Why are people still trying to secure their environments with Mobile Device Management?

Mobile device management was the holy grail of mobility a few years ago, the dream was to have a mobile workforce of secured data usage on corporate devices. Managed, secured, controlled, standardised and reliable seemed achievable.

So what happened and why do I still see businesses demanding it nearly every day?

Bring your own device (BYOD) Happened: using multiple devices by multiple people and even with multiple identities has meant organisations often sacrifice all their mobility for security or worse they provide mobility and sacrifice security.

Why is MDM still an issue?, because organisations have failed to move on from the on-premises, corporate owned, SOE managed device mentality to then realise what they need to protect is the data itself.

Solution: MAM, MFA, DLP, IRM, ATA, AIP, CA+ MDM

For the acronym unaware: Mobile application Management, Multi-Factor Authentication, Data Leakage Protection, Information Rights Management, Advanced Threat Analytics, Conditional Access and of course the original MDM capability.

The result, what’s the difference to the organisation?

SECURING YOUR DATA, the access to it and how it can be used, moved and by who rather than trying to manage every possible access point. Allowing users to access the corporate data from any device, anywhere but preventing their ability to copy data to insecure locations, automatically preventing emailing or dissemination of high-risk documents and even detecting that high-risk information within emails and documents.

BYOD is here to stay as many organisations use traditional domain-joined computers less and the SOE (standard operating environment) becomes more the purvey of Virtual Desktop infrastructures such as Citrix. This is in part due to open plan, agile and mobile workplaces now being set as a standard but also due to the complexities of creating and maintaining a strict SOE. All this as users themselves demand more flexibility to use the equipment they want, access what they need without the high impact of time-consuming controls and processes.

What To Do : Look at Microsoft Secure Productive Enterprise (SPE) Microsoft and its components such as Enterprise Mobility and Security (EMS)

Secure Productive Enterprise, a new Microsoft catchphrase for the combination of Windows 10, Office 365, and EMS is relevant to this MDM to MAM+ thread as it does provide through the EMS suite all the acronyms required to secure data. If used in conjunction with the two supporting cast members it does so seamlessly and transparently to the user in their BYOD device.

Yes I am a Microsoft proponent, but only where it meets the requirement of the businesses I deal with and the key requirement is user experience; The seamless and transparent application of the controls to the data through technology.

If you are still focused on MDM, the endpoint SOE and VPN access I think you may already be losing the war on staff satisfaction and operational success in most situations.

This is where Experteq and myself strive to make a difference by working with organisations not just to implement change but enlighten, guide and work with them on the journey that usually they have already started but have no roadmap.