Last week, we discussed the topic of mobile device management and its evolution as of late, as it now has become a sheer necessity for enterprises in order to protect themselves and their confidential information from prying eyes. In part two of our series, we will look in depth at the second “R” of mobile app education: aRchitecture.

While it is important to leverage MDM without delay, it is key to select the correct platform for your individual business needs, as different verticals require separate capabilities. For example, MobileIron’s MDM software can work seamlessly with multiple platforms including iOS and Android (News - Alert), eliminates expensive mobile support costs and international roaming expenses, and ensures all employees are secured at all times no matter if they are using a smartphone, tablet, PC or laptop.

 In fact,”the rush to mobile apps in many organizations has resulted in architectural shortcuts that are making many of those apps clunky, unsupportable, and not secure,” according to Ojas Rege, vice president of Strategy, MobileIron. Luckily, the MobileIron VSP for on-premises deployment is user-driven while simultaneously ensuring enterprise data boundaries are adhered to and newly released applications can be introduced to the network without overwhelming it.

At the 2012 MobileIron user conference, a retail banking customer revealed that it had overcome an array of architecture-related obstacles through first identifying the important data sources employees must have access to. After realizing that most of this information could be found on the Web, the company then only had to create a small amount of Web-based applications that weren’t already developed.

Reges added, “With that infrastructure in place, it can now rapidly build mobile apps. The firm can use external developers because the services are easy to use and secure. It can be sure content is up-to-date and make it easy for the user because with data separate from presentation and logic, the app download itself is small and quick. But most importantly, the company can move fast - experiment, iterate, and learn.”

So, what does this tell you? As my grandpa always said, “measure twice, cut once,” which essentially means that with a firm plan of action in hand, it is much easier for large corporations to see what needs work and what can be left alone. The more effort you put out in the very beginning planning stages of nearly any project –especially a mobile device management infrastructure – the bigger return and benefit you will see in the long run.

While in the past, most architectures were unorganized and the responsibilities of IT departments weren’t clearly defined, Rege predicts that in the future, mobile enterprise app development will become decentralized and all paths will not lead to IT. In turn, that means for a bigger sized organization, it will have a team of developers as opposed to just one creating apps from the ground up.

 However, “If the back-end architecture is not in place, most of those apps will have a beautiful face covering an interior of shortcuts, hacks, and band-aids,” Reje concluded.

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