We live in a revolutionary age. Every day, we can look forward to something new in technology or something new in the way things work. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the IT boom, possibly changing the way we work forever. If you are still using the same mobility management strategy that was used five to ten years back, it is probably outdated by now. Mobile devices and remote work are irrevocably intertwined with each other and your only option to take control is to have a solid mobility management strategy in place.
Table of Contents
- Mobility management – What is it?
- What can happen if your strategy is outdated?
- How to check if your mobility management strategy is outdated?
- 1. Does your solution support the latest device models?
- 2. Are you still using a Mobile Device Management solution?
- 3. Can you manage your devices remotely? What are the options?
- 4. Does your strategy include a BYOD policy?
- 5. Let’s go cloud, if you haven’t already.
- What next?
Mobility management – What is it?
When the devices and users are mobile, then the IT managers are responsible for managing, monitoring and securing the mobile endpoints. The traditional endpoint management just involved managing the desktops or PCs on the office desks within the office premises. Now, that is no longer the case. The need is for mobility management. And a strategy for mobility management that keeps up with the times.
What can happen if your strategy is outdated?
Nothing may happen. However, your organization would be at a greater risk against attacks and the effectiveness of managing the mobile devices would also be compromised. Lesser control and increased risk – aren’t those reasons enough to update your strategy? Better safe than sorry!
How to check if your mobility management strategy is outdated?
1. Does your solution support the latest device models?
If you have any mobility management strategy in place, you are probably using some solution to implement it. Run a quick check if this solution would still work the same for the latest device models. Not only that, the solution should also keep itself updated with the latest operating system versions and updates.
Windows 11, macOS Monterey, iOS 15, iPadOS 15, tvOS 15 and Android 12 – 2021 has been an eventful year!
There have been new announcements for all major operating systems, and it looks to be a bright future for endpoint management capabilities. It is upto the mobility management solution to leverage these opportunities to the best advantage. Read the blogs below to get a detailed idea of what to expect from the latest versions of OS platforms announced this year.
2. Are you still using a Mobile Device Management solution?
Confused? After all, you would use a Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution for managing mobile devices, right? You would have been right, but now, we have Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solutions and Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) solutions. Let’s look into what these terms mean in brief.
Mobile Device Management (MDM): This is a great solution to manage mobile devices like smartphones and tablets across different OS platforms like Android, FireOS or iOS. It gives secure control over these devices and lets the admin perform actions like remote wipe, enforce security policies, encrypt devices and more.
Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM): An EMM solution does everything that an MDM does and some more. The EMM solution also includes Mobile Application Management (MAM), Identity and Access Management (IAM), Mobile Content Management and most importantly, containerization for BYOD endpoints.
Unified Endpoint Management (UEM): UEMs take it even a step further by managing all the endpoints including smartphones, tablets, laptops, PCs and even wearables. A UEM is an evolution of MDM and EMM and includes all the management capabilities of both. UEMs also have advanced capabilities like no-touch enrollment, business integrations like Okta and Azure, mobile expense management, kiosk management and even more.
Now, you can see that using just an MDM solution is a very outdated strategy. If you have already deployed a UEM solution in your organization, well and good. Otherwise, do consider updating to a UEM solution that can manage all your endpoints – mobile or otherwise.
3. Can you manage your devices remotely? What are the options?
If the devices are mobile, remote management is a must. There is no purpose in the devices being mobile if they cannot be taken outside the office premises. Does your current mobility management strategy allow for remote management? Even if it does, what are the different things you can do with it?
What can you do with remote management?
With a UEM solution like Hexnode, the whole endpoint management is remote. We have listed out a few things you can do, but it is by no means an exhaustive list. We would suggest that you sign up for the free trial and test things out yourself for getting a complete idea.
Mobility management simplified
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14-day FREE trialRemote view and control
Troubleshooting mobile devices can be hard, but only if you do not have the proper tools to do it. With Hexnode, you can remotely view the screen of both your iOS and Android devices. You can figure out exactly what is going on at the device end and troubleshoot with ease. The admins with Samsung Knox devices to manage can be happier because they can also control the device from the Hexnode Web Console in addition to remotely viewing the device.
Track device location
Can a device be called managed if the admin cannot even track the device location? Enable location tracking in a policy and track device location either manually or schedule automatic location scans.
Remote lock/wipe
If a company device goes missing or gets stolen, the security risks are high. In such a case, it is often best to lock the device to a custom message with a phone number the finder should call. Now, if you are very sure that the device has been stolen for a malicious purpose, then it would be better to wipe the whole device. For BYOD Android devices, all the apps and data are stored in a separate container. For such devices, the admin can choose to wipe just the work container without affecting the personal apps and data.
Apply policies
Configure and apply policies for everything from security management to kiosk management and apply them to the managed devices in bulk.
Clear device password
Let’s say you applied a very strong password policy to the device, and the user configured one according to the standards. But alas, the user forgot the password! A very possible scenario, right? Wiping the whole device could be a possible solution, but not a very desirable one. For such cases, Hexnode admins can clear the device password remotely with a single click.
Install/uninstall/launch apps remotely
The admins can remotely install or uninstall applications in the managed devices. In Android devices, admins can even forcefully launch an application with pre-specified conditions. The IT admins can do a whole lot more with the Mobile Application Management (MAM) capabilities of the UEM.
Remote messaging
Use broadcast messages to improve communication with the end-users. Whether it be a holiday wish or debug instructions, send the messages to all devices in bulk with a single click.
Power off or restart the device
These are also bulk actions. You can power off or restart a set of devices instantly with Hexnode’s remote actions.
4. Does your strategy include a BYOD policy?
Your mobility management strategy is not complete if it does not have provision for BYOD. Okay, all of us know about the post-COVID scenario. Even before COVID-19, in 2018, an Oxford-Samsung research showed us that 61 percent of organizations expected their employees to be available remotely even if they had no company device. Accessing work apps and data from personal devices poses many risks, as we have mentioned before. It is very important that your strategy includes security policies and containerization capabilities for work apps and data.
5. Let’s go cloud, if you haven’t already.
Cloud is the present and the future. Whole enterprises are moving completely into cloud and it is helping everything become more mobile. Having a cloud UEM solution is highly flexible and apt for remote or mobile endpoint management.
What next?
Having mobile devices and users would not be of much use to your organization if the management capabilities aren’t up to mark. If mobile solutions aren’t working properly, it can easily kill employee productivity. And if they aren’t secured enough, then the whole organization could be at risk from malicious attacks and threats. The first step? To switch to a UEM solution if you already haven’t. Go cloud and go mobile.
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