Globo’s Yad Jaura recently told Enterprise AppsTech that, among other things, “MDM was only ever a starting point for enterprise mobility.” Adding that “it’s data where the real value is, not the devices,” Jaura made clear in his talk with Enterprise AppsTech that he viewed MDM as a stepping stone in EMM, and nothing more.
To Jaura’s main point, data is certainly important. What about the apps your employees are using, and the usage data of those apps? What about crash log reporting? What about managing and distributing apps for partners or customers? All of this data is critical to finding true value in EMM across the enterprise.
Where we disagree is in the importance (or as Jaura sees it, the unimportance) of MDM. While there’s more work to be done after you’ve secured the device for your employee, securing the device is still important. There’s a lot that goes into an effective EMM strategy, and to underplay the importance of secure devices is to compromise your strategy altogether. Data’s important—but so are the devices.
I don’t think that MDM is dead—nor do I think that it’s going away. Even as organizations mature past MDM to MAM and MBaaS, MDM will continue to be an important component of enterprise mobility management.
It may not be the most important part of EMM, but to deny the role that MDM has played (and will continue to play) in the evolution of enterprise mobility management would be doing all of EMM a disservice. It’s more than just a starting point—it’s an important cornerstone of any EMM strategy for any type of organization today.
