Mobile Device Management (MDM) Software – Centralized Management for Multiple Mobile Platforms/OS

People do bring and use their mobile devices at work – both inside & outside the office. But, it is difficult for the IT team to apply policies and centrally manage them all as multiple mobile platforms / OS are popular in the market. Of late, Mobile Device Management (MDM) software’s have sprung up to try and manage all the mobile devices in an enterprise using a single platform. Let us look at some interesting features they offer, in this article.

IT dept wants to standardize all office mobile applications with Blackberry, but some people want to use their own iphones/ Android phones at work. The windows mobile & symbian platforms are still popoular! So, its neither possible to stop people from using their own choice of smart phones nor possible to ignore the threats/ IT policy deviations that can occur due to these mobile devices (smart phones), which are almost like mini-computers these days!

So, MDM – Mobile Device Management software vendors are trying to fill the gap by offering centralized mobile device management for multiple mobile platforms/ Operating Systems. Let us look at some of the enterprise centric features offered by these vendors.

Centralized Management/ Asset Tracking: Both client-based/ client-less centralized management of all mobile devices deployed in the enterprise is possible with MDM. It is even possible to see total number of managed mobile phones, which devices are connected to the network at a given point of time, list of inactive devices over a period of time, etc.

Enforce Passwords/ Directory Integration: It is possible to enforce a user to enter the password immediately after switching on the mobile (or) when they want to access corporate resources. It may even be possible to integrate the corporate directories (AD/LDAP) for centralized authentication.

Centralized Policy enforcement: It is possible to group the various mobile devices into multiple categories and enforce separate security / usage policies for each group. Example – Do not allow employees (except management team) to download and add their own Apps, unless they are already certified by IT.

Admin Dashboard / User Self service portal: A web-based admin dashboard might help the administrator to check the status of any device (or) manage the adds/moves/changes of new mobile phones from any location. Some of them even offer self-service portals for users.

Encryption/ Corporate VPN: Many MDM software’s allow for encryption of emails / other corporate data accessed by the employees. Some of them even integrate with existing corporate VPN devices. The enterprise data stored in Mobile SD/CF cards can be encrypted for safe storage, if required.

Data lock/ Data wiping: MDM software’s offer to either lock down the cell phone or wipe off all the data (or only business related data) in the wake of user mobile phones being stolen.

Content/ URL filtering: Some MDM software’s allow content filtering (for preventing data theft) / URL (website) filtering to enable secure Internet access. IT administrators can even lock down certain phone features like camera, bluetooth / Infra-Red, memory card etc, so that they cannot use them inside the office premises.

Business/ Personal Data: It is possible to have separate interfaces for business/ personal mobile usage. For example, business data could be obtained only if the user runs the mobile client. So, the user can do what they want (for personal use) while their options are limited when using the mobile phones for business use.

Email/ Calander/ Contacts Synchronization: Employees use mobile phones (from remote locations) mainly for  the speed of reading/ replying to emails, scheduling meetings, accessing contacts & the ability to synchronize these changes in primary computer/ server through their mobile phones.

Apps: Filtering and categorization of Apps (as being suitable for corporate use) is critical for mobile phones connecting to the enterprise network, as there are so many apps (some of them malicious, some of them conflicting with other applications) available in the App-stores of major mobile platforms. Some MDM softwares allow administrators to host (and download) only IT certified apps in their own Intranet and some of them even allow creation of new business specific apps by offering an SDK’s for major mobile platforms.

Data Back-up: Work related data from the mobiles can be backed up so that they can be retrieved in case of lost mobiles/ accidental deletion of data.

Alerts/ Logs/ Reports: Any policy violations are reported to the administrators through mail, messages or dashboard notifications. Detailed logs and reports are maintained and some MDM software’s even integrate Business Intelligence features into their platform.

Do note that the features listed above are a collection of features supported by multiple MDM vendors and hence it is important to evaluate the features offered by vendors individually – At present, none of them can offer everything for all mobile platforms – they support only a limited number of features based on the client (mobile) operating system/ platform.

Most of the Mobile Device Management software vendors offer a pay-as-you-use SaaS based model where companies pay per-user/per-month in addition to the standard in-house deployment model. Some of them even offer integration with existing corporate network management platforms.

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