Retailers Need More Than Mobile Device Management

By Sadhana Joliet, EarthLink Business

It’s well known that retail IT environments are becoming more complex and costly to manage, driven in large part by the introduction of mobile devices in stores.  In response, retailers are investing heavily in mobile device management (MDM) software, both to ensure security and to simplify roll-out and management of mobile applications.  According to a recent article on Integrated Solutions for Retailers, MDM software ranked second only to POS software in 2014 in-store software spending priorities.

But while the mobile device issue gets all the publicity, it’s only part of the problem.  Retail IT organizations are also now responsible for managing, securing, and ensuring the reliability of Point-of-sale (POS) hardware alongside kiosks, monitors, servers, desktops, laptops, and employee-owned (BYOD) devices.  Customers and employees expect these devices to perform 100% of the time as they shop and conduct transactions.  At the same time, as evidenced by recent breaches at Target, Neiman Marcus, and other major retailers, these devices expose retailers to increasingly sophisticated attacks.

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