MIS - Beliefs about Enterprise Mobility Program

Few unwanted myths have hindered the growth of popularity of the enterprise mobility and now they have started to bother enterprise owners' big time. There are always some concerns related to every newly arrived technology in the minds of those who have developed the habit of previous technologies. I believe enterprise mobility has also become the victim of this ritual. However, by getting myths cleared about BYOD and security features of enterprise mobile apps, we can use them in the benefit of the business. In this write up, I would try to dispel mis-beliefs that most business owners have in their minds.

Thinking malware is the biggest threat – Ask an IT head or CIO of any company and he would say that malware is the biggest security threat for an enterprise mobility program. I would say that those saying this must now be aware of the phrase "loss of data". For most business owners data loss is nothing new and almost every company is aware of the severe effects of data loss. This is why, I keep "data loss" as the number one threat faced by the enterprise. The malware is also a serious threat but just for Android based apps at present and that too with apps developed by amateur and third party developers. Apps developed by experienced app development companies like Copper Mobile remains to be faithful and malware free.

Thinking MDM or Mobile Device Management as the base of security – Yes, Mobile Device Management of MDM is the basis of enterprise mobile security. Although, MDM plays a very significant role in BYOD implementation in an office, it has nothing to do with enterprise mobility culture. The fact is that the role of MDM in planning the enterprise mobile security strategy remains much unnoticed because of its small size. Securing the data while it is on the mobile device is just a half battle won. The other part is to secure it while in transmission between the central server and mobile devices.

Staying BYOD proof for securing your data – Companies continue to allow their employees to access data on the corporate server from anywhere anytime. Employees are using this opportunity and access data through their smart phones and tablets. At present, more than 30 percent data of every company are accessed through smart phones, third party apps and apps authorized by the company for accessing the data. BYOD culture comes into play because of the increased indulgence of smart phones and tablets of various brands, OS and configuration. Business owners keep assessing the security of their BYOD concept on a very regular basis. Thus, staying away from BYOD would not do any good for the company.

Most IT heads believe that restricting or monitoring users' activity is a very influential way of keeping the security of enterprise mobility under check. The fact is that it does nothing but increasing frustration on the part of employees, making them become less productive. It has no role to play in securing enterprise data from illegal access or breaches.

If business owners think that by deploying security features without taking employees into consideration would help them keep the data safe, they are in illusion. In fact, it again defeats the actual purpose of BYOD whose actual motive is to help employees in enhancing their productivity. Restricting controls mean employees will not be able to access their smart devices with freedom, which would again result in productivity level going down.