What’s in a Jelly Bean: is Android 4.1 going to help with BYOD?

July 11, 2012 1 Comment

Google recently announced Android 4.1 ‘Jelly Bean’ at its I/O conference in San Francisco. The latest flavor of the world’s #1 mobile OS promises better user experience and sexier UI. But does it really make any easier for IT to secure and manage those personal devices used for work?

Generally speaking, 4.1 is an incremental release that takes Android one step closer to Apple iOS, which has been in the market for 5 years now. From a corporate IT perspective, nothing is dramatically different or better.

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Managing consumer technology in the enterprise

June 11, 2012 1 Comment

“Corporate IT needs to change mindset to better support the business “

Talking regularly* about the consumerization of IT can often make one sound like a broken record, but the economic, security and management challenges it throws up for enterprises are too important to ignore.

The problems boil down to a lack of control, which can be described in two key ways. IT departments of course are built on policies, planning and predictability, but the introduction of technology from the consumer sphere, even when purchased centrally by IT teams for use in the enterprise, creates its own problems. Read more of this post

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How Secure is Your Smartphone? Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows Phone Under Attack

April 4, 2012 Leave a comment

Post based on my interview* with David Gilbert of IBTimes UK

As the adoption of smartphones grows rapidly, one of the biggest challenges facing the manufacturers, developers and, ultimately, users is not the threat of losing your phone, but the threat of someone stealing the personal data stored on your mobile phone.

Senior Director of Consumerization at Trend Micro, Cesare Garlati spoke to the IBTimes UK about this serious issue and made it clear that no matter what type of phone you own, you are in danger. “Every single platform is exposed to this, no platform is immune. Some are safer than others, but none are immune.”

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Jailbreaking BYOD Control. Is Apple ready for enterprise primetime?

March 9, 2012 3 Comments

Mobile World Congress 2012

Mobile World Congress 2012

Consumerization is happening now, but many IT departments simply aren’t prepared to deal with the new challenges and complexities it entails. With IT managers increasingly urged by CEOs to stop saying ‘no’ and start supporting consumer tools, they need to reappraise their traditional approach. Put simply, IT needs flexible standards – they can’t say no but neither can they say yes to everyone.

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Mobility Management and Security. A Customer Panel. Part Two.

January 17, 2012 1 Comment

Learn from a panel of industry peers the solutions and the best practices that have turned consumer mobile technology into a competitive advantage for their companies.

This is Part Two of the post based on the panel that I moderated at the IDC mobileNext Forum 2011 in San Francisco. Click here for Part One.

Eric Erickson
VP Information Systems
Liberty First Credit Union

Bill Troyak
Team Leader End User Devices
Navistar

Jeff Jackson
Partner
Acumen Technologies

Going back to the three step approach to consumerization, the last step is to deploy new security and management tools to enable these new models. It’s not just about new platforms. Traditional System Management tools don’t really cut anymore. Id love to know more about your experience and your learning with regard to the necessary new infrastructure.

Eric:  Well, being a financial institution, it’s critical for us to make sure our data is secure.

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Mobility Management and Security. A Customer Panel.

January 10, 2012 Leave a comment

Learn from a panel of industry peers the solutions and the best practices that have turned consumer mobile technology into a competitive advantage for their companies.

This post is based on the recording of the panel that I moderated at the IDC mobileNext Forum in December 2011 in San Francisco.

Eric Erickson
VP Information Systems
Liberty First Credit Union

Bill Troyak
Team Leader End User Devices
Navistar

Jeff Jackson
Partner
Acumen Technologies

I’d like to start by asking the panelists to briefly introduce themselves and the size and scope of their BYOD programs.

Eric: My name is Eric Erickson. I have been at Liberty First Credit Union for seven years as the VP of Information Systems and in the technology field for almost 25 years, 17 of those years with financial institutions. Our mission is to provide security for our members and provide our staff with the tools that they need to be able to work with the members to be able to get their accounts opened in a timely fashion or to get the documents that they need. We are looking to the mobile device to be able to move beyond our physical location so that we can go out to the community and work with the members where it’s convenient for them.

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MDM not the only avenue to BYOD security. But technology is simply not there yet.

November 4, 2011 Leave a comment

My reply to Steven Song’s post on Cisco Security Blog

http://blogs.cisco.com/security/mdm-not-the-only-avenue-to-byod-security/

Yes. Mobile virtualization is the way to go. In an increasingly Consumerized IT world however, meeting end-user expectations in terms of convenience, cost and usability is even more important than addressing corporate IT professionals’ concerns about security and manageability. Despite a few remarkable attempts by VMware, Citrix and WISE, technology is simply not there yet.

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Consumerization and Mobile Security

October 24, 2011 7 Comments

How to bypass the iPad password in 5 second

*** UPDATED AS OF 11/14/2011: I can confirm that Apple has fixed this security flaw in iOS 5.0.1 (9A405) ***

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPHDm88-HAc

Watch how to crack the iPad password in 5 secondsThe consumerization of IT is the single most influential technology trend of this decade. Companies are already well aware of it, as they wrestle with the growing influence of smartphones, tablets, Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox and on and on. While this growth does bring business value, too many companies make the mistake to trust consumer technology with corporate sensitive data without deploying appropriate enterprise-grade infrastructure to secure and manage it. Consumer technology is sexy, convenient and easy to use. When it comes to security and data protection however, consumer technology still has a long way to go. Security and data protection in fact remain top concerns among IT professionals – see The Consumerization Report 2011.

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Riding the Consumerization Wave

June 8, 2011 2 Comments

Rather than resist it, organizations should embrace Consumerization to unlock its business potential. This requires a strategic approach, flexible policies and appropriate security and management tools.

The consumerization of IT is the single most influential technology trend of this decade. Companies are already well aware of it, as they wrestle with the growing influence of smartphones, tablets, Facebook, Twitter and on and on. While this growth does bring risks, too many companies make the mistake of trying to resist the influx of consumer IT. So what are the solutions and best practices for a company to turn consumerization into a competitive advantage?
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