Dan Roche

Network Management
Final Draft
Mobile Application Management
Mobile application management (MAM) describes software and services responsible for

provisioning and controlling access to internally developed and commercially available mobile

apps used in business settings on both company-provided and bring your own smartphones and

tablet. (Wikipedia) MAM is an essential tool if an enterprise allows BYOD (Bring Your Own

Device). Mobile application management is the ability for administrators to manage mobile

applications on mobile devices. Employees at companies that implement MAM will find that

their personal mobile devices are not locked down at a device level, but instead, enterprise email

and other enterprise applications are secured by the mobile application management solution.

An enterprise app may be wrapped at a binary level, or the app may be integrated to a

mobile application management SDK and recompiled. In both cases, the enterprise app is now

containerized. When the resulting app is launched, a complex password might be needed, app

data is stored encrypted, and there is data leakage prevention text cannot be copied to an app

outside the enterprise container, or enterprise email attachments cannot be saved to Dropbox

which is outside the container, states Song Chuang, research director at international technology

research firm, Gartner.(Enzer)

Mobile application management features are very appropriate for BYOD environments

since they do not require a personal device to be completely locked down. Rather, the enterprise

data is secured and isolated from the rest of the phone. Employees are likely to prefer an

environment where they are allowed to bring their own device. However, implementing BYOD

without the proper tools is unsafe and can put the entire organization at risk. But with appropriate
solutions, the secure use of employee-owned mobile devices in companies without obstructing

users experience with those devices can become a reality.

With mobile application management controls such as authentication, encryption and

expiration, applications and data can be set to automatically remove themselves from personal

devices based on perimeters established by the network administrators. In addition, MAM

solutions provide app portals tailored to each user to deliver the appropriate corporate apps to

individual user-owned devices. In this way, the user experience of downloading necessary

corporate resources is as simple as visiting a public app store, but enterprises can ensure that

users are only being given access to the resources they have permission to download.(Rouse)

Containerization protects at the app level. App data at rest is encrypted with device and

operating system independent cryptography. Secure app-to-app data sharing ensures constant

information protection, even when data is temporarily cached to disk outside of the container.

Containerized apps automatically leverage a secure infrastructure that encrypts data in motion,

between an app container and behind the firewall resources. An SDK allows developers to build

containerized apps, while app wrapping allows anyone such as IT, a marketing manager, to

create containerized apps, even when source code is unavailable. (Blackberry)

A corporate-brandable, private enterprise app store provides a one-stop shop for

distributing custom-built or curated apps to employees and authorized members of the extended

enterprise, even without managing the device. It also provides users with a consumer-like

experience, thats consistent across platforms, but with enterprise controls. (Blackberry)

Now that I have explained what mobile application management is and briefly described

how it is implemented, I think it is important to describe some pros and cons of BYOD
environments. Some pros to allowing employees bring their own device are familiarity,

flexibility, easy updating, and financial viability. (Brown) Familiarity is one of the biggest pros

because employees are able to use devices that they are already familiar with. The familiarity

that the employees have with their devices allows them to complete work-related tasks with ease

and efficiency because there is no time being spent on becoming comfortable with the device.

Flexibility allows employees to work anywhere at any time without having to use flash drives to

access documents or email documents just to transfer data from one account to another. Also, it is

a lot easier to update the software on a smartphone or tablet than it is to update software on a

desktop computer. Lastly, BYOD offers employers the opportunity to save money because they

dont have to buy devices for each of their employees. Since employees will be paying for their

own devices, they are more likely to take better care of their devices, which reduces costs for

repairs and updating.

Some cons of BYOD include liability, security, controlling use, and data retrieval.

(Brown) When it comes to the distinction between work devices and personal devices, the

question of who is liable for repair arises. Who should pay for a new device if something goes

wrong with the device or if it gets stolen while on work time? What about when someone is

using the device outside of work hours, and something goes wrong? These are just a few

questions that need to be considered before implementing a BYOD program within an

organization. Even though security on devices with access to private work information is

important, it is difficult to manage the security on personal devices. However, with mobile

application management, there is a solution to this by encrypting all of the data within the

company distributed app. Another con of BYOD is controlling use of employee devices and how

it will be extremely difficult to ensure that employees are using their devices appropriately.
Lastly, data retrieval after an employees contract has been terminated or when an employee

leaves the company, it may be necessary to remove the companys private information from the

employees device, which could be difficult. One way to avoid this from happening is by

implementing an appropriate policy within the BYOD program. Another way to combat this con

is also through mobile application management, which allows a companys network

administrator to pulls company apps and data from an employees device through the mobile

application system they are using.

 Works Cited

"Mobile Application Management." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Dec. 2014. Web. 02

Dec. 2015.

Enzer, Georgina. "Top 4 New Network Technologies in 2012 - - ITP.net."ITP.net. ITP.net, 11

Nov. 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.

Rouse, Margaret. "What Is Mobile Application Management (MAM)? - Definition from

WhatIs.com." SearchMobileComputing. WhatIs.com, 4 June 2014. Web. 03 Dec. 2015.

"Mobile Application Management." Mobile Application Management. Blackberry, 15 July 2014.

Web. 05 Dec. 2015.

Brown, Nathan. "The Pros and Cons of Adopting BYOD." The Pros and Cons of Adopting

BYOD. Nathan Brown, 12 Mar. 2015. Web. 05 Dec. 2015.