Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) conquered the mobile device management (MDM) arena last year that supports all the major mobile operating system, iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. The tech giant did a great job in launching their latest Microsoft EMS and the conquered market was composed of a lot of startup actions and acquisitions.

Andrew Conway, Microsoft’s senior director of enterprise mobility explained some elements of the enterprise mobility suite and provided some key points with their EMS approach.

The Story Behind EMS

Microsoft was quick to notice the increase of mobile devices being used for work related activities as well as an increase in Software as a Service (SaaS) applications. “It is the joint features of these two vital trends that are becoming more interesting instead of just having device growth trends or BYOD,” says Conway. “The Bring Your Own Device and cloud were two of the strongest trends that I have seen in 2014. I expected to see it nonstop until the next year. EMS is actually in a position that can capitalize on these two trends’ intersection,” Conway added.

The Senior Director also pointed out that the iOS version of MS Office, played a big part in introducing EMS to that particular platform. On top of this, he continued to point out that the development of EMS follows the core of Microsoft’s PC management solution, to be more of a user-centered rather than a device-centered.

Rights Management

Microsoft’s decision in making Azure Rights Management a part of EMS is a big step in attracting businesses in the compliance-based industries. It is managing direct access to files and encrypting one file after another based on specifc rights that are related to an entity’s active credentials directory.

Identity Management

Conway is quick to explain that the emphasis on identity management in EMS through the Azure Activity Directory allowing EMS to grow with BYOD, CYOD (Choose Your Own Device) as well as with Software as a Service (SaaS) applications.

“What most people witness are enterprises which are just half-baked in terms of the usage of unauthorized SaaS by their staff or most fof them are educating their hands about SaaS’ departmental usage,” shares Conway. “Amongst the things that revolve around identity specifically, the cloud-based identity like Azure ID permits you easy SaaS applications access control,” he added.

Several advantages of the identity management in EMS are:

• Single sign-on (SSO) for users

• Multifactor authentication

• Multiple reporting options for IT, indicating which users are accessing what, as well as, indication on where the users are accessing it from

Device and Application Management in EMS

“We execute device management within the EMS which is an important feature of Intune services,” Conway explains. “We have managed at the application level too.” Intune takes a container or “wrapper approach” to security.

EMS and Microsoft Office

The inclusion of MS Office for iOS and Android, which has been long overdue, gives additional benefits to their EMS users. Conway also added that enterprises have control of Office mobile apps InTune for quite a time already before extending the feature to the other mobile operating systems.

With the revolutionary cloud-based services approach to EMS, plus the announced monthly additional features of the platform, this will help put Microsoft in gaining more grounds by the following year.