With the plethora of smartphones and tablets continuously being introduced to an enterprise’s network, what can keep the company’s confidential data and employees safe from cyber threats? Mobile device management solutions have been created to allow business heads to rest assured that their network will remain safe from threats at all times.

In 2011, some of the three largest trends were the speed of app deployments, decline of BlackBerry in the enterprise and the rise of tablet replacing desktops. “Nearly 50 percent of larger enterprises are embracing the secure management of Enterprise Apps. 2012 will be the year of the enterprise app including apps that are built by the enterprise and apps that workers are bringing in en masse on smartphones and tablets – corporate and personally-owned devices. The second trend is how fast corporations are deserting their corporate owned blackberry devices. Lastly, the desktop/laptop upgrade cycle is quickly moving to tablets for ultra-portability and leverage of apps. Tablets are now more powerful than most laptops built only 3 years ago and show no sign of slowing down,” Adam Stein at MobileIron stated.

With the recent release of the MobileIron 4.5 platform which boasts features such as Android 4.0 security; encryption enforcement policies for Samsung (News - Alert) GALAXY devices and all other devices running Android 3.0 and above; fully secure SSL VPN connectivity; Exchange account configuration with certificates; a single Android (News - Alert) client for all devices; prompt notice when Android administrative privileges are removed; and hardware lockdown which enables IT to completely disable hardware capabilities through MobileIron, the company is continuing to remain at the forefront of introducing new functions and capabilities powered by MDM solutions.

Next year, the company will be upping the ante on app security and management. “We’ll further build out our AppConnect partner base to take full advantage of the growing importance of apps in the enterprise. Another area where we’ll work even more closely with our 1,200+ customers and 200+ partners globally is around advanced yet unified security of multi-OS smartphones and tablets,” Stein added.

As far as predictions for the market in the near future, Stein stated, “It is likely will continue to see some late-stage competitive additions to MDM software offerings including vendors who previously sold BlackBerry management, secure email containers, wireless hotspot equipment or database app offerings. All of the retrofit options will force enterprises to compromise vs. choosing a truly “purpose built” MDM Software solution for smartphones and tablets. Some of the later entrants will be forced to merge, acquire or change their business model again to continue in 2012.”

All of the major smartphone and tablet vendors will be releasing new software management APIs in 2012. Some of them, like Google, will better address enterprise needs with the addition of the Motorola hardware acquisition to prove out software/hardware integration like Apple (News - Alert) has done over the last few years. So over the next year, “Microsoft is likely to get serious about enterprise mobility to stem it losses in the Enterprise with Windows Phone (News - Alert) 7 and 8. They are actively courting numerous ODMs including Nokia to add more of an Enterprise footprint. HP and WebOS remain a wildcard but do have a nice sleed OS offering that is vertically integrated for true enterprise adoption,” Stein concluded.