Mobile and Device Management Changes

As the use of mobile devices increases in organizations, so do the management challenges, such as protecting corporate data on the devices. Microsoft has announced a new mobile device management roadmap and will offer two levels of management: one based on Exchange and the other on System Center Configuration Manager 2012. However, because Microsoft has discontinued System Center Mobile Device Manager, organizations already using it could face a difficult migration to a supported management level and associated product.

Device Management Strategy

To manage mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets today, Microsoft offers a variety of different products, including Exchange Server, System Center Mobile Device Manager (MDM), and System Center Configuration Manager (CM), which offer some overlapping but mostly differing degrees of management support for a variety of devices.

Exchange Server 2007 and 2010 can inventory and manage the configuration of mobile devices, typically smartphones that support the Exchange ActiveSync protocol. A number of platforms and OSs, including phones based on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Windows Phone platforms, Android, iOS, and Symbian, support Exchange ActiveSync. However, they all support it to differing degrees, so what can actually be managed is device dependent. Usually devices that support Exchange ActiveSync allow configuration of some settings, and most can be remotely wiped. Windows Mobile devices are the most manageable using Exchange ActiveSync, and devices based on Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7 are the least manageable.