As a follow-up to our previous blog on Mobile Device Management (MDM), we’re going to dive a bit deeper into the considerations to be made when creating an MDM strategy and the types of solutions we provide to put your strategy in action.
At its most basic level, MDM software is made up of a central server component and a client component that gets installed on individual devices. The server and clients communicate with each other to keep devices working, updated, and secure. But MDM strategies become a bit more complicated when you start to consider what you want to enable your employees to do and what kinds of data and communications need to be protected.
More MDM Strategy Considerations
- What kinds of data will users need to access, and where will it be stored?
- What are the security risks and what solutions will protect your data without encumbering ease of use?
- Will it be more efficient to adopt a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) strategy or issue company-owned devices?
- What guidelines will your employees need to follow to keep your data safe?
- How will you respond if any information is compromised?
One of the biggest conflicts with MDM strategy is the balance between high security requirements and ease of use. If your employees can log into company systems from personal devices, regardless of your security policy, they probably will. Our goal is to create systems with built-in protection that are easy to use, paired with security guidelines your employees will follow.
If you do want to enable employees to access proprietary systems and information on their own devices, you will need clear guidelines for keeping their personal data separate from work-related data.
“Once the Leaders of the organization fully acknowledge that achieving a “Gold Standard” can be cumbersome and difficult to attain there can be “best practices” applied with consistency in messaging and monitoring that will help in attaining acceptable levels of security and ease of use.”
– Maurice Hamilton, CEO of Infinavate
Building Fast and Secure Solutions
Depending on the solutions you currently have in place, we may need to build or rebuild custom service-based applications. For the last two decades, service-oriented architecture (SOA) has been the definitive method for building applications for services at scale; it’s a design philosophy that allows developers to loosely couple multiple application services into a larger, composite service.
However, cloud computing has quickly opened up new possibilities for faster access to similar company resources. Again, with cloud computing advances come more security risks. Depending on your goals, we may decide to use SOA alone, cloud computing, or a combination of the two approaches.
Creating Your Custom Strategy
There are several MDM software solutions on the market. We can help you find the right one for your organization and manage it for you. Here are a few more specific goals we can help you achieve with an MDM strategy:
- Device inventory and tracking
- Mobile management and live support
- Set devices to allow/deny specific applications
- Password enforcement
- Security alerts for users trying to bypass restrictions
- Draft usage guidelines and educate team on security hygiene
Are you ready to start exploring MDM solutions for your company? Get in touch with us today and connect with our team of cybersecurity and hardware security experts. We can help you establish an Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) process that works for your organization and your customers.