How to Extend Enterprise Mobility Beyond MDM
How to Extend Enterprise Mobility Beyond MDM
Consumers may be driving the market boom for mobile devices—more powerful smartphones, tablets with better screens, thin laptops with processing horsepower—but the biggest change in the mobile space is happening with enterprise. Near-ubiquitous Internet connectivity and a mini-computer in every pocket capable of performing a variety of tasks means users are demanding on-the-go access to everything.
And that doesn’t mean just letting users check their email, make calls over VoIP, and use video-conferencing tools. Customers want mobile-optimized websites to shop directly from their phones. A lot of business functions, such as sales tracking, remote tech support, customer relationship management (CRM), and even payroll, can be accessed from mobile devices. Considering analyst firm IDC estimates 1.5 billion devices will be shipped worldwide this year, that’s a lot of personal devices to think about.
Enterprises have to accommodate these new requests and devices while adhering to existing regulations and compliance requirements.Enterprise mobility is no longer about just the device—which platform, which model, and where it is—but a broader strategy encompassing device, apps, data, and users. It’s about creating a mobility ecosystem made up of cloud services, data protection, secure networks, and devices that encourage collaboration and productivity. And that needs to happen across the entire organization.
Enter EMM
IT teams are moving away from mere mobile device management (MDM) to a more holistic view provided by enterprise mobility management (EMM). That isn’t to say MDM isn’t important—it was the largest segment of the enterprise mobility management market in 2014 according to research firm Research and Markets—but other segments, such as mobile content management (MCM) and mobile application management (MAM) are also just as important.
As its name suggests, MDM focuses on devices. IT can track devices belonging to employees and apply policies such as forcing a screenlock when not in use, issuing the command to remote wipe if the device is lost, and installing required apps (such as security software). While Android, iOS, and Windows Phone are increasingly bulking up their management capabilities, most existing features are device-focused.
EMM goes a step further and lets IT manage apps and content from the same management console. This means being able to apply policy and configuration rules not just on devices, but also on the apps installed on the device as well. And app management is critical for enterprise IT.
People download and try out new mobile apps if they sound interesting. They typically aren’t sitting there and thinking about the security of the app or whether downloading that app could potentially affect enterprise data stored on their device. Malware is not the biggest mobile risk. If the app is poorly coded, there is the risk of data leakage. If the app has very broad permissions, it may slurp up the contents of the calendar and addressbook, which means enterprise data is exposed outside the organization.
Let’s look at a few numbers: Research firm Gartner estimates 38 percent of enterprises will stop providing devices to employees by 2017, and nearly 50 percent of employers will require employees to provide their own devices. And the enterprise mobility management market, which includes MDM, MCM, and MAM, is expected to grow from $3.2 million in 2014 to over $15.2 million by 2019, Research and Markets said in its latest forecast.
IT can maintain a comprehensive hardware and software inventory with EMM and track all apps used by users, regardless of whether they were installed by the user or by the organization. IT can also manage operating system configuration, enforce authentication policies, and add restrictions such as, say, disabling copy-and-paste on certain apps, monitoring file-sharing, and limiting downloads while roaming. The goal isn’t to take restrict access, but to make sure users have secure access.
A Mobile-Centric Strategy
For many enterprises, the biggest mobility challenge is the lack of a roadmap. The organization needs to know what problem it is trying to solve, who the users are, what they are currently using, and how they actually work. If the organization doesn’t know what its users want or what the partners and customers are asking for, then it’s just that much harder to select and implement the right toolset. And there are many choices in the marketplace. VMware AirWatch, Citrix XenMobile, MobileIron, Good Technology, and MaaS360 from Fiberlink (an IBM company), just to name a handful of players in the enterprise mobility management market.
Physical security is a big concern, but technology is gradually easing that worry. As more and more devices ship with built-in biometric security, such as fingerprint readers and iris scanners, enterprises can take advantage of the features to secure the devices from unauthorized access as well as to sign in to services and apps. Mobile operating systems are also getting better about hooking into enterprise mobile management platforms.
Privacy is another potential roadblock. While employees want to be able to use their own devices, they aren’t particularly wild about their personal data being monitored by the company’s IT department. Mobile device management tools typically don’t differentiate between business and personal data and apps. A remote wipe, if needed, will delete everything. An enterprise mobility management platform that can differentiate between business and personal data would assure employees their employers aren’t scrutnizing their personal data.
It’s tempting to focus on MDM first, and worry about apps and data later, but that makes it harder to develop a comprehensive mobile strategy. Organizations need to figure out what their business goals are, assess what’s currently in place, and identify the gaps. That will help clarify what can be done with a particular platform and whether that platform will help accomplish their goals. Don’t forget that EMM encompasses endpoint management, policy management, identity and authentication, network security, data protection, and application security. The elements the organization needs depends on its unique infrastructure and its appetite for risk. Enterprises shouldn’t expect a one-size-fits-all mobile strategy.
Mobile technology is here to stay, and the sooner enterprises start including mobile devices as part of their baseline IT strategy, the better. Users will benefit from improved productivity as well as increased security.
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