Enterprise mobility management (EMM) is a set of services and technologies designed to secure corporate data on employees’ mobile devices. While it can manifest itself in various ways, it generally consists of a suite of mobile management systems and services that protect intellectual property; specific processes that ensure the security of data; and systems that must integrate with a wide range of enterprise IT systems to meet a range of corporate concerns.

Components of EMM:

EMM typically involves some combination of MDM, mobile application management (MAM), mobile content management (MCM) and identity and access management (IAM).

– MDM is the foundation of any enterprise mobility suite. 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 to set policies and configure settings, and the agent enforces these policies and configures these settings by integrating with application program interfaces (APIs) built into mobile operating systems (OSes).

– MAM provides more granular management and security. It allows admins to set policies for a specific app or subset of apps, rather than for the whole device. Some apps have specific MAM APIs built in, while others rely on the device-level MAM APIs in most major mobile OSes.

– MCM enables IT to control which applications may access or transmit corporate data.

– IAM features control how, when and where workers may use corporate apps and data, while also offering some user-friendly features, such as single sign-on. Many EMM vendors incorporate identity features such as federation and multi-factor authentication.