MAM vs. MDM — What’s Best for Your Business?
The many acronyms associated with managing mobile devices may be intimidating. As with anything, however, it will be easier if you start with the basics. IT staff who are new to the field frequently search for the term “MAM vs. MDM,” making mobile application management a good place to start learning. Plus, even if you’re familiar with MDM software, it’s good to make sure you review what each term stands for.
MAM vs. MDM — What Do They Stand For?
As the name suggests, MAM, or mobile application management, focuses on managing mobile apps. Of course, business phones and tablets can only do what installed apps enable them to do. For this reason, it’s essential to give every device the apps needed for success. This includes setting up apps on work devices, pushing app updates to each device, and restricting employees from downloading certain apps.
MDM, or mobile device management, focuses on managing the entire mobile device, not just apps. If an admin sends a signal to a device to stop consuming mobile data, for example, that falls into the category of MDM. MDM can certainly impact apps, but it cannot target apps without also impacting everything else on the device.
It’s worth noting that the formal definitions given above differ from the way tech workers normally use these terms in day-to-day conversation. Over time, MDM has come to represent the need to manage mobile devices, as well as everything on those mobile devices. This effectively means that in most instances, anyone referring to MDM is including MAM as part of MDM.
MAM vs. MDM Software — What Do Businesses Need?
In the majority of cases, businesses that need mobile application management should look for an MDM solution when deciding on MAM vs. MDM. Very few dedicated MAM solutions exist, for a start, but there are two other reasons for choosing an MDM solution. First, MDM software almost universally includes MAM capabilities, and second, MAM tools aren’t sufficient to keep data safe. Most employees need apps as well as files and other kinds of content. This is why modern MDM software also includes mobile content management, or MCM, in addition to MAM.
In fact, most MDM solutions can now accommodate computers, in addition to mobile devices. As a result, you will often see the term MDM used interchangeably with the terms EMM (enterprise mobility management) and UEM (unified endpoint management). For more information on EMM and UEM, including how they differ from MDM and how they are used, you can check the Ultimate Guide to Mobile Device Management.
Why Businesses Need MDM for MAM
Anyone who needs mobile application management needs it for specific reasons. For example, businesses may be eager to restrict users from accessing popular phone games like Fortnite or PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Alternately, executives may need to distribute a particular app across many devices that run different operating systems. In any case, to fully succeed at their MAM-related goals, these firms need the full suite of MDM functionality.
Let’s look at the two scenarios mentioned in the previous paragraph:
- Preventing users from accessing particular apps: If your business needs to prevent users from getting distracted, it is possible to prevent users from downloading a particular app thanks to MAM functionality. However, you may want to go further to lock devices down to a single app. You may also wish to turn off some kinds of phone use within a given area while giving users freedom once they leave. Many MDM solutions come with device lockdown functionality, as well as location-based “geo-fencing,” which makes these things possible. Even though these tools technically don’t fall into the category of MAM, they are very helpful for MAM.
- Pushing apps to many kinds of devices: MDM solutions can often serve as hubs for a range of operating systems whose tools don’t normally work with each other. This means that a single MDM solution can integrate with app distribution through Apple Business Manager and Managed Google Play, and go farther to easily set up and provision apps and content on both Apple and Android devices.
Conclusion
To answer the question of MAM vs. MDM, the winner is technically MDM. That said, businesses actually need both, and most modern MDM solutions include built-in MAM capacities. By choosing MDM software, you gain a range of tools (including MAM) that you can use to keep your devices safe.
