What is application management?

Introduction

Apps are arguably, the lifeblood of modern computing. Regardless of whether you’re using your Mac, iPad, iPhone and/or Apple Watch for work, school or downtime – chances are pretty great that an app is at the center all your usage.

So great a chance that, it’s estimated that over 92 billion apps will be downloaded from the Apple App Store in 2025. This represents nearly 260% more app downloads than the 35.4 billion recorded in 2024.

If nothing else, this highlights two important aspects for organizations:

1. App usage continues to be a usage driver globally.
2. It underscores the criticality of app management and security.

Understanding application management and security

Device management is the process admins use to enroll, provision, track and configure devices holistically for organizations and their employees.

Application management and security are a part of but distinct from device management. This focuses solely on the applications themselves, instead of the overall health of the device. More specifically, app management follows the application’s lifecycle to ensure that applications and their underlying codebase are secure by design through retirement.

Management

The steps in the ITIL Application Management Lifecycle (ALM) Framework are:

1. Define
2. Design
3. Build and Test
4. Deployment
5. Operation
6. Optimization
7. Retirement

Security

While certain phases in the lifecycle apply to specific roles, such as developers, several key facets exist within each phase that pertain to comprehensive application security, applying directly to IT admins. Specifically, these are:

• Research app viability and business value
• Procure software from secure sources
• Test usability and compatibility
• Configure and install across device fleet
• Timely deployment of OS updates and app patches
• Continuously monitor performance and optimize, as needed
• Maintain security baselines to enforce compliance
• Uninstall (or replace) apps that are no longer of use

Why is application management important?

App management software, workflows and tactics can make or break an organization's security risk. Recently, Security Magazine reported on data breaches caused by third party software and services. While their findings may vary from one industry to the next, here’s a summary of key takeaways:

• Third-party attacks have led to 29% of breaches
• 98% of organizations are affiliated with a third party that has experienced a breach
• Healthcare, finance and telecommunications make up the top 3 impacted industries
• Compromised third-party software was responsible for 75% of external breaches

It’s no surprise that some of the largest data breaches in history were blamed on third-party apps with lax security setups including Facebook/Cambridge Analytica, Home Depot and Equifax, among others.

In short: you need to stay on top of apps.

And the best way to do this is by automating the app lifecycle in your organization.

Why enterprise apps shouldn't be managed manually

The enterprise consists of many different job responsibilities and departments, all needing their own specialized apps for productivity, communication and building products. It isn't just Microsoft Office anymore. Now, it's Slack, Photoshop, Salesforce, Code Editor . . . the list goes into the hundreds (or thousands) if your organization is large enough.

Manually reviewing checklists and/or waiting for messages from vendors to let you know when a product needs patching or when the latest update is publicly available often leads to:

• Costly human errors
• Long wait times for critical patches
• Losing track of who has what app
• Fixed/static security strategies
• Slow incident response/threat mitigation

How does automating application management software help?

An application management app is a web-based tool that manages app inventory on Apple devices. It should integrate directly with a reputable Mobile Device Management (MDM) provider as well as with user accounts like Managed Apple IDs and with other Apple services.

First: Apple Business Manager and Apple School Manager

Step one in using application management software is to start with either Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager, so that you can enroll devices into management directly from purchase. They are both simple web-based tools that manage Apple device inventory and that integrate with other Apple services, such as Managed Apple IDs.

Step two is to link your MDM with Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager with your managed Apple ID. Both of these can help you to manage app licensing as well as app deployment.

These services allow IT teams to automate and simplify app deployments for businesses and schools, and an app management provider such as Jamf takes it a step further by automating deployment, patching and more. See below for more details.

Mac app management

Users can find apps for Macs at the Mac App Store or as third-party software titles. Third-party software not in the Mac App Store can be a problem if they aren't fully vetted and tracked, and there isn't a simple way for users to download apps safely and for organizations to be sure that these apps will be continually updated and secured.

Jamf App Catalog

The Jamf App Catalog contains a list of third-party macOS software titles that Jamf has already vetted for Jamf admins. This catalog can integrate with a patch management workflow or an App Installers workflow, which keeps the source of all apps in the same place and far more manageable.

App Installers

App Installers takes it even further with a curated collection of Jamf-managed and Jamf-provided installer packages that automate and streamline updating and deploying third-party apps. So apps are not only more secure when you deploy them, but they also remain secure and up-to-date without interrupting end users from doing their jobs.

Self Service

Self Service is a private online enterprise app catalog for authorized users to download in-house, third-party or App Store apps. This empowers users to find the tools they need and to quickly begin using them while also giving organizations the control they need over enterprise apps.

Why mobile application security requires extra attention

As work environments shift and adapt, mobile apps for work are gaining popularity. Many of these apps are indispensable in conducting day-to-day business, and to leave iOS/iPadOS/watchOS/visionOS out of app management could be a mistake that impacts your organizational security posture.

App management tools for iOS-based software are similar to those for Mac app management: delivering mobile apps via Self Service and the Jamf Catalog.

An additional benefit to app management is that it best supports device management by comprehensively securing endpoints. Such as minimizing the risk of unauthorized (or unintended) data leaks due misconfiguration of apps, including their ability to access various sensors commonly found on mobile devices. Think network, camera, microphone and location data which, if misconfigured, provides threat actors with a wealth of Personally Identifiable Information (PII), placing users and the organization at even greater risk.

Another benefit is app management’s ability to enforce compliance holistically across varying ownership models through policy-based management. The most common ownership models being:

BYOD

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) practices allow employees to use the tools they already know and keep nearby to get work done while also protecting their own data and app use.

COPE

Company-Owned Personally-Enabled (COPE) allows for personal usage of company-owned devices, ensuring that organizational data receives the maximum level of protection while personal data remains protected as well – while upholding user privacy.

Securing endpoints and maintaining compliance – regardless of the ownership model – keeps enterprise and personal data and privacy safe, and without compromise.

How management tools streamline mobile app security

Vetted, up-to-date software offers the greatest security against known threats. That's why application management and security go hand-in-hand. A good app management tool gives Apple admins control over the apps that employees can access and use as well as visibility into app and update installations, alongside compliance statuses.

Modern app management tools remove the need to manually:

• Monitor
• Package
• Update

Additionally, it ensures that all devices consistently meet compliance requirements for data security, device safety and user privacy.

When end-users don't have to wait (or worse, risk organizational data security) for the productivity apps they need to get the job done, they remain more productive while reducing administrative toil for IT. Through automation and Self Service capabilities, IT can focus their skills on aligning with business objectives and developing more efficient workflows for end-users – thanks to the elimination of requiring help desk tickets for routine and redundant tasks.

Other ways mobile threats are mitigated include:

• Restrict app distribution from alternative app stores
  • Reduce the potential of introducing risks from unknown apps and stores, strengthening user security, privacy and safety.
• Scan apps for malicious code, including unauthorized modification
  • Prevent malware while ensuring app, privacy, data and operational integrity.
• Encrypt data at rest and data in transit
  • Enforce data security with volume encryption, as well as, keeping data safe across unsecured networks.
• Monitor and assess threats in real-time
  • Keep tabs on your entire fleet with up-to-date device health telemetry data while being alerted to baseline changes in real-time.
• Enforce compliance through automated remediation
  • Speed up incident response to both cut down threat mitigation and maintain a strong, compliant security posture.
• Standardize app security across your infrastructure
  • Deploy secure configurations to all mobile endpoints – regardless of device or OS type.
• Automate change management for all endpoints
  • Blueprints save IT time and effort by keeping endpoints up to date with the latest patches – end-user not required.
• Integrate identity and access management (IAM) for granular security workflows
  • Unlock contextual resource access and endpoint health verification on your organization’s journey toward Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA).
• Vet application health to better understand risk impacts to your network, devices and users
  • Determine app risks before they’re introduced to production with built-in app risk scoring.
• Deliver efficient user authentication workflows that go beyond relying on credentials to secure access
  • Verify users are who they claim to be by requiring additional checks, like phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA) and passwordless workflows.

Things to consider when choosing mobile app management

Some organizations begin with a simple and generalized way to manage apps: Mobile App Management (MAM). It's a good idea to think this through, especially if you're an Apple-centric organization.

MAM without an MDM:

• Lacks support for deploying device configurations, such as Wi-Fi and email, or restricting apps obtained from suspicious sources.
• Focuses solely on installing apps. Alone, it cannot mitigate app and/or device security risks.
• Replaces the seamless, Apple experience users are familiar with, with a cumbersome, often difficult to navigate one.
• Limits app availability to enterprise-authorized software, by default. Some security options require additional, complex configuration to implement.
• Policy enforcement is restricted to the app level only – device and user security, including regulatory compliance, leave endpoints at risk.

The more specialized and robust solution would be to use an application management application in conjunction with an MDM such as Jamf Pro. This combination offers your organization and its employees with vetted and secure apps, repackaged for deployment, that automatically updates, patches and manages apps.

Getting by with MAM is exactly that: getting by

Using a fully integrated system for managing permissions, apps, compliance and security is a streamlined experience that allows Apple admins to focus on aligning IT functions to best support business needs rather than wasting IT and employee’s time – performing repetitive tasks and waiting for their issue to be addressed before they can get back to work, respectively.

That makes for happier stakeholders: from IT and InfoSec departments to end-users, and management within the company – all tasked with accomplishing more with less.