Remember the good old days when Mobile Device Management (MDM) was the shiny new toy that only the cool kids had? My, how it’s grown since then. In pre-COVID days, when the corporates locked their team in the office to sweat over their 400-ton desktops, MDM was just a twinkle in the eye of the IT administrator. But everything’s changed, and remote working has set MDM free to take on this brave new world. Let’s gaze into the IT crystal ball (you got one, right?) and take a look at the future of mobile device management trends.
Wait, What’s Mobile Device Management?
Here’s a super quick overview. MDM is a multi-faceted framework of software and policies, powered by humans, that provisions a fleet of computing devices with productivity tools while protecting their data from vulnerabilities and breaches.
MDM keeps All The Things safe, trains up your people to be less cruddy at data security, gives your compliance person a blessed life, and streamlines your business processes. These are only four reasons why we bang on about mobile device management trends.
4 Mobile Device Management Trends To Watch Out For
Trend #1: BYOD Is Only Going to Get Bigger
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) happens when employees are allowed to use their personal devices for corporate business.
Working from anywhere is a thing now, and even the most traditional corporations have recognized the need for a more mobile, flexible workforce. Some of this is because COVID-19 forced the issue, but flexible and hybrid working was becoming more popular before. And, because corporates are too tight to buy their people a nice new device each, BYOD—and its less famous cousin Stay At Home With Your Own Device (SAHWYOD)—are becoming a policy norm. Employees like it because it gives them flexibility about how they work, and they can work on a device they can customize and are comfortable with. It’s fast becoming an accepted part of normal work culture globally.
But BYOD has flung up some gnarly issues for employees concerned about their privacy, and for companies worried about new vulnerabilities and corporate data security. This means greater focus on:
- New security tools and policies.
- Secure BYOD onboarding protocols.
- Establishing who’s responsible for supporting devices.
- What devices can actually be supported, and how costs are shared.
- Ensuring employee privacy.
- Educating or reassuring staff on how their privacy is maintained.
As BYOD grows, so will the demand for a secure, flexible management tool to cope with all the issues: security, privacy, compliance, provisioning, onboarding, and offboarding. Step forward, MDM. MDM has the bandwidth to take on BYOD at scale and to solve the privacy issue by containerizing corporate data on personal devices.
Trend #2: All the Platforms
Brand loyalty means nothing if you need your device to do Thing X, but it can only do Thing Y. In the real world, you need the right endpoint for the job. If you offer your graphic design team anything but a Mac, say goodbye to your front teeth. Your sales team might be more comfortable with sales enablement software on Windows, because they’re like that. And, because you’re a switched-on employer, you’re implementing a Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) policy for the new remote team. This means you need to contend with Android, Chrome OS, iOS, and others.
Yep, cross-platform fleets a thing and in this decade they will get even thingier. Your Windows IT administrator will hate you for it, until they’ve understood that cross-platform MDM is a thing, too.
MDM is evolving to tackle the come-at-me-’bro attack of all the platforms. MDM builds are becoming more flexible and adept at managing devices with diverse operating systems, from a single dashboard. Features and functions such as centralized configuration management, automated device enrollment, and bespoke app provisioning are proven and ready for market adoption.
Trend #3: Mobile Application Management (MAM)
As an employer, if you're becoming more concerned about security (and more attuned to compliance requirements), you need to narrow the pathways your data can be accessed, including locking out devices that aren't enrolled in MDM/MAM. MAM is useful for keeping company data and apps separate from personal data/apps on BYOD devices.
MAM controls the lifecycle of individual applications on mobile devices, allowing IT admins to manage apps and control how associated data is stored and shared. MAM is a subset of MDM, but it'll become more important as BYOD becomes more prevalent. That’s because of the privacy and security debate. With MAM, you can set up a repository of authorized apps for your people to use, which is kept separate and secure from the personal stuff on their device.
This containerization allows employees to control their own devices and reassures them that their privacy is protected. Their employers can’t lock down their devices or wipe personal data. Plus, compliance officers are happy that corporate data is protected if it hits the fan.
Trend #4: Compliance, Compliance, Compliance
Compliance is no longer just for the fat corporates or businesses working in specialist industries like healthcare or defense. And it’s not just about avoiding embarrassing headlines, crippling fines or irate compliance officers. Data security compliance is quickly becoming a business asset, much like a great reputation or engaged employees.
Working for accreditation with any regulatory framework alphabet soup—SOC 2, SEC, HIPAA, CCPA, PCI, DISS, et al.—shows that a business takes data security seriously, and is often a pre-qualifier for juicier contracts. As the trend towards compliance grows, so will the demand and opportunities for MDM.
That’s because MDM is the magic ingredient in any information security management system. It covers many data security principles, such as confidentiality, privacy and accessibility. With MDM, it’s easy to demonstrate that your business can proactively keep data safe through automated encryption, forced passcodes and updates, remote lock and wipe, and access control.
Being the trend-setting business that you are, we believe that it’s not bold of us to assume that you’d be interested in giving MDM a try and also, indeed, unraveling this sentence. We’d be only too delighted to explore how MDM could make your business and your life even more Disney Princess than it already is.
To learn more about the Mobile Device Management Trends to watch out for Give us a call. We are here to help!