Mobile Application Management
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Kony Write Once, Run Everywhere Mobile Technology WHITE PAPER July 2012 Mobile Application Management Meeting the BYOD challenge with next-generation application and device management White Paper Mobile Application Management Overview........................................................................................................... 3 The Mobile Application Management Challenge.................................. 4 MAM Functions ............................................................................................... 5 MAM Principles .............................................................................................. 6 MAM Users ....................................................................................................... 7 MAM Workflow .............................................................................................. 8 Policy Management ...................................................................................... 9 Enterprise App Store ................................................................................... 11 Application and Data Security ................................................................. 12 Analytics & Reporting ................................................................................. 14 Summary ......................................................................................................... 15 2 White Paper Mobile Application Management Overview Chief Information Officers (CIOs) across a variety of industries are today recognizing and grappling with a new and difficult challenge to their ability to secure mission-critical corporate data and applications. This challenge, variously dubbed the Consumerization of IT or the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend, refers to end users’ increasing demands to access corporate resources from their personal smartphones, tablets, and laptops. As the lines between work and leisure continue to blur, professionals of all types want to be able to review reports, enter data into applications, and access corporate directories from the same devices on which they capture video of their kids’ sports performances. To meet this demand, IT teams must be able to provision, update, manage, analyze, and report on corporate applications, without impinging on users’ privacy rights or damaging end users’ personal property. A well-designed Mobile Application Management (MAM) solution enables IT teams to achieve fine-grained control over applications across a range of devices, over every type of network and deployment mode. 3 White Paper Mobile Application Management The Mobile Application Management Challenge Traditionally, application management has been part and parcel of IT’s core function, whether across mainframe, minicomputer, client/server, or Web- Mobile Application based application systems. Provisioning, updating, patching, inventorying, Management monitoring, and retiring applications is most often the province of a (MAM) centralized IT administrator or admin team, utilizing a variety of application management and security tools, both third-party and custom-developed. Mobile Application Management refers to With the advent of mobile devices and software, most IT shops have the ability to manage adopted mobile device management (MDM) tools to control and manage applications on mobile company-issued laptops, tablets, and smartphones, ranging from devices, remotely and Blackberrys and Windows Mobile phones for knowledge workers to from a centralized ruggedized phones and tablets for field workers. As their name suggests, console. Applications MDM tools enable administrators to control these devices at the hardware are provisioned to a layer – providing such functions as remote lockdown/wipe clean for lost or secure container on stolen devices, as well as restriction or suspension of device functions such device, from which as camera or barcode scanning. policies and data storage can be For company issued mobile devices, the type of command-and-control established and management provided by MDM has been sufficient, if sometimes controlled. Security overbearing. However, as IT shops now grapple with Bring Your Own procedures such as Single Sign On and Device (BYOD) strategies, they are increasingly seeking a more finely tuned, LDAP authentication nuanced approach that mirrors traditional desktop application are handled within a management: the new technology that meets this need is Mobile consistent MAM Application Management (MAM) software. framework. In many ways, MAM solutions bring together the best of both worlds: the sophisticated and layered approach of desktop application management & security systems with the reach and remote, over-the-air capabilities of MDM systems. Mobile Device Management (MDM) Mobile Device Management refers to software that enables IT to control device functions – such as camera, GPS, on-device data stores, and more – on remote mobile devices including smartphones and tablet computers. 4 White Paper Mobile Application Management MAM Functions MAM solutions help addresses the following key points: Policy enforcement – Using a centralized administration console, security administrators can extend and enable policies on mobile applications. Mobile application delivery – Using an embedded Enterprise App Store and management console, administrators provision apps to remote devices and make them available within an on-device secure container. Mobile application security – Administrators use the centralized console to set policies around application access and usage by roles and other parameters. Mobile application updating – Updates can be managed from the centralized consoles, and new application versions can be provisioned “over the air” or through scheduled synchronizations. User authentication – As with desktop application management systems, MAM solutions utilize LDAP and other standardized authentication mechanisms to ensure user authentication User authorization – Users can be authorized for application access and usage based on roles and other parameters such as location Version checking – Administrators can remotely monitor application versions and usage from the centralized console Push services – Managers can push updates and notifications to all remote/mobile users or to subsets as events dictate Reporting and tracking – The MAM solution enables complete reporting and analytics on usage, application issues, user activation, downloads, updates, etc. A well-designed MAM solution should be able to manage applications built for the following environments: Native iOS (Apple) Android apps Windows Mobile Blackberry HTML5 apps Corporate developed apps (using Apple XCode, Microsoft Visual Studio, etc.) Third party-developed apps MAM solutions enable administrators to add code to mobile apps that utilize specific MAM policy APIs. The APIs let the app communicate with the MAM server to enforce policies for that app and/or user, such as restricting usage to geo locations or copy/paste into/out the app or deleting on device data if the user’s permissions are revoked. The MAM solution allows administrators to monitor activities – such as app access/usage – so that they can then check the current device and application state against the policies. Via the embedded libraries, the app communicates its status and activity back to the server – not entire device status, which may allay concerns from employees, contractors, and business partners over how invasive the device management approach may be. Importantly, management is embedded in the app, so administrators do not have to manage the device itself. Thus, IT teams should be able to extend legitimate application management to a greater number of users than the universe of devices you actually manage. 5 White Paper Mobile Application Management MAM Principles Well-designed Mobile Application Management solutions follow a set of guidelines or principles to ensure they meet the needs of corporate IT ACL teams grappling with BYOD challenges. These principles include: ACL is Access Control Management primarily at the application, not hardware or firmware List which provides the layer – By focusing on provisioning corporate apps within a secure privilege to an assigned container on device and by abstracting the application and data away user to perform various from the specifications of the device and OS, MAM solutions ensure tasks such as deleting that corporate assets can be securely controlled, without impacting an application, editing users’ personal device functions or assets including ring tones, games, an application, and photos, videos, and personal apps. publishing an application. Management based on policies, rules and roles – with the ability to set and enforce policies and assign roles and privileges to users and user groups, MAM software enables finely grained control of applications even on remote devices. Geofencing Management as collaboration – With the use of an enterprise app Geofencing refers to store, IT administrators can dispense with the “command and control” the ability to restrict or approaches of the past and enable users to see and select suspend mobile device recommended apps from within an app store view, much as they select and/or mobile application functions and download apps, games, music, videos, and ringtones from the based on the location Apple App Store or Google’s Android Marketplace. This ability to offer of the device. A classic users corporate apps within pre-defined policies meets