Tuesday, March 19, 2024

10 Enterprise Mobility Management Solutions: Beyond MDM

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Enterprise mobility management (EMM), rather than mobile device management, defines the new approach to managing employee-owned devices. EMM is a less heavy-handed method of handling device security, onboarding, and monitoring.

CXOs realize that mobile devices are a weak link in the enterprise business chain and that security and asset protection are mandatory. The only way to manage the diverse array of devices and user experience with those devices is to setup a management suite that handles security, connectivity, and access to corporate assets.

Bring your own device (BYOD), whether sanctioned by management or IT departments, is a common practice among employees across a broad spectrum of companies. Enterprises now recognize the value in such programs and are in the process of embracing the trend toward company-managed, employee-owned devices. From a practical point of view, BYOD makes sense as it allows employees to use the technology that they chose and that they like. The advantage for enterprises is that employee efficiency, productivity, and happiness increase, while still maintaining an agreeable amount of control and security over network usage and intellectual property.

The ten enterprise mobility management solutions listed here in alphabetical order are all industry-leading solutions for BYOD and corporate-owned mobile devices.

AirWatch

AirWatch originally was a company that helped companies managed so-called ruggedized devices and wireless endpoints. Since that time, the company transitioned into mobile device management. Now owned by VMware, AirWatch helps companies manage mobile devices, email, applications, content, and browsers. It also integrates with a variety of partner solutions that includes directory services, business intelligence, PKI, unified communications, and network access control.

Compatibility and Management

AirWatch supports all major mobile platforms including Android, iOS, Blackberry, Symbian, and Windows. This all-encompassing support gives you and your users maximum flexibility for device choice. Administrators can use whitelists and blacklists to allow or to deny any type of device or platform.

The AirWatch solution includes a self-service portal for automated enrollment and device vetting. Once users have authenticated, associated profiles, applications, and content are granted based on the user, the device, and device ownership.

Key Differentiators

AirWatch was founded in 2003, which makes it an early entrant into the field of wireless device management. Before widespread mobile devices were generally in use, AirWatch was there and that experience shows in its current position as the leading enterprise mobility management provider.

AirWatch offers its solution on-premise or as a cloud service. Either solution is infinitely scalable and companies can switch from on-premise to the cloud solution or vice versa as needs change.

Security

AirWatch describes its security as end-to-end and includes users, devices, applications, content, data, email, and networks. Its solution fully integrates with AD or LDAP and uses policy-based security as well as whitelists and blacklists. Its security measures extend to content with strong encryption, remote content removal, and a secure container known as AirWatch Content Locker.

Citrix

Citrix is perhaps best known for its WinFrame product and its lightweight application delivery platform. Citrix looks very different now than in its original incarnation. Now Citrix provides virtualization technologies, SaaS solutions, cloud computing, and mobility management software to businesses worldwide. Citrix still delivers enterprise applications to a variety of devices and platforms. Its XenMobile enterprise mobility management solution delivers device and application management services.

Compatibility and Management

Citrix XenMobile is a comprehensive EMM solution that delivers mobile device management (MDM), mobile application management (MAM), and productivity apps to any device. Its EMM solution also secures apps, data, and devices.

Key Differentiators

Citrix has a long history of delivering applications to various platforms and devices, but that’s only one of its differentiators. Its XenMobile solution also includes NetScaler, which is the industry’s leading service delivery platform. Using XenMobile obviates the need for a layered, multi-vendor approach to mobile management. Citrix does it all: It combines the best security for its ShareFile sync and share content management, first-rate application delivery, and scalable growth for your entire enterprise.

Security

Citrix has always regarded security as a design feature in its products. Its ShareFile product uses secure cloud storage using StorageZones and StorageZone Connectors to create secure connections between you and your data. ShareFile uses encryption everywhere and includes remote wipe and content expiration capabilities. ShareFile also tracks, audits, and reports on all user activity, meaning that any data that’s consumed, shared, or touched in any manner has an audit trail associated with it.

Good Technology

Good Technology specializes in secure mobile solutions for general business, financial institutions, and government entities. Good’s focus is on securing apps, data, and mobile devices. The primary goal of Good’s technologies is to protect corporate assets as well as the device the data resides on.

Compatibility and Management

Good Technology’s EMM solution, Good Dynamics, integrates mobile device management (MDM), mobile application management (MAM), mobile content management (MCM), mobile service management (MSM), and a customizable enterprise app store. And like other EMM solutions, Good offers an on-premise and a cloud-hosted solution.

Key Differentiators

Good Technology invented mobile app containerization. Containerization encrypts the app sandbox and logically separates personal data from corporate data so that the two never mix with each other. Employees can use corporate apps on personal devices without worrying about additional security measures – Good takes care of it all for secured corporate apps. Although containerized apps are separated from personal apps, Good’s technology allows you to securely share data between containerized apps for more flexibility.

Security

As previously noted, Good Technology’s solution is security-focused and provides complete end-to-end security for apps, data, and devices. The following is a partial listing of Good’s security measures:

·  App authorization

·  App-level encryption

·  App authentication

·  Single sign-on

·  Strong password enforcement

·  Remote lock/wipe

·  Data loss prevention

·  Secure corporate access behind firewalls

IBM  

Named as a Leader in almost every Gartner Magic Quadrant report ever published, the enterprise mobile management space is no exception. Big Blue is right up there with the other industry leaders AirWatch, MobileIron, Citrix, and Good Technology. To qualify as a Leader in the Magic Quadrant report an EMM provider must have the highest product revenue in the EMM market, several years of proven customer implementations, customer mind share and extensive partnerships with channel and other technology providers.

Compatibility and Management

IBM’s MobileFirst Managed Mobility Services for enterprise provides security-rich mobile device management for iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile devices.

Key Differentiators

IBM purchased the MaaS360 mobile device management suite to enter the mobile device management game with a running start. MaaS360, now IBM MobileFirst, is a comprehensive mobile management suite that provides all the expected MDM functionality and features. The differentiator here isn’t the software suite, although MobileFirst is a top-notch offering, it is IBM itself. IBM’s long history in the enterprise computing game carries a lot of weight with businesses. There are still plenty of people around who believe that “you never get fired for buying IBM.”

Security

IBM’s MobileFirst, is a secure, cloud-based management suite for devices, apps, and content. Like any good MDM suite, you can configure extreme security and granular policies for enrolled devices. MobileFirst also features privacy settings, secure document sharing, certificate management, AD/LDAP integration, and email access controls.

MobileIron  

MobileIron’s sole purpose is enterprise mobility management and has been since its inception in 2007. MobileIron’s EMM is available as a cloud-based service or an on-premise solution. It secures apps, content, and devices regardless of the device type.

Compatibility and Management

MobileIron supports any device, but focuses most of its effort on the market leaders: iOS, Android, and Windows. The management suite is composed of the EMM big three: MDM, MAM, and MCM products and services.

Key Differentiators

MobileIron is one of the true innovators in the mobile space and provides an array of solutions to meet every conceivable enterprise mobile need including a security and management policy engine, an automated configuration client, and an intelligent security gateway. But the innovation doesn’t stop there. MobileIron’s MAM offering covers users with an enterprise app store (Apps@Work) that also secures apps on the device and containerizes them—separating them logically from personal apps and data.

The MCM solution includes Docs@Work, which is an email attachment security application. Plus, users can securely browse corporate intranet content from outside the corporate network without the use of a device-wide VPN using Web@Work.

Security

Other than the standard security fare of encrypting data, enforcing passwords, using strong authentication, MobileIron’s security wrapper also includes per-App VPN, App-level data loss prevention, App reputation services, and a secure App ecosystem through AppConnect and AppTunnel.

 SAP  

SAP might seem an unlikely entrant into the EMM field, but it has always focused on enterprise software and providing business software solutions, so EMM is a natural progression for it. In its effort to bring its other enterprise software to mobile devices, SAP transitioned into EMM to help businesses maintain App and data security for those environments as well.

Compatibility and Management

SAP Afaria is an EMM that encompasses security for devices, applications, and content on iOS, Android, Windows phone, Blackberry, and Windows desktop and server operating systems. Afaria features a self-service portal, easy enrollment, and AD/LDAP integration for user authentication.

Key Differentiators

Afaria can provision SAP and third-party apps and provides users with a selectable list of apps to install from a list within the Afaria app. Once the app is installed onto the device, it exists outside of Afaria, but is managed by it and therefore is also secured by it. Afaria can update, remove, and install new features to supported apps.

Security

The only way to get corporate apps or access to corporate assets is through the Afaria app. You also have to onboard yourself using a directory authenticated username and password and an enrollment code. Once authenticated, you can install any listed app within the Afaria app on your mobile device. Personal data is logically separated from encrypted corporate data.

Sophos  

Sophos is a security company that began life producing anti-virus and encryption products for business. Today it provides products that secure every end point of a network including laptops, virtual desktops, servers, email, web browsing, and mobile devices. And knowing that users are adept at bypassing security, Sophos has made security simple for users and administrators.

Compatibility and Management

Sophos’ Mobile Control can manage and control iOS, Android (including Samsung SAFE), Windows Phone 8, and other device types. Mobile Control configures device policies and deploys them over-the-air, enforces built-in security features such as passcodes and device encryption, provides full device loss and device theft protection, and builds group-based compliance policies. You also get MAM, email management, integrated anti-virus and web protection for Android devices,

Key Differentiators

In the mobile space, Sophos sets itself apart from the pack with its integrated security for Android devices. The Mobile Security app scans all newly installed apps for malware infections, infected devices are quarantined, and users are protected from malicious sites in real time. Sophos provides its Mobile Security app free to all Android users with no ads.

Security

Sophos’ Mobile Encryption product supports Android and iOS devices only, however it provides passphrase-protected cloud security for easy access to all of your encrypted files. And it’s integrated with the tools you use, such as Dropbox, iTunes, and SD cards.

SOTI  

SOTI Inc., established in 1995, has become a major force in EMM, IT Helpdesk, and Mobile Security. SOTI was named a Visionary in Gartner’s EMM Magic Quadrant report. SOTI’s MobiControl product is an award-winning mobility management solution that provides the capability to securely manage mobile devices and connected peripherals, applications, content, and email.

Compatibility and Management

SOTI’s MobiControl supports iOS, Android, Windows Phone, older Windows mobile versions, Windows PCs, and Mac OS X. It also integrates with AD/LDAP, Office 365, and Microsoft Exchange Server.

Key Differentiators

SOTI’s primary differentiator is that it addresses Android fragmentation head on with MobiControl’s Android+ Technology, which is integrated with more than 36 Android OEM partners that extends enterprise-grade secure mobile management to a wide range of Android devices. It also distinguishes itself with its fine-grained street-level and polygon geofencing and enabling distracted driver controls when the vehicle’s speed exceeds a preset limit.

Security

MobiControl includes anti-virus and anti-malware software by default. It also blocks so-called “sideloading” of apps on Android devices, which protects users and devices from apps that weren’t specifically requested from the Google Play Store.

Symantec  

Symantec’s name is synonymous with security from anti-virus to its endpoint encryption to its secure backup solutions. Symantec is one of the first software companies to provide security solutions to personal computer owners near the beginning of the PC revolution of the 1980s. Now Symantec produces a variety of software to protect individuals, small businesses, and large enterprises.

Compatibility and Management

Symantec Mobility: Suite supports Android, iOS, and Windows phone, can manage corporate-owned or personal devices and integrates MDM, MAM, MCM, and mobile threat protection into a single console solution.

Key Differentiators

Symantec’s differentiator is more than 30 years of experience in providing security solutions to computing environments. On the surface, Symantec’s Mobility offering looks like all the others with the same feature sets and capabilities, but underneath is enterprise-level security that you can trust for platforms and user practices that are less than secure.

Security

As stated, Symantec is all about security. In fact, Symantec realizes that security measures and productivity can often be at odds, so security and usability are both part of its mantra. As an example, “Rather than rely on multiple point products, Symantec Mobility: Suite offers a unified solution of control that enforces consistent security standards, regardless of device type, without impeding the end-user’s productivity or personal privacy.”

Tangoe  

Tangoe is a leading global provider of Connection Lifecycle Management software and services to a wide range of global enterprises and service providers. Its flagship product, Matrix, is an on-demand software suite that manages enterprise communications lifecycles. For EMM, Tangoe’s offering is MatrixMobile that covers MDM, mobile support, mobile device logistics, mobile telecom expense management, and more.

Compatibility and Management

Tangoe’s MDM supports iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone. MatrixMobile MDM is a comprehensive monitoring, management, and support suite for mobile devices in the enterprise from onboarding to decommissioning. Some of MatrixMobile’s notable features are single console management, secure access of enterprise content, policy-based roles, over-the-air software and app distribution, and separated corporate and personal data.

Key Differentiators

Tangoe’s differentiator in this crowded market is its additional service offerings such as mobile device logistics, telecom expense management, real-time expense management, and mobile advisory services.

Security

MatrixMobile uses containers to prevent data leakage, to encrypt corporate data, to protect against malware, to prevent unauthorized access, to focus users on using a single portal, to allow, block, and quarantine apps as required, to wipe data remotely, to enforce VPN and WiFi rules, and to protect devices from unauthorized use.

Employees and companies are now in a technology partnership—sharing the expense of end user technology, while also sharing the burden of security and responsibility for maintaining a certain amount of restraint in mixing business and personal data on the same device. Enterprise mobility management has evolved from the heavy-handed, complete device takeover of a few years ago into a kinder, gentler, user-friendly version that includes device management, security rules enforcement, app management, content management, and a clearer focus on security that benefits both the user and the company.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

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