First came BYOD.
Then in response, companies came up with MDM – and later, the more granular MAM – as part of an overall EMM strategy.
And now we're all moving toward UEM.
Got it?
Allow us to explain: BYOD refers to employees who years ago began bringing in their own devices (smartphones and tablets) to work. That forced companies to come up with an enterprise mobility management (EMM) strategy to protect corporate data, which at first entailed mobile device management (MDM) and more recently, mobile app management (MAM).
UEM, or unified endpoint management, basically takes parts of all those tactics and puts everything in one place, making it easier for companies to manage mobile devices and desktop hardware all at once. That's true, regardless of operating system (Windows, macOS, Android or iOS) or location (at work, at home, or on the road).
But, as Computerworld's Lucas Mearian explains to Executive Editor Ken Mingis, the promise of UEM is still a ways off. The two talked about the current state of UEM, some hiccups that have developed for users, and how the whole thing will shake out in the coming years.
It is, they both agree, a veritable alphabet soup of technology that will take years to roll out.
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