AKIBIA'S PRACTICAL GUIDE TO ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
The Next Generation of Smartphones in the Enterprise
In recent years the Smartphone market has turned the industry upside down. According to comScore, (http://www.comscoredatamine.com/2010/12/u-s-smartphone-vs-non-smartphone-subscriber-share/), Smartphone adoption in the U.S. now represents 1 in 4 subscribers, compared to 1 in 10 just two years ago. Enterprise IT Administrators are now struggling to test and manage different types of handheld devices’ access to corporate networks. In the past, IT Administrators were able to mandate what phones were approved and limit corporate Smartphones to one or two models.
Times they are a changing…
IT Administrators today have limited say over which Smartphone is allowed to access the network. This has now changed the dynamics of IT Administrators having to play catch-up to conforming their systems and network to provide access to virtually any type of device. Corporate executives are now insisting that they want their new Android, iPhone or iPad to be able to connect to the network and have the same functionality that they had with their pervious devices. With a broad range of new Smartphones and tablets ready to hit the market in 2011 the trend should only accelerate.
How can IT Administrators provide the same security to all these devices? This is the key question that needs to be answered for organizations to maintain security and compliance requirements. Vendors such as Juniper and Check Point are providing solutions to give IT Administrators more control regardless of the device that is being used. Still, for IT Administrators this is a change and a learning curve which will require new thinking, processes, training, and tools in many cases.
