What are the best practices for simple and secure device management?

Today, more companies are allowing people to select the best devices for their needs in an increasingly connected world. Nevertheless, it is integral that organisations implement a strategy that ensures secure device management.

Ensuring secure device management

According to a whitepaper from Citrix, a modern IT strategy should guarantee secure device management. However, it must also empower employees to choose their own devices in order to improve productivity, collaboration, and mobility.

The strategy should also protect sensitive information from loss and theft, while addressing privacy, compliance, and risk-management mandates. Meanwhile, it needs to reduce costs and simplify management through self-service provisioning and automated management monitoring.

Finally, the policy should simplify IT with a simple comprehensive solution to manage and secure data, apps, and devices. According to the whitepaper, there are 8 best practices for designing a strategy that "combines simplicity for employees with effective security, control, and management for IT."

8 best practices

First of all, companies need to choose a policy that best reflects their requirements in terms of freedom of choice and increased control. The report observes that while the nuances of policies can vary, they all ultimately share the most fundamental principles of unified endpoint management (UEM) — including their security implications.

Organisations must also make it clear who is eligible to use personal devices, whether on an ad hoc basis or as a replacement for a corporate device. Moreover, managers should also apply BYOD, COPE, or CYOD "within the context of other departmental incentives, privileges, and disciplinary measures."

In order to avoid an unmanageable diversity of devices, companies can also limit the type of mobile devices to support. Next, the report notes that communication is vital to a successful implementation and thus a company must provide guidance to "help people decide whether to participate and how to choose the right device for their needs."

While reducing costs is the primary benefit of BYOD, subsidises should reflect the full participation lifespan of the individual. In addition, a crucial requirement for both employee and company owned devices is to protect data without impacting user experience.

Ongoing monitoring and management are also essential to ensure policy compliance and determine your return on investment. Finally, the strategy should offer device support and management to avoid increased complexity and workload for IT.

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