Bring Your Own Device - Case for Mobile Application Management -

Transcription

1 Bring Your Own Device page 1 of 5 Bring Your Own Device - Case for Mobile Application Management - Hans Heising, Product Manager Gábor Vida, Manager Software Development

2 Bring Your Own Device page 2 of 5 Content Introduction... 3 BYOD challenges... 3 Mobile Device Management vs Mobile Application Management... 3 Device support... 4 Navara... 5 Navara Planetenbaan AK Maarssen Netherlands / info@navara.com Afbeelding: Expanding Visions:

3 Bring Your Own Device page 3 of 5 Introduction A major trend affecting enterprises of all sizes, is the rise of BYOD (bring your own device) policies for mobile usage. With BYOD, personally owned handsets, tablets and notebooks are used for business functions. The enterprise may, or may not, fund the usage fees, but must find ways to allow a diverse range of products to access corporate networks and systems, such that productivity is boosted without compromising security. BYOD challenges Arcchart presented a study 1 based on an extensive survey of enterprise organizations around the world, with 65% of these corporations confirming that they will have adopted some level of BYOD by the end of 2012, and only 11% not having any plan for BYOD in the near future. The two main arguments for supporting BYOD are cost reduction and staff motivation. However, BYOD also introduces uncertainties for the corporate IT departments. According to the survey, key concerns include security, fragmented software, and ironically, a rise in support costs. Introducing BYOD not only brings technical challenges, but also organizational and legal issues. BYOD results in merging work with private/home environments. If an employer has access to all data on a device, both business data and personal data, privacy becomes an issue. Moreover, if a device gets secured with auto-wipe functionality to erase all data in case the device gets lost or a user tries to log on repeatedly with a wrong password also private data may be removed. Such scenarios can easily turn into a privacy nightmare for both employers and employees 2. Mobile Device Management vs Mobile Application Management The two possible approaches to BYOD are Mobile Device Management and Mobile Application Management. According to Wikipedia, Mobile Device Management 1 Arcchart Bring Your Own Device (BYOD): Market Analysis and Forecasts, May See interview (in Dutch) with Cesare Garlati, Vice President Mobile Security of Trend Micro.

4 Bring Your Own Device page 4 of 5 functionality typically includes over-the-air distribution of applications, data and configuration settings for all types of mobile devices. Mobile Application Management is the strategy and process around developing/procuring, securing, deploying, accessing configuring, updating and removing (business) applications from mobile devices used by the employees There is a fundamental difference between these approaches. Mobile Device Management tries to control the entire mobile device, e.g. by installing software that checks everything the user does. If a user wants to install an app that could interfere with the company's security policy, such app can be blacklisted so it will not start. Mobile Application Management on the other hand focuses on the business applications. If you can control these applications, you do not need to control the device. The apps that access the company's business data have to be secured and all other apps will not get access to the business data. This means that the private apps of the user are really private, where business apps and (more important) business data are controlled by the IT department. Device support Traditionally, companies prefer secure professional devices for their employees, but BYOD will inevitably change this by allowing consumer products to enter the company. With it comes the need to support a diverse range of products, since employees will bring the device that, for whatever reason, they like most. Obviously, device management becomes increasingly complicated. Application management can also turn into a complex endeavor if a company decides to rely on native apps only. Every different platform, e.g. Apple ios, Google Android, etc, requires development of a distinct native app, effectively increasing the number of business apps to support. Furthermore, native apps can often only be downloaded from the platform manufacturers store. As a consequence app distribution is not under control of the company itself and will depend on manufacturers policies. To keep application management clear and simple the preferred solution is to have cross platform business apps, apps that run on all major devices regardless of their operating system. With the ever increasing support of HTML5 in smartphones and tablets this technology provides the answer. HTML5 apps also provide the possibility of

5 Bring Your Own Device page 5 of 5 local storage, which means they can work both online and offline. The latter ensures no data is lost and employees can continue to work without network connectivity in case of poor radio coverage or network disruptions. Navara Navara implements Mobile Application Management in a very clean way by introducing a Business Space on the device. The Business Space is a container app that groups all HTML5 business apps in a Single Sign On environment on the mobile device, separate from the private apps. All apps within the business space are built with the Navara API. Secure access to the business data is provided by the Navara Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP), which connects any back office system to the devices that run the business apps. With Navara deployment of business apps is done through its integrated Enterprise App Store (EAS). The EAS is a self service portal for the mobile employee and is fully controlled by the employer. The administrative tools of Navara allow full business app user management and removal of all business data from a device without interfering withprivate data or apps. For more information, please contact us on or mail at info@navara.com