhone or iPad than many adults, education administrators and, indeed, policy officials recognize the importance of transforming the education experience through technology—especially given that such wireless devices are the tools that students will use later in their professional and personal lives.

Most Laptops Left BehindFrom typewriters to PCs, technology has always had a place in the classroom. The much-heralded “One Laptop Per Child” initiative—backed by the United Nations Development Program and funded by corporations including Google, News Corp. and Red Hat—has given way to “One Tablet Per Child,” with Apple’s iPad currently the preferred device among many students and educators.

Tablets are intuitively user friendly, while laptops are not as easy to use. And although tablets such as the iPad are still more expensive than the $100 price point set for the laptop initiative, those costs are dropping as the devices’ popularity rises and competition increases. Even companies like Apple offer enticing pricing to educational institutions.

The current administration is also pushing for a speedy transition to digital education, aiming to get an e-textbook in the hands of each of the 50 million U.S. schoolchildren by 2017.

BYOD Saves Battered School BudgetsWhile schools of all kinds traditionally have been burdened with providing technology tools to their students, the ubiquity of mobile devices today is changing that equation. Relieved to offload some of the cost of technology to the end users themselves, many universities and some school districts encourage their students, faculty, and staff to bring their own devices (BYOD) into the classroom.

This means learners and educators have familiar technology tools, and schools, always cost-conscious amid shrinking budgets, can shift crucial dollars to other priorities. The state of Texas, for example, slashed $4 billion from education funding in 2012, reducing per-child spending by more than $500.

In fact, according to the Center on Budget and Policy, elementary and high schools in 26 states received less funding for the 2012-2013 school year than they did for the year prior—and 35 states received fewer education funding dollars than they did in 2008. IT has never been a significant budget item in K-12 school districts, but the movement toward tablets can help to make technology costs more predictable over time.

In higher education, cuts in state and federal budgets have forced colleges to raise tuition prices in order to protect their bottom lines. In this environment, asking students to use their personal mobile devices instead of issuing tablets or other devices is a smart business strategy.

35 states have received less

education funding than in 2008


5


Managing BYOD But while the BYOD environment may be a boon to the education technology budget, it poses a significant challenge to the IT team: How to manage and secure not only myriad, disparate devices but also the apps that make tablets and smartphones useful in the first place?

In many schools, some mobile devices are provisioned by the organizations while others are brought in by students, staff, and teachers. Keeping track of such a smorgasbord of devices can be taxing on IT departments already stretched to their limits. Many districts employ small IT staff, and for such organizations, any technology initiative is a significant undertaking.

Following quickly on the heels of the BYOD phenomenon, mobile device management (MDM) is now a priority for many forward-thinking school districts and universities. Schools not only need to keep tabs on the multitude of devices flowing in and out of their four walls, but they must also ensure that students aren’t accessing inappropriate websites or other materials; that private data such as health records on tablets is kept secure; and that virtual learning applications are not leaking sensitive data, thereby posing a security threat.

Privacy breaches can come with steep consequences. Adhering to the standards set out by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act passed in 1974, which covers students’ health information, remains a top a priority for every school district as that data is increasingly accessed on smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other portable devices.

Benefits of the CloudSince mobile devices live in the cloud, it’s natural—and best—to manage them where they reside. Enterprise mobility management firm Fiberlink addresses education’s device management, security, and budget concerns with its MaaS360 cloud-based mobile device management (MDM) platform, which supports all major mobile operating systems, including iOS, Android and Windows Phone from one seamless panel.

As a cloud service built on a secure, multi-tenant architecture, MaaS360 simplifies the on-boarding process. MaaS360 does not require you to install servers, deal with complex configurations, or pay upfront costs associated with on-premises MDM products.

With MaaS360, you get immediate insight and control without the added costs and complexities of deploying hardware and software on site, and dedicating additional resources to create and support the solution on an ongoing basis. Automatic updates ensure you are always on the latest version with same day support for new operating systems, like iOS 6, and new management features.


6


To further relieve the mobility burden for IT Administrators, MaaS360 offers a user-friendly self-service web portal for end users. Teachers and students alike can perform basic administrative functions like password resets and locating the last known whereabouts of a missing device.

Many school districts with small budgets can appreciate that MaaS360 doesn’t require any additional infrastructure and works with whatever systems are currently in place. Whereas server-based options would require an additional box on each site within an educational district or on a university campus—and additional personnel to administer these additional servers—MaaS360 is free of these traditional “overhead” costs. MaaS360 MDM is designed specifically for deployment speed that delivers more value and higher ROI. Over 75% of customers complete set up and configuration in less than 8 hours. Even further, 87% of customers save between $15-50k per year by using MaaS360.

Granular ControlsThe platform’s granular controls allow IT to set highly specific security and access policies for different groups of devices, such as professors’ tablets versus students’. With MaaS360, IT can configure policies and settings, enforce device compliance and provide secure access to school networks and resources. IT can use the platform to distribute data such as email, applications and educational documents to a particular device or group of users.

For even greater security, MaaS360 gives IT tools such as versioning and time-based expiration to prevent forwarding of sensitive materials or other inappropriate use. A college sophomore, for example, may need to access a PDF as part of a course curriculum, but once that term ends and she no longer needs to use that document, her access is turned off.

It also allows schools to set up private, dedicated app catalogs to manage internal, public and purchased apps and integrate with Apple’s Volume Purchase Program (VPP). By automatically uploading redemption codes into MaaS360, schools can benefit from MaaS360’s ability to track provisioning, manage licenses, and monitor compliance, eliminating the need for manual VPP management.

Keeping it CleanWith the growing number of tablets in schools, IT administrators need to manage the devices and control which applications the students can run and what content they can access to remain compliant with the Child Information Protection Act (CIPA). School districts must satisfy board members and parents with application blacklisting and whitelisting to control what apps are being used on the device. With MaaS360’s content filtering feature, IT can set policies to allow access only to approved websites from their devices during school hours.

MaaS360 MDM delivers fast

deployment and immediate ROI


7


Separating School and HomePrivacy tools help to separate a device user’s personal data from information designated for school use. For example, when a teacher or administrator is using her own tablet, Fiberlink’s cloud MDM controls allows IT to block the collection of certain information from that device, such as location, which could reveal something personal about that user.

The same applies to personal applications; the apps that a student chooses to download on his own time could indicate political preferences or even something truly personal and private, such as an addiction. With this platform, IT has the flexibility to manage only the school “sandbox” on a user’s device. The aim, says Fiberlink’s vice president of marketing Neil Florio, is that users don’t feel like IT is acting as “big brother.”

The customizable control settings also help to ensure that a simple device mix-up doesn’t lead to larger issues. If, for example, a student accidentally takes home a school’s iPad instead of his own, through geo-fencing capabilities, MaaS360 automatically recognizes that the tablet isn’t in one of the educator’s designated safe spaces and locks the device, keeping grades and other confidential information secure.

Real World ExampleWhen the Pascagoula School District (PSD) in Mississippi decided to replace its laptops with iPads and iPod touch devices, its Information Systems (IS) team searched for the best way to manage the new crop of devices.

PSD, which employs more than 1,100 personnel and includes upwards of 6,900 students across 17 campuses, was concerned about securing the expensive and sought-after devices, a popular target for thieves. IS staff needed a solution that would allow them to remotely access and wipe lost or stolen devices and also use geo-location features to notify them when the devices weren’t where they were supposed to be.

To manage its fleet of iOS devices, PSD needed a solution that provided over-the-air configuration management with granular level detail and controls. When PSD’s IS staff evaluated MaaS360, they were attracted to its advanced functionality and OS-agnostic platform, meaning they could seamlessly integrate additional devices such as iPhones and Android smartphones and tablets as the district’s needs evolved.

What’s more, IS could also use the mobile application management (MAM) feature of the solution to push out and track 30 apps for staff and for students, including Observation 360 for principals’ classroom evaluations and Stanza for policy manuals and eBooks.

IS staff can access the platform’s detail-rich device and application data, even while off-site. With the system in place, PSD’s IS team gets new devices enrolled in three minutes or less and can monitor app installation and usage in real time, leading to faster troubleshooting.

App management helped PSD push out and monitor

over 30 apps across all devices


8


PSD’s IS team realized an overall time savings in this deployment. Without this solution, the application installation process would involve the IT team sending out an email instructing users what to look for in the iTunes store. Then users would spend their time searching for the application, with some possibly installing the incorrect app and calling IS for assistance. And without the convenience of the app catalog, which is pushed out to users, IS staff would need to travel to the district’s 17 campuses, which straddle two cities, and physically handle each of the iOS devices.

Smart Management = Smart MobilityIn asking the classic chicken-or-egg question, which comes first—mobility in education or the ability to manage that influx of wireless devices? All too often, tablets and smartphones creep in without the proper tools to get those devices secured. But as mobile devices proliferate in the classroom, colleges and school districts must ensure that only approved, secured devices are accessing their networks. Smart mobile management is necessary to keep up with users’ evolving demands and needs. Mobile device and app management in the cloud, gives schools and educational institutions of all sizes the flexibility to offer first-rate, highly secure technology provisioning without increasing the IT burden—a solution that deserves a place at the top of the class.

All brands and their products, featured or referred to within this document, are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be noted as such.

WP_201210_0041

For More InformationTo learn more about our technology and services visit www.maaS360.com.1787 Sentry Parkway West, Building 18, Suite 200 | Blue Bell, PA 19422Phone 215.664.1600 | Fax 215.664.1601 | [email protected]


cloud-based mdm makes the grade in education · cloud-based mdm makes the grade in education table...

Documents