Managing Mobile Device Diversity (MDM): Corporate strategy & Security Framework

Managing Mobile Device Diversity is one of the strategic technology trend for 2014 by Gartner.

In the corporate world, there has been an ongoing battle between people who want to use technology and people who want to control it. Workforce would carry a standard mobile device that could be managed easily and effectively through one platform, which could give enterprise big problems in terms of security.

As a matter of fact, Enterprises have to develop MDM strategy to address various issues.  

 

In a few years, no corporation is going to care what device you use, where you use it, and what apps you have installed. “Mobile Device Management” (MDM), “Enterprise Mobility Management” (EMM) and their overgrown approach to security will create more problems for IT than they solve.

Mobile Device Management (MDM) software secures monitors, manages and supports mobile devices deployed across mobile operators, service providers and enterprises. MDM functionality typically includes over-the-air distribution of applications, data and configuration settings for all types of mobile devices, including mobile phones, smartphones, tablet computers, ruggedized mobile computers, mobile printers, mobile POS devices, etc. This applies to both company-owned and employee-owned (BYOD) devices across the enterprise or mobile devices owned by consumers.

To have better control, Enterprises need to have end-to-end simplified mobile security framework. 

Mobile Device Management is aimed at senior business, technology and operational leaders of corporations who are charged with purchasing, deploying and managing mobility and the mobile workforce in their enterprises.

The consumerization of IT is changing device management - recent report found that 82 percent of surveyed companies allow some or all workers to use employee-owned devices, and 62 percent of the respondents had implemented their programs more than a year earlier. The use in business of a device that began in consumer electronics—sometimes called the “consumerization of IT”—can significantly empower employees.

Security is a key driver of mobile device management - Even when used only for email and calendar access, a smart-phone can contain confidential and sometimes regulated busi-ness information. An unsecured device stolen from a briefcase at a meeting or left behind in a taxi can easily put sensitive information into the wrong hands. 

If the device can access even more sensitive business applications, any device theft or loss, employee termination, hacking or corruption can mean the loss of unique information created with those applications. And it may give the thief, finder, former employee, hacker or malware purveyor access into the organization’s data stores or centrally managed business applications.

So, enterprises have to build effective strategies to take care of various security and productive issues.

Source: IBM & Report - Managing Mobile Device Diversity by Mr.ChaiyaKornApiwathanokul