Mobile management policies are a key consideration in the modern business climate; organizations must think carefully about which strategy will work for them. Investing in the wrong solution can be costly while also impacting the workforce’s effectiveness, especially when it comes to bring-your-own-device (BYOD) environments.
For some businesses, a targeted solution such as Mobile Application Management (MAM) might be the way forward. But most likely require a toolset like Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) that can control many myriad devices.
UEM enables IT and security teams to remotely control all kinds of devices, including smartphones, laptops, tablets, desktops, and smart or IoT devices. UEM also works across numerous platforms, including Windows, Android, and iOS, making it the ideal solution for organizations that need to manage and secure more than just mobile devices.
The key benefit of UEM is that many devices can be controlled from a single platform, with advanced tools to protect company data remotely. This solution is often adopted in the retail sector in wireless point-of-sale (POS) systems, securing payment devices against fraud.
For example, UEM is often used for mobile POS systems to manage payment processing (contactless payments) across customer mobile devices. Contactless payments have increased since 2020 and continue to rise, accelerating the adoption of mobile management policies.
What Is MAM?
Mobile Application Management (MAM) is a more targeted solution when compared to UEM, enabling the control of enterprise applications and any associated data. This is key to remotely issuing updates such as patches and additional features, helping to protect against cyberthreats.
Managing corporate email is a typical MAM use case, but it can also provide secure access to various other applications, including sales tools, cloud storage, and collaboration suites. Functions within an application can also be restricted—e.g., copy and paste can be disabled—to prevent data from being shared across applications.
Should an employee leave the company, or if a device is lost, business applications and data can be removed easily without affecting personal data.
The Difference between UEM and MAM
UEM differs from MAM in that it covers almost any type of device, whereas MAM needs to be combined with Mobile Device Management (MDM) to provide an all-encompassing Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM) solution.
Both solutions enable software management, but MAM is typically used by organizations that have adopted a BYOD policy and only need control of certain enterprise applications.
What's Better: UEM or MAM?
For some businesses, having complete control of an employee device is unnecessary, especially for personally-owned devices. Because of this, many adopt a MAM solution to control enterprise applications such as email, cloud storage, and other business-specific software.
UEM is a better option for organizations with a wide range of devices remotely connected to the network. This could be a business that needs to secure sensitive data across a large number of users with both corporate-issued smartphones and laptops, as well as BYOD.
Related Resources:
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Endpoint Security
Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP)
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Managed Detection and Response
Managed XDR
MITRE ATT&CK Framework
Mobile Threat Defense (MTD)
User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA)
Zero Trust Architecture
Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)
Zero Trust Security
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)