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Mobile Apps proliferation in the Corporates

23 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment

by Shadab Wadiwala in Mobile Apps Tags: android, apps, corporates, iphone, mobile, mobility, smartphones

Once mostly forbidden by IT, smartphones are now being used by hundreds of millions of employees throughout the world to access corporate information to keep up in today’s 24/7 business world.

Symantec survey on Mobile Apps shows that we have reached a tipping point in the business use of mobile devices. Most organizations are making line-of-business application available. They are also developing custom applications, and even making plans to create corporate app stores for employees to download approved software.

All this points to the goal of improving corporate agility. Businesses want to improve efficiency and increase workplace effectiveness, as well as get things done quicker, and mobility offers them the chance to do that.

But there’s a price. Organizations are aware of the potential dangers mobility can pose, rating it highest among IT initiatives in risk. They’re worried about losing devices, data loss and malware infecting the corporate network through smartphones and tablets.

Here are some of the survey findings :-

Tipping point in mobility adoption

Mobile initiatives significantly impacting IT resources

Mobile risks impacting organization

Key Recommendations

As organizations work to realize the competitive advantage offered through the adoption of mobile computing, Symantec offers the following recommendations to improve the effectiveness of mobile initiatives:

• Enable broadly. Mobility offers tremendous opportunities for organizations of all sizes. Explore how you can take advantage of mobility and develop a phased approach to build an ecosystem that supports your plan. To get the most from mobile advances, plan for line-of-business mobile applications that have mainstream use. Employees will use mobile devices for business one way or another – make it on your terms.

• Think strategically. Build a realistic assessment of the ultimate scale of your mobile business plan and its impact on your infrastructure. Think beyond email. Explore all of the mobile opportunities that can be introduced and understand the risks and threats that need to be mitigated. As you plan, take a cross-functional approach to securing sensitive data no matter where it might end up.

• Manage efficiently. Mobile devices are legitimate endpoints that require the same attention given to traditional PCs. Many of the processes, policies, education and technologies that are leveraged for desktops and laptops are also applicable to mobile platforms. So the management of mobile devices should be integrated into the overall IT management framework and administered in the same way – ideally using compatible solutions and unified policies. This creates operational efficiencies and lowers the total cost of ownership

Enforce Appropriately. As more employees connect their personal devices to the corporate network, organizations need to modify their acceptable usage policies to accommodate both corporate-owned and personally-owned devices. Management and security levers will need to differ based on ownership of the device and the associated controls that the organization requires. Employees will continue to add devices to the corporate network to make their jobs more efficient and enjoyable so organizations must plan for this legally, operationally and culturally.

• Secure comprehensively. Look beyond basic password, wipe and application blocking policies. Focus on the information and where it is viewed, transmitted and stored. Integrating with existing data loss prevention, encryption and authentication policies will ensure consistent corporate and regulatory compliance.

* The above text has been borrowed from  Symantec’s State of Mobility Survey. A full survey report is available at 

http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/about/media/pdfs/b-state_of_mobility_survey_2012.en-us.pdf