What Is Mobile Device Management and How Important Is It?
It is a good feeling when you can bring your device (BYOD) to work. It is the fruit of your labor and gives you bragging rights as well. But for your IT department, it might be a headache. They need to enforce a mobile device management system across the network. But what is mobile device management (MDM)?
What is mobile device management and why is it important? As the term suggests, it is a way of managing or handling mobile devices across a network. Another term for these mobile devices is endpoint devices. These mobile devices contain personal, sensitive, and confidential information. It is necessary to protect this data against various threats. An attacker who has stolen your data can commit identity theft and frame you for something criminal.
What is mobile device management and how do you use it? Your IT staff takes care of technical stuff like this. They use mobile device management software to manage these endpoint devices. You can also outsource this task to a Managed Service Provider (MSP). An MDM vendor could also take on this responsibility.
You will learn more about what is mobile device management and its importance in the next section.
Best 9 Benefits of MDM Software
There are many reasons that MDM is important. A mobile device management tool protects and controls your employees' mobile devices. It is also deployable across different operating systems. Here are a few benefits that make MDM important:
Benefit #1: Remote Management
MDM enables your IT people to manage employee devices from a distant location. They can configure and handle your devices from any place, giving you round-the-clock support. It is having technical support whenever you need it and wherever you are.
Benefit #2: Remote Deletion
People keep all kinds of information on their mobile devices. This even includes sensitive information like credit card numbers and passwords. If these devices get lost, things like identity theft could happen. MDM can delete or wipe data from any device and any location. This prevents data breaches and gives users peace of mind.
Benefit #3: Data Backup
A good software feature is the ability to store and back up user data. MDM also allows you to do this from any location. MDM synchronizes the data and makes it accessible to the user's other devices. An example is how Google syncs your data across all your various mobile devices.
Benefit #4: BYOD Support
MDM supports a Bring Your Device environment. Employees bring their laptops, tablets, and smartphones to work for various reasons. One reason might be the slow performance of the company's workstations. This makes them use their own devices to meet their computing needs. This, in return, gives the company enormous savings in software and hardware equipment.
Benefit #5: Compliance
MDM makes your business compliant with different computing standards. Anything that involves security mandates you to follow regulations. Being compliant shows your business as being reliable and builds trust with your clients. This will lead to more profits.
Benefit #6: Remote Updates
Mobile devices must stay up to date. An update may contain software bug fixes, among other things. This removes security holes found in the devices. MDM can deploy updates from a central location to all mobile devices.
Benefit #7: Remote Application Deployment
A business provides its employees with various apps to increase and ensure productivity. The problem here is how to put these apps on each user's device. MDM installs and configures these apps from a central location.
Benefit #8: Simple User Enrollment
Any user can enroll their devices as soon as they power them on. A self-service portal allows them to add or remove devices without IT intervention.
Benefit #9: Device Settings Enforcement
Both device encryption and data loss prevention (DLP) settings secure data. This also aids in ensuring compliance with standards. You can automate certain settings for registered devices through MDM. This includes corporate connectivity, email profiles, and device-specific restriction settings. This reduces the volume of help-desk calls as well.
Conclusion
Now you know what is mobile device management and its benefits and are aware of why it is important for your business. For more information, please click here.