Getting Started with SCMDM

At the risk of stating the obvious, System Center Mobile Device Manager (SCMDM) is a Version 1 product. There are many opportunities that come with shipping a V1 product. The most important opportunity is for the team firs to identify the need for the product, it was clear to us that mobile devices were becoming an essential tool for information workers. In addition, the upcoming workforce will expect and demand that the majority of their information be accessible from their mobile device. In short, your mobile device is just as important as your laptop. That situation also presents opportunities for a company's IT departments. How do they manage those devices in the same manner they manage laptops and desktops? This, then, was the challenge we set out to solve with SCMDM. We worked closely with key enterprise customers, to identify what they needed--the ability to enforce policies, wipe devices, access data inside the firewall securely, and make Line of Business applications available on the mobile device. As we built the product and went through our milestones, we worked with our Technology Adoption Program customers to get specific technical feedback on the product in "the real world". These customers told us we had met their primary requirements and the product was ready to go. So, we launched SCMDM this past April 2008.

Three months have since passed, with many of our TAP customers continuing with their testing and pilot programs. But the momentum has yet to really get started. Because SCMDM supports Windows Mobile v. 6.1 and above, the real benefit of the product will start to take off over the next weeks and months as the 6.1 devices start to become commercially available. You will also be hearing more about SCMDM from your Microsoft account teams.

But don't wait for them; you can get started testing and piloting SCMDM. There is a 180-day Evaluation version available at https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/cc339027.aspx. The perfect place to get the technical content you need to get started is The SCMDM Tech Center.

Many customers that are testing and piloting SCMDM have asked how to best integrate it with existing server technologies they may have. We've heard them and responded. We recently published a series of technical guides that explain how SCMDM can integrate with your existing solutions:

·  Configuring External and Internal Firewalls for MDM

·  Integrating MDM with Microsoft Exchange Server

·  Deploying Mobile Device Manager in a Global Enterprise Environment

·  Integrating Mobile Device Manager with Existing Web Sites or SharePoint Server

·  Integrating Mobile Device Manager with Office Communications Server

We hope this gives you a good start in understanding and planning for SCMDM. While pointing you to all this great content is important in building your foundation, over the next weeks, months, and beyond you will start seeing posts from the product team that will discuss specific SCMDM technologies in depth. Your comments and feedback will be essential in ensuring we continue to deliver the best Mobile Device Management technology.