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Contributed by Henning Volkmer, President and CEO of Cortado Mobile Solutions Inc

That’s “A Wrap” for App Wrapping: The Top Five Reasons Native EMM Will Dominate 2016

We've cycled through several stages of mobile development over the last three years.  While development has been rapid, initially even today's most popular mobile platform vendors had to do much work to improve their basic consumer functions. Yet, very little time was devoted to enterprise needs. Vendors focused on building great consumer devices, knowing that a win in the consumer space would bring their devices into the enterprise world, too. Whoever won the largest share of the consumer market would have a jump start at leading the enterprise market as a result.

Demand from employees to use their consumer devices at work was high. Companies preferred BlackBerry, due to the high level of features it provided for control and security. Employees, on the other hand, preferred iOS and Android. However, these platforms lacked the enterprise mobility management (EMM) features Blackberry offered. This made rolling out Apple and Google devices complicated or even impossible. During this time, app wrapping allowed enterprises to take the first steps in making it possible to use iOS and Android in the workplace. This included securing the most basic applications, like email or PIM. However, app wrapping would not be a long-term solution.

There are a number of reasons that would have kept app wrapping from being a solution for the long run. But it was primarily the platform vendors that eliminated its need.  As iOS and Android matured, Apple and Google added a vast set of native, or built-in, enterprise security and control capabilities. As the two most popular vendors, they had the sway to define how security was to be handled on their platforms for any and all applications. Apple and Google made participation in their security systems obligatory for anyone looking to publish their app in iTunes or Google Play. Any app manufacturer, no matter how small or large, would have to play by their rules. Instead of a few dozen unknown applications in various app wrapping systems, companies suddenly had access to hundreds of thousands of apps available for secure enterprise use. The benefits have been immense.

The top benefits of a native approach to EMM include:

1.  Simpler administration and deployment - With a native approach, it's possible to use and secure any application available on iTunes or Google Play. There's no need to go through the hassle of making negotiations with app manufacturers to initially wrap and then to re-wrap an app with every update lifecycle.

2.  Reduced costs - It costs approximately $15.00 to $30.00 per app each time an app wrapping software development kit (SDK) is initially used to wrap an app. This is in addition to re-wrapping costs, which add up quickly. There are quite a few reasons IT ends up using the SDK more than once per app. This is often triggered by policy changes, problems with the application or updates to the app or the operating system that require changes to the source code. A native approach, therefore, costs a fraction of app wrapping.

3.  No legal headaches - Potential legal conflicts loom with app wrapping. App wrapping requires access to an app's source code and signing certificates.  The manufacturer must submit the app for wrapping or allow modifications to their code. This is the case for almost all commercially developed apps. Using a platform's native EMM capabilities allows secure, productive use of any application available for the platform, without the legal hassle.

4.  More choice and variety - Popular and familiar apps like Microsoft Office or SalesForce will never be available in wrapped form. By using native EMM there is no need to look for alternatives for such apps. Furthermore, there is no need to explain to users how those alternatives work or to spend time and energy to convince them to use the alternatives. Employees are able to pick exactly the applications they are familiar and productive with and that are best suited for their tasks.

5.  Smoother development and roll out of custom apps -  Native EMM can also encompass a company's proprietary apps, making their development and deployment easier than ever before. To use an app wrapping SDK, companies looking to develop their own apps must enter into a partnership with the manufacturer. This is in addition to integrating the SDK's back-end management tools into their mobile strategy to assure they can control its security features. These partnerships take time to set up due to these pre-requisites, leading to longer deployment and testing cycles and less stable applications.

Considering all the benefits outlined above, EMM solutions in 2016 will focus on enhancing and taking advantage of the increasing array of native control and security features being built into today's mobile platforms.  Solutions, like Cortado Corporate Server, provide the management tools to compliment the native functions in iOS, Android and other major platforms. Additionally, these solutions can connect users to the existing enterprise infrastructure with file servers, databases, print services and more. This will allow IT to continue to use their trusted infrastructure while enabling the employees to be as productive as they would be in the office on a desktop PC when working from anywhere on the mobile devices with the applications of their choice.

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About the Author

Henning Volkmer - President & CEO, Cortado Mobile Solutions Inc. 

Henning Volkmer is the president and CEO of Cortado, Inc., driving the execution of the company's strategy as the leading innovator of the business class of cloud desktop services across the Americas.

Volkmer has established a broad technological background and has been at the forefront of mobile technology trends for the past seventeen years. In addition to holding various positions within the Cortado group, Volkmer served as part of a project team focused on reducing costs in the network infrastructure division with what is now Nokia Siemens Network.

Under Volkmer's direction, ThinPrint brand has increased its lead as the premier print management software, while Cortado brand has become recognized as a pioneer business solution, shaping the future of the cloud desktop.