Top 11 BYOD Mobile Device Management Software Systems

One core element of the overall Enterprise Mobility story is “Bring Your Own Device” or BYOD. Individuals are coming to the office and saying they want to be mobile while performing their job function because in their personal lives they use this technology. IT needs to have a strategy to address users’ needs and expectations as they bring their own device onto the network. It’s not going to be one type of device, users are the focus and they are spurring a device revolution at an unprecedented rate.

Let’s take a look at the building blocks of BYOD:

Collaboration applications are driving most BYOD strategies. Users will be using applications like web, voice and video conferencing to conduct business.
Workspace management is critical and usually involves an MDM solution.
Secure Mobility is necessary to ensure mobile access is controlled and risks are mitigated.
Policy Management goes towards some of the enforcement and mitigation against risks.
And then we have core infrastructure consisting of wired and wireless networking infrastructure and management platforms.

BYOD is really just the tip of the iceberg however. There is the tactical nature of simply addressing the need to allow iPads on the network. But there are strategic concerns across the organisation as well. The CEO has a need to to retain and attract top talent who highly value their devices. They need to ensure workers can be more mobile and more productive. The CIO needs to protect intellectual property and confidential data as well as enabling users on diverse platforms without compromising the experience. IT needs to support multiple device types without increasing cost or complexity. They also need to provide policy-based access to devices for employees, partners, and contractors. Finally, there is a need to enable legacy applications on diverse mobile operating systems.

The question for CIOs is where to start. The first step is to understand BYOD is more than just Mobile Device Management (MDM). There is a need for an optimal underlying network and security infrastructure to support any BYOD strategy.

With regards to the core infrastructure, current networks were not designed to handle the explosion of devices and support the mobile usage of high bandwidth applications on these devices. From a coverage and capacity perspective, current networks are not sufficient to support BYOD.

For IT system integrators, there is a huge opportunity for network infrastructure refresh in order to support an effective BYOD strategy. This refresh opportunity is not restricted to the wireless infrastructure. There is plenty of opportunity in the wired closet for consultants to help clients implement connectivity & switching gear, security infrastructure and media server technologies.

In summary, BYOD is more than MDM as the need for an optimal underlying infrastructure leads to a product refresh opportunity. IT system integrators should focus on this refresh opportunity by engaging their Security teams on joint Networking opportunities in client BYOD discussions.