As mobility continues to surge around the world, our favorite devices have become susceptible to viruses, data brokers and hackers, which can be very dangerous if devices contain sensitive work-related data or personal information. If you’re a business owner or IT technician and have yet adopted a secure MDM solution into your network, you already know the dangers of using unsecured or public networks.

Recently, a variety of technology-drive companies has begun to create mobile device management (MDM) solutions to protect their networks. Here are some of the highlights from the past few weeks:

One MDM solution from Tangoe (News - Alert), a provider of Communications Lifecycle Management (CLM), integrates MDM with real-time telecom expense management (rTEM) that enables businesses to develop an optimized carrier plan based on device usage, which can save SMBs a significant amount of money. It has just released an easy-to-use MDM app that works on all major platforms including Android (News - Alert), iOS, Windows 8 and Blackberry 10.

Microsoft has expanded its MDM capabilities in R2 products like System Center 2012, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Intune. According to Redmond magazine, in a TechEd feature titled "Enabling People-Centric IT," which is Microsoft's phrase for the consumerization of IT and "bring-your-own-device" (BYOD) scenarios, Andrew Conway, director of product marketing for System Center, told how Microsoft has evolved its mobile device management capabilities, including the support of non-Windows devices.

Amtel's (News - Alert) Mobile Lifecycle Management solution has just been selected by City of Enid, Oklahoma. Its key features include sharing files and multimedia securely, managing mobile apps by enforcing "whitelist" policies and blocking "blacklist" apps and securing Exchange e-mail access and syncing using Amtel's Mobile E-Mail Gateway (News - Alert) virtual appliance.

Fiberlink’s MaaS360 had been recognized as a leader in Gartner's Mobile Device Management Magic Quadrant for the Second Consecutive Year based on its execution of cloud-based enterprise mobility management (EMM), and the completeness of its vision in both market understanding and innovation. MaaS360 (News - Alert) deals with the broadest range of enterprise mobility needs, supporting everything from multinational corporations to smaller departmental use cases for both corporate and employee-owned (BYOD) devices.

MobileIron, a provider of MDM solutions, has an Application Distribution feature that delivers a centralized locator for business applications that allow IT administrators to directly publish private apps to their end-users without putting them in a commercial storefront like the App store. It also recommends which applications are allowed to be downloaded and are supported by the IT. To learn more about MDM solutions and how to leverage them in an enterprise, please visit MobileIron.