Mobile Device Management
My business has around 50 devices. A recent issue with an ipad has forced us to confront the fact that we need to manage our devices properly.
A lot of the devices are iphones that are used for both personal and business use. As far as business requirements go, our only basic need is to have all users connected to their outlook account, we don't have any specific apps yet that everyone needs to have. Presently, once the exchange account has been added to the phone, the users can go off and use the phone however they see fit.
What I am concerned about is that many of these devices will be linked to a personal icloud account for back-up purposes.
The issue with the ipad mentioned above, is that the unit was 5 years old and had been through a number of different users who had all left the business, so it was impossible to tell what icloud account it was linked to. At some point it had been incorrectly deactivated from the account which sent the device into activation lock. We therefore had no way to recover it as we hadn't a clue which account it was registered to and for a long time the device was nothing more than a paperweight. I managed to track down the icloud account eventually but it took weeks of amateur detective work.
The more I think about this, the more worried I am becoming. I am happy for our users to be able to use the phones personally, but I want to ensure the business is protected properly and that we can control devices that are lost, stolen etc... but still have the flexibility for users to back up to icloud. Obviously it goes without saying I want to have control over what they can back up, I wouldn't want business data going off into a personal icloud account.
Our IT support used to manage phones, but they left the business 3 months ago and have yet to be replaced so I am going to have to roll up my sleeves and figure this out for myself. I am not a technophobe, I just know enough to get by.
An MDM has been suggested to me as being what we need, but reading up all the information ois giving me a headache. Can someone offer some plain English advice on where I should start?
Thanks
