IT Innovators: Eying The Enterprise Mobility Market

When we talk about the IT industry these days, a lot of attention often falls on the data center. But the enterprise is equally important. One area that’s garnering increasing interest is the Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) market. In part, the market is being driven by the growth of the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend, an increasing mobile workforce and the accompanying security concerns. Enterprise mobility management (EMM) suites are solutions specifically designed for this market. They help organizations integrate mobile devices into their security frameworks and systems, as well as information technology life cycles.

Just last week, the technology research firm Gartner named Microsoft a “visionary” in its Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) Suites report. The report, which comes out every year, evaluates leading EMM companies on their completeness of vision and ability to execute.

A key reason for the “visionary” status is Microsoft’s comprehensive mobility, security and management vision for its EMM product, the Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS), which positions it well for the future. EMS includes Microsoft Intune, Azure Active Directory Premium and Azure Rights Management. In particular, Microsoft Intune provides mobile device management (MDM), mobile application management (MAM), and PC management capabilities from the cloud. It supports Office 365 and integration of System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr).

Another key reason Microsoft was named a "visionary" by Gartner is that EMS features a number of unique capabilities in certain aspects of EMM. For example, Intune can be used to manage the Office Mobile apps on iOS and Android devices. And, when you purchase an Intune license, you also get ConfigMgr, which you can use to manage PCs and mobile devices through the same license and console. Additionally, the combination of Intune with the Azure Active Directory Premium and Azure Rights Management can be used to address some useful mobile scenarios (e.g., changing an Active Directory password from a mobile device).

Given that the worldwide EMM market is expected to top $5.7 billion by the end of 2018—at least according to The Radicati Group—Microsoft’s EMS product could play a significant role. How well the EMS product does in the EMM market remains to be seen. What is known is that adoption of EMM solutions is heating up and will continue to do so in the near future.

For more information on EMM check out this recent blog post from Microsoft’s Brad Anderson.

This blog about storage and networking is sponsored by Microsoft.

Cheryl J. Ajluni is a freelance writer and editor based in California. She is the former Editor-in-Chief of Wireless Systems Design and served as the EDA/Advanced Technology editor for Electronic Design for over 10 years. She is also a published book author and patented engineer. Her work regularly appears in print and online publications. Contact her at [email protected] with your comments or story ideas.