What is Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM)
Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) is the distribution, organization and control of mobile devices like cell phones, smartphones, tablets and laptops, used in enterprise mobility. Enterprise mobility is the practice of conducting business outside of a centralized business office.
BREAKING DOWN Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM)
Enterprise mobility management came out of mobile device management (MDM), which focuses on the control and security of individual devices. Microsoft's 2015 Windows 10 allowed most EMM software providers to expand into unified endpoint management (UEM), which allows information technology departments to manage personal computers and mobile devices through a single console.
Enterprise mobility management is vital for companies that need to guard against data security and privacy breaches, especially with the risk of employees losing their mobile devices or falling victim to theft. EMM ensures that the mobile devices used by employees are secure enough to protect the company’s data and private information. This security can be achieved by limiting which employees or devices can access specific information by requiring VPN and HTTPS connections, by restricting the ability to download certain applications or by password protecting the devices.
In addition to addressing security concerns, EMM software can help increase employee productivity because IT departments can provide them with the applications and data they need to perform work-related tasks on mobile devices.
Enterprise Mobility Management History
Today, EMM typically encompasses some combination of MDM, mobile application management (MAM), mobile content management (MCM) and identity and access management. MDM is the base of EMM because it relies on the combination of an agent app, which is installed on an endpoint device, and server software running in the corporate data center or in the cloud. Administrators use the MDM server's management console as its headquarters to set policies and settings, and the agent enforces these policies and configures these settings by integrating with APIs built into mobile operating systems.
MAM allows administrators to set policies for specific application families, rather than for the whole device. With MCM, only approved applications can access or transmit corporate data. And identity and access management controls how, when and where workers may use corporate apps and data.
These technologies all address specific concerns, and the overlap between MDM, MAM and MCM is quite minimal. As more organizations embraced enterprise mobility, vendors started to design products rooted in EMM, usually by adding MAM or MCM features to their MDM products. An enterprise app store or other self-service portal for application delivery and deployment is also a common component of EMM software.