MAM Overview
Implementation Effort: Medium – IT and Security Operations teams need to define app protection policies, configure supported apps, and maintain ongoing policy updates and user support.
User Impact: Medium – A subset of users, especially those using personal (BYOD) devices, must follow new app usage rules and may need to install or update apps to comply with protection policies.
Overview
Mobile Application Management (MAM) in Microsoft Intune allows organizations to manage and protect corporate data within apps, without requiring full device enrollment. This is especially useful in Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) scenarios, where users access corporate resources like Outlook or Microsoft Teams from personal devices. MAM works by applying App Protection Policies (APP) that control how data is accessed and shared within managed apps—for example, blocking copy/paste, requiring PINs, or encrypting app data.
MAM is supported across Android, iOS/iPadOS, and Windows platforms. It can be used on:
- Personal devices (unenrolled)
- Organization-owned devices needing extra app-level security
- Devices managed by other MDM providers
Administrators configure apps in the Intune admin center, then apply protection policies. Users can access apps via the Company Portal or directly from app stores, depending on how the organization distributes them.
MAM supports the Zero Trust principle of least privilege access by ensuring that only approved apps can access corporate data, and that data remains protected even on unmanaged devices. Without MAM, organizations risk data leakage, especially when users access sensitive content from personal devices without any policy enforcement 1.