Introduction

In the last few years, we have seen the usage of mobile phones in organisations has increased dramatically. Moreover, employees have started bringing mobile phones to their workplaces and are working securely on corporate networks.

The use of Mobile Device Management has evolved a lot over these years as all the employees use laptops and smartphones to work. And they need solutions which are flexible, can increase efficiency at work and access information wherever they are and at any point of time.

MDM is a type of security software used by IT admins to secure, monitor and manage the employees’ devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc. used in organisation or personally owned mobile-devices to access in-house applications, business critical data, etc. MDM is deployed on across multiple operating systems being used in the organisation. It is often used with additional security services such as MAM and MCM to provide full secure EMM solution and a complete mobile device.

How does MDM work?

MDM uses client-server architecture where devices are clients while MDM server remotely pushes policies, configurations, apps and managing the devices over-the-air. Basically, MDM relies on endpoint software that is called MDM agent. IT admins configure policies through MDM server’s management console and then server pushes those policies over-the-air (OTA) to the MDM agent on the device. The agent then applies the policies to the device by communicating with APIs built into the device OS.

Why is MDM important?

Mobility solutions are being at the top of many business’ priority lists because of rapid adoption of smartphones and tablets at work. Mobile phones are portable and because of that work can be done from anywhere and at any point of time. Their portability feature can offer many advantages but there are few disadvantages associated such as data leakage and unauthorized data access. To protect data security, improve productivity and maintain portability at the same time we need a proper solution and MDM helps in simplifying the challenge of managing mobile devices without compromising security.

Let’s understand importance of MDM with below points:

• Without MDM, information on lost or stolen devices is not secure. And then lead to loss of confidential information, leakage of corporate data by falling into wrong hands
• Devices without MDM are vulnerable and have a high exposure to malware and other viruses that could again compromise to confidential data
• MDM can manage multiple Oss such as iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, etc. as well as multiple devices such as tablets, laptops, smartphones
• MDM provides enterprises the convenience of choosing a deployment method that fulfils their business’ specific needs

Benefits of using an MDM solution

• App whitelisting and blacklisting
• Remote / Enterprise data wiping
• Reporting for compliance purposes
• Enhanced security by protecting corporate data on mobile devices
• Managing devices over-the-air without requiring any user intervention and affecting productivity
• Device Inventory
• Data Encryption and password enforcement
• 24/7 monitoring, fully managed
• Everything is cloud based, so updates are automatic and painless
• Backup / Restore functionality of corporate data