Bring Your Own Device is now a normal way of doing business, but companies are still struggling to cope with employees’ using devices the company doesn’t own. There’s a conflict between keeping employees happy, enabling employee productivity and still protecting corporate data and the company network.

Achieving security requires more than simply controlling the devices that connect to the network; it requires implementing controls around the devices, the applications they run, and the content they access. As a result, Gartner has defined three pillars of enterprise mobility management: mobile data management, mobile application management, and mobile content management.

Mobile Device Management

Mobile device management (MDM) address provisioning and configuration management on the device itself. It forces users to enable features such as device locking and passwords. It also provides features such as remote wipe capabilities that protect a company’s data if the device is lost or stolen and can use blacklists and whitelists to restrict the applications installed on a device to those approved by the company.

Because MDM requires device owners to surrender much control over the device to the business, it isn’t popular with employees who are using their own phones or tablets. MDM works better for organizations where the company provides the employee with the mobile device.

Mobile Application Management

MDM is a blunt instrument that enforces a policies on the device regardless of specific application needs. Mobile application management (MAM) enables finer-grained controls to be established for specific applications. MAM can force applications to be upgraded to the latest version, require authentication, verify licenses, and track usage. MAM can also enforce policies that control how data is shared between corporate applications. It enables the business to wipe corporate applications and data remotely when needed.

Because MAM’s controls are centered around control over access and use of corporate applications, it encounters less resistance from employees who use BYOD devices.

Mobile Content Management

Mobile content management (MCM) focuses on securing files and data that are accessed on mobile devices. It provides enterprise file sync and share services that authenticate users accessing data and encrypt the data to ensure its security. Through identity management and collaboration features, MCM lets users securely access and collaborate on documents access outside the corporate network. Some MCM products use containers that protect downloaded documents.

Build a Comprehensive Enterprise Mobility Management Strategy

Banning employee use of mobile devices isn’t possible any more, so companies need to craft an enterprise mobility management strategy that protects the business. To do this, companies need to consider what applications and data their employees need to access remotely, and then consider the potential risks this remote access creates. Once that analysis is done, companies can decide how to use the three pillars of enterprise mobility management to empower employees and simultaneously secure their data.

 

Prescient Solutions offers mobile support services to help companies define and implement their mobility strategies. From policy definition through device configuration and support, our experts help you integrate mobility into your IT stack. Contact us to explore how our services can let you leverage the mobile revolution.

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