Ranked as one of the top trends of 2014, managing mobility has become a top priority for most chemical companies. As the interconnectivity and computing power of mobile devices grows, companies are looking to mobile solutions to increase the productivity of their workforce. Employees are now able to access crucial customer accounts, inventory and materials data anytime, anywhere. Although this improves decision-making and productivity, one question always remains: is my data secure?
The more the mobile landscape has evolved, the more pressing this issue has become. With the introduction of BYOD (bring your own device) companies are even further challenged to secure data on devices owned by third parties. However, there are many more factors a company must consider to fostering a productive mobile network. This blog will explore three areas most mobile device management systems forget to address.
In companies that use the BYOD policy, IT departments must remember that employees are against the idea of the company taking over full control of their device. There have been countless stories of employees losing personal information (contacts, pictures, videos) when mobile phones are remotely wiped to remove enterprise applications. To fix this issue companies should consider deploying solutions that target the data and applications on the device instead of the device itself.
Many solutions also forget to take into consideration that employee’s today own multiple devices and wish to freely move from one device to the other. Many solutions are built to monitor endpoints and lack the role-based functionality of enterprise identity management systems. This makes enforcing data security more difficult for IT departments as the number of endpoints increases. Companies should consider buying a solution that secures all endpoints and makes using multiple devices easy and productive for employees, yet safe and secure for companies.
In addition companies must think about the security of their WAN. Companies can choose to make it a private network, a public network or both. If it is a public network the question remains, “Do I need a specific device to access the network? And if it is a public network the question raised is always, “Can I secure my data to external threats? Companies need to consider how mobile devices best access the WAN to ensure a friendly user experience, yet keep data secure. a
Finally, as the cloud becomes the place to be, companies must ensure solutions are prepared to handle data security in the cloud. This means finding a solution that integrates cloud security to allow the IT department to focus its efforts on more pressing issues.
All of these considerations need to be taken into account when looking at investing in a new mobile device management solution. As we move further into 2014 many companies will be looking to catch up on the latest mobile IT landscape. In order to make mobile management an asset, and not a liability, companies should purchase holistic solutions that address all the above issues.
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