How To Manage A Mobile Device In An Enterprise

Transcription

1 An Mformation Whitepaper MOBILITY MANAGEMENT: MANAGING THE BRING-YOUR- OWN-DEVICE (BYOD) PHENOMENON 1

2 Mobility Management: Managing the Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) Phenomenon In many organizations, the traditional enterprise where hardware and software assets are owned, distributed and managed for and by enterprise IT is changing. The emergence of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programs in the enterprise is one trend that is changing the old IT control-oriented paradigm. Although the BYOD model creates new issues for IT, it also creates a range of organizational benefits, from increased productivity to increased flexibility, which top-performing employees have begun to expect. Work is no longer seen as a 9-to-5 job, and those individuals who set out to build fulfilling careers need the support to work anytime, anywhere efficiently and conveniently. This is the kind of employee that top organizations want to attract and retain, making BYOD a trend that enterprises need to embrace with both arms. The Consumerization of IT With the advent of smartphones and other mobile devices, strong user preferences and widespread application availability, the trend to bring your own device (BYOD) to work is fast taking hold in the enterprise. It is no longer the IT department that solely dictates what devices employees will be given to do their work, but rather it is the employees who are increasingly asking (and sometimes dictating) what mobile devices, applications and services IT needs to support The fact is that employees are consumers too. They have developed mobile device preferences, and want to use the devices with which they are most comfortable, both inside and outside their employer s environment. They use their mobile devices regularly for personal activity as well as business activity, which is driving an increased merging and overlap between these two spheres of life. As Internet connectivity and mobility become more 1

3 integral parts of all aspects of daily life, employees are seeking more mobile, flexible solutions from their employers. In the past, enterprise mobility was generally limited to providing executives and key staff with mobile access to corporate on company-issued BlackBerry devices. In stark contrast, many mobile employees purchase -capable smartphones or other mobile devices, set them to access their own personal and data sources, and then bring the devices into work, expecting, at a minimum, to be able to configure them to connect to their office Wi-Fi network and access their company servers. Consumers today are the number 1 users of semiconductors; they passed over IT and government in Paul Otellini, CEO, Intel There are currently three different approaches being taken by enterprises with respect to devices and the overall liability for the devices and device activity: Individual-Liable: With this approach, the individual employee is responsible for procuring the mobile device they own it, the contract is in their name, and they are responsible for paying the recurring charges. Corporate-Liable: With this approach, the enterprise procures the device, arranges for the service plan, and is responsible for paying the recurring charges. Corporate-Sponsored/Individual-Liable: With this approach, the enterprise sets up a standard list of authorized devices from which the employee can choose. The individual chooses a device from the list, procures the device, and then expenses the cost of the device, together with the recurring charges up to a pre-defined limit. These liability models then need to be spliced in with the enterprise s overarching mobility management style. A company needs to determine its overarching view of mobility and then, within this structure, determine the best approach to take with regard to device liability. The simple command-and-control days for the enterprise are largely gone. At one end of the spectrum, a few companies will still be able to set and determine the devices, applications and mobile services that will be used by their employees. For these companies, corporate-liable will be the sole device liability model that is relevant in the organization. At the other end of the spectrum, a few companies will have a laissez faire approach to the mobile devices, applications and mobile services that will be used within the company. In these organizations, an individual-liable approach will be the relevant device liability model. Most organizations will sit somewhere in between these two poles. Even with a laissez faire approach, although the organization is not determining which devices will be 2

4 used by their employees, there will still be an underlying IT role regarding the security and other core polices that IT needs to determine and apply. BYOD Some Management Considerations As enterprises consider their mobility management models and mix of device liability types, there are some underlying management activities that should be considered. In this section we discuss the specific management issues and challenges brought out when enterprises adopt bring-your-own-device policies: Device Inventory: In any context, IT needs to know the devices and employees accessing the company network this is the baseline. However, as more and more devices come into the enterprise with individual employees, IT often has less and less of a clear idea about what devices are accessing what resources within the company. For example, if IT enables individual-liable devices to connect to the corporate network using Exchange and ActiveSync, then there is no way of taking an inventory of how many devices are on the network. Mobile device management (MDM) capabilities that provide a range of inventory capabilities can alleviate this issue, giving IT a clear picture of exactly what devices and employees are accessing company resources. Security: Security in general and security for mobility remain core responsibilities for IT regardless of the mobility management model being used or the approach being taken to device liability. The proliferation of individual-liable smartphones and tablets puts additional challenges in front of IT. IT departments need remote diagnosis, troubleshooting and updating capabilities for individual-liable devices that can help them keep the corporate network and data secure. The sheer number of different device makes, models, OS platforms, firmware versions and software coming into the company on individual-liable devices is the biggest issue. A mobile device management solution that supports a broad range of devices and that has processes for supporting new devices as they come to market is a necessity for keeping the enterprise and enterprise data secure. Heterogeneous vs homogeneous device populations: As the population of individual-liable devices grows within an enterprise, there will be a broader range of different types of devices to manage. Because the choice is completely in the hands of the individual and the choices are many and varied, the population of individual-liable devices in a particular enterprise will be, by definition, heterogeneous. Management of a heterogeneous group of mobile devices is far more complex than management of the more homogeneous that tends to result from control-oriented mobile management 3

5 models and corporate-liable devices. With a more heterogeneous device population, a mobile device management solution that supports a broad range of devices and has processes to support new devices as they come to market is a necessity. Known vs unknown device capabilities: Individual-liable devices tend to be unknown to the enterprise, and managing them can become a very complex process. Beyond basic inventory information, an understanding of the capabilities of the different devices is needed so that the IT department understands the capabilities and limitations of the devices employees are bringing in. Expanding on basic device inventory functionality, once the device type information has been obtained, a mobile device management solution should be able to populate all of the necessary device capability information automatically and then manage the devices against their capabilities. Lifecycle management: Controlling the lifecycle and activity of corporate-liable devices is a central activity for IT, which can plan and budget for the hardware purchases/activation and for device end-of-life. Lifecycle management of individualliable and corporate-sponsored/individual-liable devices, on the other hand, varies in many respects to the management of corporate-liable devices. Both activation and end-of-life of individual-liable devices occur at different points for the corporation with less pre-warning, visibility or corporate control. The initial connection of a new device to the enterprise network is a key trigger event for IT. A mobile device management solution that can see into the device, recognize it and determine access policies is critical at this point. It is also important that when a user leaves a company, IT can clear away any enterprise policies, applications or data on an individual-liable, without affecting the individual s personal data on that same device. The Bottom Line When allowed to use their own devices, employees enjoy increased flexibility, higher job satisfaction, and improvements in efficiency and productivity. This, in turn benefits the enterprise; according to a worldwide survey of 1,100 mobile workers by enterprise mobility vendor ipass, employees who use mobile devices for both work and personal issues put in 240 more hours per year than those who do not. Managing this new environment will bring new challenges. There will be different mixes of mobility management models and device liability approaches with a few organizations maintaining strict control over all of the devices used within the enterprise at one end of the spectrum, a few organizations adopting an exclusively individual-liable approach at the other end, and the majority of organizations falling somewhere in between. IT must respond to the 4

6 challenge of different mobile management models combined with a mix of individual-liable, corporate-liable and corporate-sponsored/individual-liable approaches. From an enterprise standpoint, the innovative BYOD business model and its attractiveness to employees provide a number of advantages. BYOD policies can help to attract and retain top performers, who seek to work flexibly and often put in time outside of traditional work hours. An enterprise can use a BYOD policy as a differentiator in their hiring efforts; not only can it be seen as an advantage to tech-savvy potential employees, it also shows that the enterprise is on the cutting edge of new practices and technology. In addition, employee on-boarding and training time is reduced with a BYOD approach, and employees are more efficient and productive all benefits that can directly impact the bottom line. However enterprise IT still needs to retain ultimate responsibility for security of corporate information and activity on the corporate network. An enterprise mobility management (EMM) solution is a critical tool for enabling IT to support these much more complex organizational approaches and device liability models. 5

7 CONTACT US If you would like to receive additional information on our company and our innovative mobility management solutions, please feel free to contact us. Mformation Software Technologies, LLC 581 Main Street, Suite 640 Woodbridge, NJ Tel: Fax: Mformation Software Technologies LLC. All rights reserved 6