The ability to work in different environments — including in the office and at home — is no longer just a perk offered by a handful of companies, but a necessity required for all.
In today’s market, a flexible work structure is essential to retaining talented employees and maintaining day-to-day continuity when not every office has transitioned back to in-person operations.
Regardless of a company’s official personal device and usage policy, Microsoft says that two out of three employees use their personal devices during working hours. Mobile devices, both corporate- and individually-owned, are now the dominant platform in any enterprise organization, with more than 80% of daily work performed on a smartphone or tablet. This trend introduces several new security complications that IT teams must consider when safeguarding enterprise endpoints.
To stay competitive while maintaining a secure network, companies should deploy a cloud-based security solution that offers layered defense mechanisms.
The risk of BYOD policies
While bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies help small- and medium-sized enterprises offer more flexibility to employees, they also create new vulnerabilities across enterprise networks.
BYOD policies allow employees to use their own devices, including smartphones, tablets and laptops, to manage company-owned data and access enterprise systems and networks. While Enterprise Security Magazine notes the benefits of the trend, such as enhanced productivity and employee morale, experts also caution that the advantages come with heightened security threats.
Since organizations have less control and visibility into personal devices, there is an increased risk of data breaches, and troubleshooting issues can take even longer for IT teams. While CIO emphasizes employee education programs and stringent usage policies as some of the best practices for mitigating BYOD risks, network breaches are still likely.
Mobile device usage causes a significant gap in an organization’s network defense strategies, as the lack of protection and insufficient visibility creates new vulnerabilties and compliance concerns. Verizon’s Mobile Security report found that a large number of organizations have compromised security in favor of capturing new efficiencies through mobile devices.
Almost 40% of respondents reported having a mobile-security-related compromise, with 66% of organizations that suffered a compromise calling the impact “major,” and 55% describing the compromise as having had severe repercussions.
While BYOD policies introduce new risks to an organization’s digital network, deploying a cloud-based MDM solution can help the company to capture the benefits of a flexible work structure without having to sacrifice security.
What do mobile device management solutions offer?
As an increasing percentage of employees are using one or several personal devices during the workday, organizations are turning toward cloud-enabled mobile device management (MDM) solutions to enhance their approach to security.
MDM software helps IT departments to more easily implement policies to secure, monitor and manage end-user mobile devices. They accomplish this through a variety of techniques and features for device security and access control. And, while every tool is different and has unique capabilities, there are some applications that Mobility Management says should be offered out-of-the-box:
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- All-encompassing device and operating support: An MDM software should be compatible with several device types and operating systems. When selecting your solution, consider which are currently being deployed across your organization.
- Device security capabilities: Your company should be able to remotely protect a mobile device and the corporate data contained within it from a single management system. Some security features you should look for in an MDM tool include data encryption, security configuration and access monitoring.
- Access control features: Since employees will be accessing data on their personal devices, your organization needs the ability to ensure only those employees have access to that info. For sensitive data, you should be able to activate authentication and identity measures to confirm the user.
- Cloud distribution: To deliver configuration, provision or management updates to a device remotely, an MDM solution needs to be able to do so wirelessly through the cloud. This is especially critical as your team can no longer rely on physical connections to communicate with a device.
- Remote troubleshooting: Your MDM software should allow your IT team to remotely troubleshoot device issues from a singular management console.
By deploying comprehensive MDM software, companies can capture the benefits of offering a flexible work environment without having to risk their network security.
As you begin to consider your options for an MDM solution, keep these features in mind and also remember that the software should seamlessly integrate with any of your existing IT, administrative and application systems.
How Faronics can help
In today’s highly digital landscape, companies can no longer depend solely on usage and device policies to maintain a secure network. Deploying a comprehensive and cloud-based MDM solution not only gives leaders peace of mind but also frees up IT teams to focus on high-value tasks while boosting employee productivity and flexibility.
For organizations who are ready to deploy an MDM solution, Faronics can help.
Our powerful device management tool offers cloud-based control of Apple, Android and Chromebook environments and is deployed in just 30 minutes. Faronics MDM gives your administrators the power to approve app installations, push network settings, deploy apps and restrict usage based on user profiles as needed. And, because it’s cloud-enabled, IT teams can centrally manage, configure and track devices remotely.
With Faronics, you can secure your digital environment in just a few clicks using a variety of policies, all of which are adaptable across user groups.
Trusted by over 30,000 IT managers worldwide, Deep Freeze MDM offers your organization quick, secure device management along with the features and flexibility that your team needs.
If you’re ready to get started, sign up for a free 30-day trial or contact our team with any questions.
