Device Management

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Device Management is a standard application where users have a central management point the software on their mobile phone. The mobile carrier or supplier can access the phone's data through a web based application and make such necessary changes as updating the mobile's software, handling debugging issues, installing applications and track software versions all managed centrally over a mobile network^[1]. Thus, the user does not have to return to the store or change the hardware when servicing the mobile.

For companies, a Device Management system means better control and safety as well as increased efficiency, decreasing the possibility for device downtime. As the number of smart devices increases in many companies today, there is a demand for managing, controlling and updating these devices in an effective way. Normally an employee would need to visit the IT / Telecom department in order to do an update on the device. With a Device Management system, that is no longer the issue. Updates can easily be done "over the air". The content on a lost or stolen device can also easily be removed by "wipe" operations. In that way sensitive documents on a lost or a stolen device do not arrive in the hands of others.

[edit] Operations

Device management comprises the following operations:

Bootstrap provisioning of a mobile device
Continuous provisioning of a mobile device
Firmware update
Software component management
Device diagnostics
Device capability management
SIM / Smartcard based management
Scheduling of management tasks

Some of the leading companies in the device management space are Retriever communications, Mobilethink, Capricode, SmartTrust, Innopath and mFormation. In addition, system integrators such as IBM and HP are also involved in deploying such solutions. The Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) has a device management workgroup, called OMA-DM, that is working on creating standards for device management.