The capacity of any object to move or any object possessing a property of being easily movable is called mobility. The world we know today is increasingly becoming wireless. The manner in which people are connecting together is becoming more and more dynamic. Devices are becoming wireless, there is no fixed place in which one can work. There’s no tying down of people with wires. Businesses are conducted by people miles away from each other. Decisions are taken by leaders at over 45,000 feet in the air. Meetings are conducted by managers at the comforts of their home. Over 5 billion people on this planet connect with each other and access information through a tap on their mobile phone screens. How does this impact organizations?

Enterprise mobility

Enterprise mobility is an approach to work in which employees can do their jobs from anywhere using a variety of devices and applications. The term commonly refers to the use of mobile devices—such as smartphones and tablets—for business purposes. But it also covers the mobility of corporate data and of workers themselves. As an example of enterprise mobility, an employee may upload a presentation from his desktop PC to a cloud storage service, and then access it from a personal Apple iPad to show at a client site.

Why enterprise mobility is important?

Enterprise mobility is not a buzzword or fad. The days of being chained to workspaces have ceased. Handheld devices have always given users freedom of movement and greater flexibility to manage their schedule. Palmtop computers, Blackberry smartphones, laptops, tablets, netbooks, GPS devices, and even point of sale (POS) machines are examples of mobile technology. In the early part of the century, most handheld devices were issued by employers. The devices were used according to the rules and regulations of the organizations. These devices allowed application mobility.

Understanding application mobility

Application mobility which is the characteristic of enterprise mobility is the ability for an application to travel with its user, moving between computers, or moving with a computer between locations. In 2007, Apple released the first iPhone, and Google offered Android operating systems for mobile phones. As more and more people started using mobile phones, productivity increased by a noticeable margin. Users worked on a variety of applications that allowed them to multi-task and often seamlessly migrate from one device to another despite working on the same project. This seamless connectivity paved the way for various Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies.

As more and more users began adapting to the BYOD culture, organizations realized that there will be some usage of personal computing devices for personal usage by employees. Adopting a middle-ground approach, the mobile device management software were used to control access to other devices on the official network and information. Slowly mobile device management made way for Mobile Application Management (MAM) and Identity and Access Management (IAM).

Mobile application management allowed IT to control and secure applications that are related to the organization and business.

Identity and access management enables users to log on to multiple types of corporate applications—including desktop, mobile and cloud apps—with one set of credentials. This approach aims to simplify the management of multiple user accounts per employee, which can otherwise open organizations up to security risks.

Understanding enterprise mobile management

Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) is a set of services and technologies designed to secure corporate data on employees’ mobile devices. While it can manifest itself in various ways, it generally consists of a suite of mobile management systems and services that protect intellectual property; specific processes that ensure the security of data; and systems that must integrate with a wide range of enterprise IT systems to meet a range of corporate concerns.

Mobile Device Management (MDM), Mobile Application Management (MAM), Mobile Identity Management (MIM), Mobile Content Management (MCM), Mobile Expense Management (MEM), and Mobile Information Management (MIM) are the primary components of enterprise mobile management. EMM started from the thriving BYOD culture and has now evolved as a tool that goes beyond management and allows them to be more agile and reduce employee workload.

Understanding security for enterprise mobility

At a time when users prefer using their personal computing devices for official work, how do enterprises check that their data is safe and not in a vulnerable place?

There are more than 100 reputable software providers that have developed software for mobile device management platforms. All the solutions provided cater to the pool of requirements; some of them are experts in serving the large corporations, some mid-range, and other smaller enterprises.

Here we take a look at some of them.

Microsoft Intune enterprise mobility security

This mobile device management software can be used as a standalone security solution or a complete package that can be used for mobility and security. The features can be maintained centrally and securely manage the apps and data across the company devices, cloud, and data center applications.

AirWatch

VMware’s AirWatch is considered as better intelligent solutions for the enterprises in the market because of its offering for complete control of all devices in the system and complete visibility of security and overall health of enterprise mobile devices. AirWatch is adaptable to any number of devices, so keeping track of the deployments can be easy; it not only has greater device management quality but indexes device information too.

Meraki

Cisco’s Meraki is a cloud-controlled Wi-Fi, routing, and security products company for distributed wired and wireless networks. Cisco Meraki includes the portfolio of wireless LAN, security appliances, switching, and mobile device management all that can be centrally managed.  This mobility solution provides the flexibility of faster management, handling 300 to 400 user base without any downtime.

IBM MaaS

IBM’s offering was a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product that focuses on building new businesses with services and technology solutions to protect and manage corporate data for mobile devices. IBM bought the MaaS360 in 2013 for $375 million that offers mobile management, detailed device management, laptop security; and mobile collaboration through dedicated applications. It also assists the users using the personal device for work to separate both work and personal data.

ManageEngine Mobile Device Manager

Zoho offers a complete software solution that includes all OS-based mobile device management. The solution can be used by users for managing all types of devices such as Windows and iOS devices. The Manage Engine MDM provides the users with multiple optional features that make automation easier, with minimal human interaction.

Why enterprise mobility matters

Enterprise mobility solutions are important because they allow for a more dynamic business, wherein data access, usage, and storage are not limited to the office environment. In a competitive business world, having access to data on the go provides a competitive advantage. In this kind of space, a nimble business that takes advantage of cloud-based storage solutions and innovative enterprise mobility applications can stay ahead of the curve.

Conclusion

In today’s business landscape, it’s critical to stay competitive, but any kind of software solution needs to be applied with due consideration to context and the exact nature and size of your business. For some people, enterprise mobility is all about being able to have remote meetings and share and edit documents collaboratively. For others, it matters more as real-time data and transactions happen even while on the go. Business owners must understand their business’ goals and identify the priorities and choose solutions that not only secure data, but also keep employees in check without intruding on their privacy. To know more about mobility and mobility trends, you can download our latest whitepapers on Mobility.