Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Controlling mobile costs becomes more complex when you add in a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program. Many employees prefer to carry one smartphone for both work and personal use, but then how should companies pay for these dual-purpose devices? In order to address this question, we need to categorize employees by the type of work that they do, and how much they rely on mobile devices. The exact categories will be different between companies, depending on job functions. Decisions on who pays for the mobile bill will also depend largely on company culture. Consider a spectrum of mobile workers, with employees who are 100% mobile on one end, e.g. a salesperson. On the other end are employees who are … Continue reading »
Tags: byod, cost savings
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Thursday, November 17, 2011
The Amazon Kindle Fire was released this week with a record-setting one million plus preordered tablets being shipped. Reviews of the device have been lukewarm with many reviewers pointing to the less than powerful 1Ghz processor. From an enterprise point of view the Fire isn’t really important, at least not yet. None of the major MDM providers offer an agent designed to work with the modified version of Android 2.2 that powers the tablet. It is rumored that Amazon is planning to update the Fire OS to make use of Android 2.3 or maybe even 3.0 sometime in the near future. With the Fire expected to be a popular gift this holiday season, we could see pressure on the enterprise … Continue reading »
Tags: android, mdm vendors
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Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Creating an effective security policy for personal devices accessing the corporate network You probably already have a wireless security policy governing the use of corporately owned devices, but what about those employee owned devices? If you don’t already have a good Bring Your Own Device policy, then your organization falls into one of two scenarios: Personal devices are being blocked from the corporate network and therefore your company is missing out on the free increased productivity associated with an employee making use of a mobile device. Personal devices are already accessing your corporate network, with or without your knowledge, and you aren’t doing anything to ensure that this is being done securely. In either case your organization can likely benefit … Continue reading »
Tags: byod, mobile device management, mobile security
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Wednesday, November 16, 2011
IBM has announced that it will be entering the Mobile Device Management ring with the introduction of an MDM service aimed at enterprises “embracing employees bringing their own devices.” IBM has partnered with Juniper Networks to provide this cloud-based service, which is expected to be offered at a price of $3-$10 per device. In its press release, IBM makes specific mention of their intention to include the capability of “protecting against spyware and viruses” on the mobile devices under management. Such functionality could be a differentiator in the MDM space. It will be interesting to see how this product is able to accomplish something not typically mentioned in other MDM products. Companies that are most likely to use the IBM MDM service … Continue reading »
Tags: mdm vendors, mobile device management, mobile security
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Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Google has recently announced plans to offer a Mobile Device Management (MDM) type of service within the Google App suite. This service will allow the basic management and policy enforcement of corporate iOS, Android and Windows Mobile devices. It’s too early to say how well the functionality and features compare to established MDM vendors. Google has created many applications and services over the years. Some do very well, others stumble along, and still others are eventually pulled. Similar to many other MDM providers, this service will connect to devices making use of the standard ActiveSync protocol. For more information check out this article over at InformationWeek. This service is only useful to companies already using Google Apps. While this is … Continue reading »
Tags: android, google, mdm vendors, mobile device management, mobile security
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Thursday, November 10, 2011
“Bring Your Own Device” refers to employees using their own personal mobile devices (typically smartphones or tablets) for business use. Two trends have been major causes of the BYOD phenomenon: Companies wanting to reduce complexity and cost of managing mobility Employees wanting to use the most popular devices that they use as consumers, instead of the device provided by their employer BYOD causes some challenges. Employees may feel that costs are being offloaded to them, and some system of expense chargeback or stipend may be needed. Technology designed for consumer use is typically not suited for an enterprise environment, and software such as Mobile Device Management (MDM) is required. The term BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) has also been used, … Continue reading »
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Friday, October 21, 2011
9to5Mac has pointed out a flaw in the locking feature of the iPad 2. Essentially, a malicious person could circumvent the passcode locking mechanism by holding down the power button while closing and then opening the smart cover and then swiping the cancel button. This has been confirmed for devices running the new iOS 5 but may affect earlier versions as well. This is particularly concerning to enterprises that rely on the use of a passcode to protect and encrypt corporate data on iOS devices. Physical access to a lost device would be all that is needed to access data protected in this way. This kind of vulnerability highlights the usefulness of Mobile Device Management software, which allows devices that … Continue reading »
Tags: ipad, mobile device management, mobile security
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Wednesday, October 5, 2011
You may have heard the terms “jailbroken” or “rooted” in relation to Apple iOS and Google Android devices. This is the concept of altering the device operating system for the purposes of removing or circumventing restrictions. The OS’ which power smartphones and tablets are specifically designed to be restrictive. There are free software packages available that can remove these restrictions. There are several reasons that a user might want to compromise the OS of their device. A few examples include: install software that has not been approved or has not been made available by the manufacturer/carrier augment or create additional operating system features install commercial software without purchasing licences for that software freely migrate from one carrier to another repurpose … Continue reading »
Tags: mobile device management, mobile security
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Sunday, September 25, 2011
Let me be the first to say, congratulations to your important person on his/her new toy. Now how do you make sure he/she has access to his corporate email, calendar, etc? More importantly, how do you secure that corporate data? If your organization is like most corporations you are probably using Microsoft Exchange to provide access to corporate email, calendar, and contact lists though the use of a service known as ActiveSync. The good news is that newer versions of iOS and Android natively support ActiveSync. The bad news is that Exchange/ActiveSync doesn’t do much to secure that corporate data once it gets to the mobile device. If your important person loses the device, that corporate data is left unprotected. … Continue reading »
Tags: ios, ipad, mobile device management, mobile security
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Thursday, September 22, 2011
Many people have been using the term “mobile device management” in different ways, leading to someconfusion. Since the literal words imply that it’s about managing mobile devices, this could be anythingand everything from procurement, invoice management, tech support, or more. However, the mobile industry has standardized on “Mobile Device Management” or “MDM” to describea class of software products designed to help organizations remotely manage smartphones and tablets. Practically speaking, MDM software is used to ensure mobile devices, primarily those intended for use inthe consumer market, are being used efficiently and appropriately within the enterprise environment. Until recently, Blackberries have been the standard in for enterprise use because.they provide a higherlevel of security and control. In conjunction with a Blackberry Enterprise … Continue reading »
Tags: mobile device management, mobile security
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