Mobile Only: Lost and Found

I’m excited to be a part of a very cool project about living a mobile life. My colleague and friend Benjamin Robbins of Palador is living the dream… The “Mobile Only” dream. Benjamin decided about 6 months ago to see what it would be like to live and work with only a mobile device. At first thought, you might think it might not be too hard, right? Well this co-founder of a busy application development company decided to give it a shot. For the past 6 months he has been journaling his experiences working solely with a Samsung Galaxy Note at www.theemf.org. Now, he has joined forces with SAP, Samsung and The Guardian, to share his mobile only life in a new monthly series of video shorts. The new series will run for 12 months and will chronicle the entertaining and serious aspects of mobile only.

The first video, title “Mobile Only: Lost and Found” is available on The Guardian. In an entetaining way, it showcases the all-too-common problem of lost devices. And it even features SAP Afaria to save the day. I’ll share Ben’s first blog about this video here, and I encourage you to watch the (quite funny) video as well.

Every day there are more 200 phones left in New York cabs. In one year that adds up to 73,000 devices in just New York City alone. Extrapolate that phenomenon out to all the major metropolises across the globe and you are faced with a staggering statistic.

There are many reasons as to why they are left behind, from people in a hurry to people who party. In the end the ‘why’ doesn’t matter, the net result is the same – a lost device. For those who lost the device this is an inconvenience. However, if the phone is connected to your work network, it represents much more than an inconvenience. It is a security threat.

Increasingly our personal devices are making their way into the enterprise. Through Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives and employee demand, mobile computing is rapidly transforming the way work is done. But it is also changing the way sensitive corporate information must be secured and managed. From device management, to app management, to information management businesses are finding that they can quickly fall behind the security curve.

This first video short in the yearlong series puts a comical spin on losing a mobile device. For many organizations though this is no laughing matter. It is no longer an option for business to idly sit on the sidelines hoping nothing will happen. There are far too many benefits of a mobile workforce to miss out. However, these benefits must be met with equal precaution in protecting the corporate network, and more importantly, corporate data.

Organizations need to fold mobility into their IT strategy. Mobility must fit into the larger whole of productivity and protection. Mobility is no longer an add-on that is off to the side of ‘real work’. Conducting work on mobile devices will only grow more rapidly as the capabilities of devices and services increase.

But this must be done with a comprehensive security plan that is neither too restrictive not too permissive for employees. Lock it down too much and employees will find a way around. Leave it too open and you risk exposure. However, businesses who understand the possibilities presented by a mobile workforce and leverage them to their fullest will flourish far into the future.

What is your strategy for the future? Where does mobility fit in for your business? Are you prepared to tame the threats in order to reap the rewards?