Mobile Device Management (MDM) vs. Mobile Application Management (MAM)

With the rise of smartphones and tablets per employee, many businesses are asking whether they should use Mobile Device Management (MDM) or Mobile Application Management (MAM). These are the two most known technologies that help businesses control smartphone and tablet use. Most of the features are similar and some vendors are combining these two technologies as one single service.

The question that your business has shouldn’t be to decide one technology over the other. A business should be considering their overall business needs for users and security for the enterprise. This may lead to the conclusion that you may need a combination of both technologies.

Mobile Device Management (MDM) takes control of the whole smartphone or tablet. Businesses can make a passcode so that they can secure sensitive data if such a case happens where they misplace their device. Other benefits that Mobile Device Management (MDM):

• Ability to enforce overall policies
• Tracking inventory
• Performing real-time monitoring and reporting

A big issue that may arise with Mobile Device Management (MDM) is that the full-device access for a company may lead to deleting all of the users’ personal information and data if the device is ever lost. Some employees may not like that they need to enter a passcode to only check their email while the rest of the activity on the device is personal.

Mobile Application Management (MAM), on the other hand, allows the business to secure and control only the apps that are designed for work purposes. This way the device would not be at risk of being wiped of all data so that the user may keep their personal data on their device still. IT can also use Mobile Application Management (MAM) to limit the ability to share corporate data. However, a huge challenge for this technology would be the challenge of coding each individual product and the limitation of availability of apps for a specific platform.

As stated before, both of these technologies are now being offered as a service together by many providers. The ability to pick and choose the tools is made available by the providers so that a business can have a service that is made for their needs and security demands.