What Exactly is EMM?

In today's technology society you have to feel a bit like Charles Darwin camped out on the Galapagos Islands waiting for an Iguana to spontaneously grow a second head or something to prove a theory. Except we have it a bit better than Darwin did since the evolution of technology today moves at such a rapid pace you can watch 3 iterations unfold in weeks or sometimes days.

Many who have been watching the mobile management market may have noticed something peculiar over the past few months. An evolution in mobile management has happened, but really in name only.

Enterprise Mobility Management (MDM), or sometimes just Enterprise Mobile Management, is the new moniker for the old standby Mobile Device Management (MDM). The precepts for the new name are exactly the same, meaning it still represents a set of processes and technologies to completely manage mobile devices from cradle-to-grave. There's absolutely nothing different about it, except that now most vendors are hooking their carts to it, shedding MDM like it is a leper's garment. Even the latest Gartner report on the mobile management industry has been modified to replace MDM with EMM.

Of course, using the term Enterprise within the context of the overall name helps better identify the specific market segment and delineates it from anything consumer-focused.

I guess MDM just wasn't specific enough.