Saturday, November 8, 2014

MDM for Office 365

There was another major announcement recently for Office 365. This past week Microsoft announced that is was adding a new solution called MDM for Office 365 is being released. To date many organizations utilized Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) policies and sometimes other third-party MDM solutions to protect business data on mobile devices connecting to Office 365.

With this new announcement, organizations will now have the ability to provide even more protection of their business data on mobile without having to rely on other solutions.

The new MDM for Office 365 will be available in Q1 of 2015.

Devices: MDM for Office 365 will provide organizations the ability to manage email and documents across iPhone, iPad, Android Phone, Android Table and Windows Phones.

Data Protection: When you learn more about it, you will be impressed with the approach. Typically other MDM providers have enforced data protection through a container and even custom applications within those containers. Many times the feature set offered is limited. In the case of MDM for Office 365, protection is enforced within the applications that users use. For instance Office is now available across all major mobile platforms. Customers can set up protection within Office such that business data is protected and cannot leave the application. End users can remain highly productive without having to learn something new.

Device Lock: There are several new features being added as well such as Pin lock and jailbreak detection.

Device Wipe: Plus enhanced features are being added for device wipe for not just email but also documents. The nice thing about the wipe policy is that it will only wipe company owned data, and not impact a user’s personal data. This is extremely important in a BYOD world no one should have their personal files impacted when they go from one company to another.

Integrated Administration: From an administrative perspective, MDM for Office 365 is integrated right in the administrative experience of Office 365. Administrators do not need to bounce around to other third-party applications nor do they have to spend the time trying to configure them together. MDM for Office 365 is simply just built into the service. Administrators will have access to a full set of reports as well through their reporting center.

InTune: Finally, organizations can easily upgrade to advanced MDM with InTune. With InTune there is advanced mobile application management, integration with System Center and advanced mobile device policy.

Please review these announcements: http://blogs.office.com/2014/10/28/office-365-latest-innovations-security-compliance/ and http://blogs.office.com/2014/10/28/introducing-built-mobile-device-management-office-365/.

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