Many open source projects benefit from the outside developer community. Outside developers contribute code to the project, identify issues and provide innovative input at all phases of development. In addition, open source code tends to be standards-based and built with well-known programming languages. This makes it easier to integrate the platform with other systems, although this is never a guarantee.
Open source MDM tools are not always as free as one would hope. The MDM code can require pricey expertise to customize, deploy, maintain or scale. The product might also be difficult to integrate with other tools and systems. It can take significant time and resources to migrate current operations to the open source platform. In some cases, a vendor might offer support for its product, but this generally comes with a hefty subscription fee.
Another challenge is that open source products are typically not as well documented as commercial products. The documentation that does exist might be inconsistent, incorrect or out of date. IT admins might be able to find the information they need through community forums or other online resources, particularly when the product has an active user base. Still, this can be a hit-or-miss proposition without any guarantees. When faced with a lack of concise information, IT teams often have to dedicate extra time and resources to the project.
IT decision-makers who are evaluating MDM options must also determine which types of devices the platforms can manage. Open source products usually support a limited number of device types. Most can handle either Apple devices or Android devices but not both. If an organization manages multiple device types, it might need to deploy multiple MDM platforms, adding even more to their deployment and maintenance overhead.
Most open source products don't provide the same level of functionality offered by commercial products. For example, a product might be lacking in features related to device enrollment or workflow automation. Admins should ensure that the product they pick includes all the functionality they might need. The platform should also be able to deliver the necessary performance, scalability and interoperability as well as meet security and compliance requirements. Customizing a product to meet these standards requires even more IT resources and technical expertise.
IT should avoid platforms that are not actively maintained. They can come with authentication issues, security holes or other timebombs that lurk beneath the surface. An inactive product might also have performance and compatibility issues, especially as next-generation technologies and new mobile devices emerge.
When IT teams are faced with an inactive product, they must troubleshoot, fix and test the entire codebase, often without any type of support. They also have to customize and test the platform to make sure it can meet performance and security needs while integrating with other systems.
The quality of an open source MDM product largely depends on the number of developers who contribute to the project and how extensively the platform is deployed. An open source project that has thousands of contributors and supports a large end-user community can be as stable, reliable and secure as a commercial product.
This is not the case with all open source projects, however. For this reason, many organizations prefer to stick with commercial MDM or enterprise mobility management products that come with technical support, service-level agreements and proper documentation. Vendors typically test their platforms in a variety of environments and under different conditions. Commercial products also tend to support multiple mobile OSes and offer more features than open source products.