Mobile worries

The global nature of business today demands that companies have the flexibility and wherewithal to conduct business from anywhere at anytime. Having the ability to respond to customer and partner requests quickly is no longer a differentiator; it is now a prerequisite for staying alive in this fast paced economy. Leading companies in every industry have deployed or are at least thinking about deploying mobility solutions to give their employees this ability, but having an increased number of endpoints outside the safety of the network firewall raises security concerns for businesses large and small.

What is the savvy company to do? They must provide their employees with the means to increase productivity and customer satisfaction, but they also have to make sure these tools do not compromise security and compliance policies. Concerns about security for mobile devices are valid and to date, have probably not even been given the attention that they deserve in the market. We hear the horror stories about data breaches occurring due to lost laptops, but much less media consideration has been focused on the outcome of when a mobile device is lost.

While laptops and mobile devices are similar in that they can be used outside office walls, smartphones present new challenges to the enterprise for a number of reasons. The first differentiator is that while the majority of corporate laptops run the same operating system as corporate desktops, enterprise converged mobile devices typically run on one of four major operating systems – Windows Mobile, BlackBerry OS, Palm OS or Symbian OS. To securely manage these devices, companies need to purchase device management and security software specifically developed for them.

Generally, laptops are bought by a central procurement division within IT that also buys desktops. Although it is increasingly common that IT is buying mobile devices for the enterprise, IDC research has shown that the majority of mobile devices that are connecting to the corporate network are still being purchased by individuals versus a centralised purchase by IT. This ambiguity about which employees have devices that are connecting to the corporate network can create issues related to asset, security, and compliance management.

The majority of mobile devices purchased today are what IDC defines as a converged mobile device, which means the device has both data and telephony capabilities. Because of this, people may keep their mobile device on them at all times. In addition to staying on a person at all times, converged mobile devices are getting thinner and smaller everyday – a combination that significantly drives up the chance of losing these devices. As with laptops, mobile devices provide new entry points (Bluetooth and SMS) that allow more ways to hack these devices.

While mobile devices present a number of new management and security challenges to IT, the case for allowing employees access to corporate data in the palm of their hand is a strong one. Mobile email and mobile CRM can allow employees to increase productivity, be more responsive to clients, make better-informed decisions, and ultimately, help bolster the bottom line of the company. Emerging concepts like unified communications will make the mobile user experience even better by integrating applications such as voice, email, IM, and CRM together in the future.

The savvy company will deploy MDM and/or mobile security capabilities when they embark on a mobile application deployment. MDM is offered by mobility companies as well as larger systems management companies, so it may be possible for the company to bundle an MDM product with other products they are buying today to drive the cost down. Most MDM offerings offer some base level security, such as device wipe and lock and some offer encryption as well. However, for vertical industries that are very security conscious, there are a number of vendors that produce mobile security products that offer additional capabilities such as mobile VPN, mobile firewall, and anti-malware products built for mobile devices.

The bottom line is, mobility can offer many advantages to companies that invest in it. The best way to make sure that your mobility deployment is a successful one is to treat mobile devices like any other endpoint on the network. By employing technology that allows you to manage and secure those devices, you are helping to ensure that your mobility deployment achieves the business benefits you need to achieve without sacrificing peace of mind.