As the hours pass, more and more companies are realizing how important it is to select and implement an efficient mobile device management strategy. It’s no secret that bring your own device (BYOD) initiatives are continuing to increase in popularity and, to ensure that a corporate network remains safe at all time, you must leverage an MDM strategy.

Recently, TMC’s (News - Alert) CEO Rich Tehrani had the chance to speak with MobileIron, a California-based provider of innovative mobile device management solutions. This week, slated to take place on Thursday, February 2 at 3 p.m. ET, Adam Stein of MobileIron will be speaking at a session entitled, "Mobile Virtualization: Two Virtual Phones, One Single Mobile Device" at ITEXPO East which will held from January 31- February 3 in the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami, FL. To read the full report, see below.

1.       What was the most significant technological advancement in the past 12 months and why?

That would have to be the ability for any enterprise user to bring any device using any app, regardless of ownership, into a company and have everything work securely with the company’s existing IT infrastructure. Some call it the “consumerization of IT” and it is an amazing trend impacting nearly every enterprise globally, all at the same time.

2.       What has been the biggest trend in your market segment and how is it impacting your customers?

Enterprise employees are using dozens of mobile apps across nearly every market segment. These apps are increasing their productivity at work and away from their office

3.      What is the biggest challenge facing your customers today and how is your company helping address that challenge?

Securing the onslaught of apps and devices while learning how to manage increasing mobile complexity. Really a new generation of IT is being born; call it Mobile IT.

4.      How has the cloud impacted your business? How has it impacted your customers?

Many of MobileIron’s 1,500 plus customers are leveraging our Mobile Device Management (MDM) SaaS (News - Alert) offering – Connected Cloud. This provides all the richness and security of the hosted software with the convenience and security of the cloud.

5.      Will cloud-based communications expedite the end of the premises-based MDM market?

No, we have a number of government, financial services and other regulatory dependent industries that have extremely deep security procedures that extend far beyond SaaS-70 compliant services like the MobileIron Connected Cloud and other commercial SaaS offerings. They will continue to leverage the hosted (virtual appliance) environment they use today.

6.      What approach has your business taken to social media?  If you have implemented a social media program, have you been able to evaluate your program’s success?

MobileIron has taken a customer-focused social media presence with groups on LinkedIn, Facebook (News - Alert), Flickr and YouTube. Because our go to market is via partners, carriers and system integrators they are also finding great leverage in this content to help train their own staffers on MDM, apps, BYOD and Mobile IT. In turn, these important channel partners leverage some of this content to help educate customers. Our main evaluation point of success today is simply member numbers and views. In just over nine months, the customer LinkedIn (News - Alert) group has more than 300 members. Facebook has several dozen members in the last three months. YouTube has more than 20,000 unique views across 15 videos. Many of these customers and partners are actively engaged in growing MobileIron’s business as well.

7.      Does every business need a social media presence? Why or why not?

Social presence really depends on business goals. Is the business trying to educate customers, partners, and prospects? What content is made available?   What is the call to action and desired purchase path? These are all variables that will help a business decide on their ideal social presence.

8.      With Microsoft touting tight integration between its mobile and desktop OS, can it become a major competitor in the enterprise mobile market?

Today Microsoft is putting more emphasis on the mobile enterprise than ever before. Of course, they are a very unfamiliar position playing catch up to Google and Apple (News - Alert). But, given the role Microsoft has played in previous generations of enterprise computing it’s no surprise to see a renewed emphasis on the mobile enterprise with assets like ActiveSync and System Center. BlackBerry with its outages, lack of innovation and support Apps has opened up the number three slot and Microsoft is certainly poised to gain Enterprise traction in 2011.

9.      What can attendees expect from your company at ITEXPO?

First-hand learning from 1,500 mobile enterprises who are actively involved in important trends like BYOD, app storefront, enterprise persona and multi-os device rollout.

10. Make one technology prediction for 2012 and consider its impact.

One two-part prediction – Android ramps up to 1 million devices deployed daily while Apple continues to gain marketshare – both at the expense of BlackBerry and other niche mobile OS devices. The result is RIM, with its repeated outages and lack of innovation, loses more than 50 percent of its installed base from the end of 2011 by the end of 2012.

Mobile Device Management is quickly moving to encompass the secure management of mobile apps, persona, device ownership and much more.   What’s critical is that IT move to utilizing an entirely new set of variables in this generation of enterprise computing management – we’re calling this MobileIT.  As opposed to prior generations of computing, today’s enterprise has many more variables to consider.

To find out more about Adam Stein and MobileIron, visit the company at ITEXPO East 2012 to be held Jan. 31- Feb. 3 at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami, FL.  ITEXPO is the world’s premier IP communications event. Stein is speaking during “Mobile Virtualization: Two Virtual Phones, One Single Mobile Device.” For more information on ITEXPO registration, click here.