Difference between MDM and MAM

Hi Friends,

  I am going to highlight about the Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Mobile Application Management (MAM) concepts in this blog. First we have to understand what exactly these concepts do and how it'll be useful for the IT managements environment. MAM is very different from MDM. As we know, devices are made to be manage by heavy handed profiles into the IT to get mainly corporate information security and protection of data to the device level. That is mean if anyone lost his device , they can wipe up it from the remote. Application is management in mobile application a really meant for mobile workforce.  This is what we get the envy and come up with the great ideas of apps that empowered us , and we need to start with the platform really knows how to do this in four life cycle:

1. Environment from upfront
2. Injection of policies
3. Security Wrapping
4. Right through the deployment and management. 

Apart from the above points, using two very important things which we need to take care , i.e, user experience, no training required , getting the apps securely. And into the IT side, all over they need to do this from secure environment and they can do across a large enterprise that scales mobile application management and mobile device management.

Lets understand the standard and brief definition of MDM and MAM:

Mobile Device Management (MDM): MDM software secures, monitors, manages and supports mobile devices deployed across mobile operators, service providers and enterprises. MDM functionality typically includes over-the-air distribution of applications, data and configuration settings for all types of mobile devices, including mobile phones, smartphones, tablet computers, ruggedized mobile computers, mobile printers, mobile POS devices, etc. This applies to both company-owned and employee-owned (BYOD) devices across the enterprise or mobile devices owned by consumers.

By controlling and protecting the data and configuration settings for all mobile devices in the network, MDM can reduce support costs and business risks. The intent of MDM is to optimize the functionality and security of a mobile communications network while minimizing cost and downtime. With mobile devices becoming ubiquitous and applications flooding the market, mobile monitoring is growing in importance. Numerous vendors help mobile device manufacturers, content portals and developers, test and monitor the delivery of their mobile content, applications and services.

Implementation:

Typically solutions include a server component, which sends out the management commands to the mobile devices, and a client component, which runs on the handset and receives and implements the management commands. In some cases, 

• a single vendor may provide both the client and the server,
• in others client and server will come from different sources.

One of the next steps was to allow a client initiated update, similar to when a user requests a Windows Update.

Central remote management, using commands sent over the air, is the next step. An administrator at the mobile operator, an enterprise IT data center or a handset OEM can use an administrative console to update or configure any one handset, group or groups of handsets. This provides scalability benefits particularly useful when the fleet of managed devices is large in size.

Central functionality includes:

• FOTA - Firmware over the air updates
• Diagnostics
• Remote Configuration and Provisioning
• Security
• Backup/Restore
• Network Usage and Support
• Server Deployment
• Mobile asset tracking and management
• Remote Lock and Wipe
• Device Provisioning
• Software Installation
• Troubleshooting and Diagnostic Tools
• Policy Application
• Logging and Reporting
• Remote Control and Administration
• GPS tracking and 'breadcrumb' mapping

Over-the-air programming (OTA) capabilities are considered a main component of mobile network operator and enterprise-grade Mobile Device Management software. These include the ability to remotely configure a single mobile device, an entire fleet of mobile devices or any IT-defined set of mobile devices; send software and OS updates; remotely lock and wipe a device, which protects the data stored on the device when it is lost or stolen; and remote troubleshooting. OTA commands are sent as a binary SMS message. Binary SMS is a message including binary data.

Mobile Application Management (MAM): MAM describes software and services that accelerate and simplify the creation of internally developed or “in-house” enterprise mobile applications. It also describes the deployment and management of in-house and commercially available mobile apps used in business settings on both company-provided and “bring your own” smartphones and tablet computers (BYOD).

Mobile application management has also been defined as “the strategy and process around developing/procuring, securing, deploying, accessing, configuring, updating and removing (business) applications from mobile devices used by the employees.” Enterprise MAM has been driven by the widespread adoption and use of mobile devices in business settings. IDC reported that smartphone use in the workplace will double between 2009 and 2014 and it continuously grows in future. The BYOD (“Bring Your Own Device”) phenomenon is a factor behind mobile application management, with personal PC, smartphone and tablet use in business settings (vs. business-owned devices) rising today in IT enterprise. When an employee brings a personal device into an enterprise setting, MAM enables the corporate IT staff to provision the device, download appropriate applications, control access to back-end data, and “wipe” the device if it is lost, or when its owner no longer works with the company.

Applications types which fall under MAM:

• Corporate data access and decision support
• CRM and sales force automation
• Disaster recovery
• Factory automation/manufacturing
• GPS and location-based services
• Human resources (timesheets, expense reports, etc.)
• Inventory management
• Order entry and tracking
• Retail and point of sale
• Training tools, including video

MAM Services:

• App delivery
• App security
• App updating
• User authentication
• User authorization
• Version checking
• Push services
• Reporting and tracking

Better Mobile Security Solutions:

Better MDM provides easy-to-use, cloud based enterprise grade technology that allows IT to adapt mobile architecture for their business in fast and secure way. Better MDM enables IT in enterprises, healthcare organizations and government agencies to secure the two end-points, Device and Applications. 

Mobile App protection and Security Wrapping:

• App Wrapping- Better MDM’s Mobile App Protection and Security Wrapping solution protects your apps through the use of fine-grained usage and security policies with no source code/SDK/API or changes to the apps required. For hyper-sensitive apps, multiple layers of protection can be used; strong authentication, data-at-rest encryption, VPN to protect data-in-transit and geo-fencing to restrict access based on geographic location. In addition, Better MDM’s Data Protection wrapper protects data from being copied and pasted to unauthorized applications. Better MDM provides both native and HTML 5 based app catalog apps.

• Enterprise App Store- Enterprise App Store enables IT easily manage App deployment by selecting which applications they wish to make available to employees. With Better MDM’s solution, you can distribute, update and ensure the security of all enterprise applications.

• App Security Analyzer- Better MDM’s App Security Analyzer identifies risks in in-house or third-party apps by scanning for malware, privacy breaches and corporate data exfiltration. We perform both static analysis of the app as well as running it instrumented emulation to identify and compute the risk score.

• Security Policy Manager- Single Security Policy engine to apply and enforce corporate security policies on both mobile apps and devices.