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March 24, 2023 by Haddayr Copley-Woods

What is Mobile Application Management (MAM)?

BYOD devices must be usable, secure, and private. And to meet all of these requirements, Apple administrators cannot depend on Mobile Application Management (MAM) alone. They need Apple-first Mobile Device Management (MDM) and endpoint protection purpose-built for Apple.

What is Mobile Application Management?

What does mobile application management do?

Mobile application management (MAM) allows IT to control enterprise applications on corporate- and personally-owned mobile devices.

MAM software allows IT administrators to apply and enforce corporate policies on mobile apps and limit the sharing of corporate data among apps and enables the separation of business apps and data from personal content on the same device, but the powers of MAM are limited.

Learn about mobile device and app management for your BYOD program.

Read Jamf and Apple: BYOD Programs Done Better.

What are the limitations of MAM?

On its own, MAM has some drawbacks.

MAM without an MDM:

  • Cannot configure WiFi and email or automatically install apps
  • Relies on users downloading their own apps
  • Can frustrate users with slow VPN connections or an awkward user experience
  • Can have limited app availability
  • Can struggle with offering a seamless experience in an OS specifically built for

What is Mobile Device Management (MDM)?

Mobile device management allows IT to automate, manage, and deploy policies on devices connected to an organization’s network.

A good MDM like Jamf Pro will allow you to offer personalized devices that help employees do their best work most efficiently. An MDM automates repetitive management tasks and boosts security by eliminating human error.

Jamf's MDM products offer:

And many more.

What is the difference between MAM and MDM?

tl;dr: MAM focuses exclusively on apps; MDM can work with a MAM or manage apps on its own as part of a much larger offering.

While MAM can partition apps on a user-owned device, it's not able to manage or secure the work portion of the mobile device. An MDM can.

And the most user-friendly, secure choice for employees —whether they use corporate-owned devices or their own— is Apple.

An Apple-first MDM such as Jamf Pro leverages Apple's iron-clad privacy protections and seamless partitioning of mobile devices into work volumes and personal volumes to offer a seamless app experience while still keeping the data absolutely separated.

Can an MDM manager see personal apps on a BYOD device?

Absolutely not.

With Apple and Jamf, MDM admins are categorically unable to view employees' private photos, texts or even what apps they have loaded. While from a user's point of view all of their apps are available side-by-side, from a Mac admin's point of view, there are only work-related apps and data.

Putting it all together

While MAM is a specific tool for managing apps and partitioning employee-owned devices, you'll need an MDM to enable the whole package: Enterprise Mobility Management.

What is Enterprise Mobility Management?

Enterprise Mobility Management is a truly complete system for managing and securing devices, networks, users and data.

An EMM such as Jamf builds on MDM capabilities with fully-integrated endpoint protection, threat prevention and remediation, identity and access management, Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and more.

Apple and Jamf

For the most secure, useable, efficient and private Enterprise Mobility Management: you need to start with Apple. Apple's legendary stability, privacy protections, efficiency and native security features are simply unmatched.

If you want to continue offering employees the excellent user experience they've come to expect from an iPhone or iPad, you need an organization that has been working with Apple for decades. Jamf has in-depth experience no one can equal, and we offer purpose-built solutions for Apple that just . . . as we like to say . . . work.

Try the best BYOD experience you can offer your employees.

Photo of Haddayr Copley-Woods
Haddayr Copley-Woods
Jamf
Haddayr Copley-Woods is a senior copywriter at Jamf. She writes about tech, specializing in Apple and Jamf with a focus on education, accessibility and security.
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