Who is a MDM Solutions Architect ??
Smartphones are flooding the market with the speed of light and one can easily find a device suiting to their needs and necessities. Long gone is the era when corporates were totally dependant on BlackBerries for operations. Now time has come when employees want to jump onto the never ending possibilities provided by iOS, Android and Windows phone, which still has some ground to cover to catch onto its competitors.
The only question that now stood strong was data security and DLP techniques provided by these new breed of OS's. Along came the introduction of a technology which is now one of the hottest and most in demand, Enterprise Mobility Management.
There was a time when RIM was ruling the market with BlackBerry and to be precise, they are the inventors of Mobile Device Management in the right senses. Solutions like Containerization which can securely separate corporate data from users personal and policy implementation have existed in Blackberry Enterprise Server as BlackBerry Balance long ago. And to be very frank when I see articles which are intended on migration techniques from BlackBerry
Servers it seems a bit early to think onto such techniques, though that's something out of the scope of this article.
Introduction of MDM brought a very big confusion into the market which has always been overlooked - "Who is a MDM Solutions Architect"? What technical expertise do you expect a MDM expert to possess?
To sum things up I have added some crucial technical areas which are a must for every MDM Architect.
Messaging:
Knowledge of messaging solutions that may range from the most essential Microsoft Exchange to their cloud based offering of Office 365 is very important as most corporate houses prefer to implement Exchange making it as their top favourite solution. ActiveSync being the primary mode of Email access solution provided by MDM vendors. POP/IMAP protocol based accounts are slowly and gradually fading out of the market though can be useful to configure Linux based email accounts.
Also, knowledge and expertise of BlackBerry Enterprise Server is a very crucial requirement to integrate existing BlackBerry devices to the MDM and manage them through a unified console.
Directory Services:
An in-depth knowledge of Active Directory and Dominos based environment is important to integrate MDM with the corporate directory using LDAP or other authentication protocols. Knowledge of SSL certificate management and proprietary protocols like APNS, SCEP etc. is a must.
Load balancing and clustering are required for organizations managing a huge user base.
Networking:
A role that has become a must in todays corporate culture for every technology expert is Networking. Managing MDM also needs a significant amount of expertise in networking areas; like knowledge of placing a server in DMZ and private/public IP management. This need has been made more critical after the integration of NetScaler Access Gateway to XenMobile MDM by Citrix and the recent collaboration of MobileIron with Cisco ISE (Integrated Services Engine). This clearly
marks the introduction of Network Access Control to ensure that security is taken right at the entry gate of any organizations perimeter and there's more to come.
MDM Solutions:
Todays market has hundreds of vendors with their own unique offering which suits corporate houses and their requirements in their own way. Knowledge of these MDM Solutions is a must. One has to regularly update himself with vendors like AirWatch, MobileIron, SOTI, Citrix and many others as they keep adding new features and support in their product line-up.
One should be familiar with both the on premise and cloud based models provided by vendors. Also, deciding factors like Containerization, Remote Management and App management cannot be overlooked as they stand as a key factor when differentiating between MDM solutions.
Significant amount of knowledge is also required on proprietary device OS software's like iOS, Android and Windows Phone which keep updating rapidly with their unique features.
So all in all MDM has fled it wings to almost all verticals and one needs to very dynamic to fit into this role and stay updated. So the question stands do you have it in you?
The only question that now stood strong was data security and DLP techniques provided by these new breed of OS's. Along came the introduction of a technology which is now one of the hottest and most in demand, Enterprise Mobility Management.
There was a time when RIM was ruling the market with BlackBerry and to be precise, they are the inventors of Mobile Device Management in the right senses. Solutions like Containerization which can securely separate corporate data from users personal and policy implementation have existed in Blackberry Enterprise Server as BlackBerry Balance long ago. And to be very frank when I see articles which are intended on migration techniques from BlackBerry
Servers it seems a bit early to think onto such techniques, though that's something out of the scope of this article.
Introduction of MDM brought a very big confusion into the market which has always been overlooked - "Who is a MDM Solutions Architect"? What technical expertise do you expect a MDM expert to possess?
To sum things up I have added some crucial technical areas which are a must for every MDM Architect.
Messaging:
Knowledge of messaging solutions that may range from the most essential Microsoft Exchange to their cloud based offering of Office 365 is very important as most corporate houses prefer to implement Exchange making it as their top favourite solution. ActiveSync being the primary mode of Email access solution provided by MDM vendors. POP/IMAP protocol based accounts are slowly and gradually fading out of the market though can be useful to configure Linux based email accounts.
Also, knowledge and expertise of BlackBerry Enterprise Server is a very crucial requirement to integrate existing BlackBerry devices to the MDM and manage them through a unified console.
Directory Services:
An in-depth knowledge of Active Directory and Dominos based environment is important to integrate MDM with the corporate directory using LDAP or other authentication protocols. Knowledge of SSL certificate management and proprietary protocols like APNS, SCEP etc. is a must.
Load balancing and clustering are required for organizations managing a huge user base.
Networking:
A role that has become a must in todays corporate culture for every technology expert is Networking. Managing MDM also needs a significant amount of expertise in networking areas; like knowledge of placing a server in DMZ and private/public IP management. This need has been made more critical after the integration of NetScaler Access Gateway to XenMobile MDM by Citrix and the recent collaboration of MobileIron with Cisco ISE (Integrated Services Engine). This clearly
marks the introduction of Network Access Control to ensure that security is taken right at the entry gate of any organizations perimeter and there's more to come.
MDM Solutions:
Todays market has hundreds of vendors with their own unique offering which suits corporate houses and their requirements in their own way. Knowledge of these MDM Solutions is a must. One has to regularly update himself with vendors like AirWatch, MobileIron, SOTI, Citrix and many others as they keep adding new features and support in their product line-up.One should be familiar with both the on premise and cloud based models provided by vendors. Also, deciding factors like Containerization, Remote Management and App management cannot be overlooked as they stand as a key factor when differentiating between MDM solutions.
Significant amount of knowledge is also required on proprietary device OS software's like iOS, Android and Windows Phone which keep updating rapidly with their unique features.
So all in all MDM has fled it wings to almost all verticals and one needs to very dynamic to fit into this role and stay updated. So the question stands do you have it in you?
Yes. :-)
ReplyDelete