How to Manage Mobile Devices Securely

Tips on Mobile Device Management and Enterprise Mobility Management

No matter whether a smartphone, laptop or tablet: the use of mobile devices is a common practice. They are now very much in vogue, and the use of private mobile devices in companies is also increasing. But this also creates some new challenges – for both companies and employees.

Companies are increasingly using mobile devices

The days when employees with stationary PCs were tied to a permanent job are long gone. Meanwhile, more and more companies are providing their employees with mobile devices such as laptops and notebooks as well as smartphones and tablets.

One of the key benefits of this is flexibility: in times of home office, cloud solutions and new work, employees can access company data and projects from anywhere. This not only ensures higher productivity, but also generally higher employee satisfaction.

At the same time, the use of mobile devices in other places for more efficiency. For example, the work assignments of field staff can be made more productive or easier to keep important system data up to date. But despite all the benefits of using mobile devices in enterprises, this development is challenging the IT department in terms of security.

Mobile devices in the enterprise provide new challenges

The biggest hurdle companies face when it comes to handing out mobile tools to employees is security. Since employees access important, often confidential, company data using mobile devices, appropriate security concepts must be introduced.

It is also necessary to specify how the employees may use the mobile devices entrusted to them. In particular, for the private use of employer computers and service phones you should set clear rules. The same applies if you use Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) in your company and employees use their private devices for work.

Mobile Device Management: device management for mobile devices

Also, the device management of mobile devices should be precisely regulated. These include, for example, specifications as to which applications may be installed on a smartphone or notebook. However, it is also important to ensure that the operating systems are regularly checked for updates or vulnerabilities. Also, the installation and central administration of an antivirus protection should not be missing.

The easiest way to do this is with Mobile Device Management  (MDM). This is the inventory and centralized management of all mobile devices used in your business. It does not matter if it concerns portable computing devices and smartphones purchased by the company or the private devices of employees.

There are numerous offers from various manufacturers on the market that you can integrate into your IT infrastructure. Alternatively, external service providers such as Bleuwire™  can take over the mobile device security for you.

MDM for mobile devices – what should you look for?

The introduction of Mobile Device Management greatly simplifies device management within your enterprise. At the same time, you can make sure that your employees only have access to company data relevant to you. The safety aspect plays an important role here. Encrypted data transmission, central management and updating of anti-virus programs and firewalls, as well as password protection for the mobile devices, should be a matter of course here.

Additionally, it can be used to dictate which applications your employees can install and use. In particular, if you use in-house applications that are not accessible in the App Store, you can manage them centrally with the MDM. This also ensures that the applications are always up to date and that every employee has access to the same data.

Mobile Device Management or Enterprise Mobility Management?

In addition to Mobile device management, Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) is also a term that is increasingly mentioned in the topic of mobile device management for mobile devices. Safety is also a priority at EMM. For example, common EMM solutions provide ways to protect corporate data on employees’ mobile devices without restricting their productivity.

Enterprise Mobility Management provides companies with extensive opportunities to manage data, users, applications, and devices. However, the EMM goes beyond pure mobile device management. In fact, the MDM is an important part of Enterprise Mobility Management and is complemented by the following areas:

• Mobile Application Management (MAM)
• Mobile Security
• Mobile Content Management (MCM)

It is important for both MDM and EMM to be able to separate employees’ professional and private identities. This is especially important if the devices may also be used privately or if they are BYOD devices.

Manage mobile devices securely – with an EMM

In fact, there is no big difference between Mobile Device Management and Enterprise Mobility Management. Depending on the provider, both terms are used synonymously for each other. In general, MDM focuses primarily on device management, while EMM allows both mobile device management and installed applications.

Tasks of Enterprise Mobility Management

Thomas Lippert (Principle Manager at Sophos) describes what an EMM typically does. These include in particular the areas “protection for users and devices”, “protection for the network” and “protection of company data”. Specifically, they include the following mobile management options:

• Protection for users and devices
  • Implement password policies
  • Find lost devices or delete data on lost devices
  • Update antivirus and mobile security software
• Network Protection
  • Introduce Wi-Fi/network access policies and compliance policies
  • Restrict unwanted features and make security settings
  • Enable secure browsing for frequently accessed websites through an extra layer of protection
• Protection of company data
  • Isolation of important data through container solutions
  • Standardize and secure cloud access
  • Additional protection for company-specific applications

Depending on the solution chosen, there are additional features that simplify device management and better protect mobile phones.

Manage mobile devices: IT service providers help with the MDM

A good mobile device management for mobile devices should always be part of the security concept. This ensures that your corporate data is protected in the best possible way even when your employees access it from their smartphone or tablet. Helpful here is a mobile device management or an enterprise mobility management.

When setting up the MDM or EMM , you can consult an external IT service provider.  Bleuwire™ one of the best IT service providers. advise you on mobile device management, and also on other questions in the areas of IT infrastructure , IT support , IT security and cloud solutions .