IT and security leaders have taken notice of Chrome operating system (OS) devices’ ability to provide employees quick, easy and intuitive access to work resources. They may differ from their PC ancestors’ reliance on storage and installed software, but professionals are finding some advantages. Depending solely on internet, web and cloud apps, there’s less that can go wrong and more that can go right.

As a prerequisite to Chrome OS enterprise adoption, IT professionals must first be confident in their security and manageability. For example, cloud app access must be secure. There can be no risk of data leakage, nor can those apps pose unknown risks.

Google has announced an extension of its management APIs to third-party mobile device management (MDM) and enterprise mobility management (EMM) software providers. Now, the IT professionals who rely on these tools can deploy Chrome OS among the mix of their supported operating systems.

Partners who use these APIs give their administrators Chrome OS policy management capabilities across their devices and users.

IT has traditionally relied on MDM and EMM tools to ensure devices and their contents remained visible, managed and protected. Now entering the mix among these form factors are the work computers, video conferencing machines, digital signage tools and single-use devices powered by Chrome OS.

While Google continues to bolster these APIs and management capabilities, IBM MaaS360 with Watson unified endpoint management (UEM) will work to pass the advantages of this new functionality onto customers, enabling them to manage Chrome OS alongside other endpoints in the enterprise.