Secure Your Devices: 6 Mobility Myths Debunked
Of all the obstacles standing in the way of building a better IT infrastructure, misinformation may be the most daunting. To help you separate the facts from the hype, the experts from HP Technology Consulting have created this informative guide. It's designed to provide the immediate insight you need to make the right decisions about some of the most important IT issues your enterprise will ever face.
Myth #1: It's best to wait on deploying a BYOD initiative until security issues are worked out.
Insight: If you're waiting to secure your network before addressing the BYOD phenomenon, chances are you already have leakage.
How should IT respond? To achieve long-term success, focus on the gap in expectations, and understand what it is your users are really trying to accomplish. In almost every case, you'll find they want quick access to the people important to both their personal and professional lives, as well as the applications and data they need to be productive and make decisions that move their work—and lives—forward.
Myth #2: You can manage BYOD with Mobile Device Management.
Insight: Mobile Devide Management (MDM) is a blunt tool; to gain better user buy-in, consider platforms that provide finer control.
MDM can be appropriate for corporately owned or provisioned devices. For finer control, Mobile Application Management (MAM) or Mobile Content Management (MCM) give IT the ability to manage phones at the application or file level—a better response for different scenarios. And that means better cooperation from your end users.
Myth #3: Our current network is robust enough to handle mobility.
Insight: Unless you have upgraded recently, your network infrastructure is likely set up for a different era.
It wasn't that long ago—just four or five years—when your Wi-Fi network was set up as an amenity. Today's scenario is exponentially different. Now Wi-Fi access is needed throughout the corporate landscape.
Your network is at the heart of your company. When it fails, everything else grinds to a halt. It's a dangerous situation. That's why network assessment should be at the top of your priority list.
Myth #4: We may soon need to convert our desktop applications into mobile apps.
Insight: Client-server applications and mobile apps serve entirely different purposes.
Your desktop activity is usually goal-oriented: drafting documents or spreadsheets, designing a product, putting together a presentation. Phones and tablets don't have the processing power or interface to do those types of activities well. On the other hand, they're perfect for quick messaging, reviewing slices of data, getting real-time updates, or reading an article.
Apps versus applications? It's not an either-or choice. As one architect famously said, "Form follows function." The same maxim holds true for applications.
Myth #5: The mobility revolution requires new methods of IT management.
Insight: The management principles used for the past two decades apply to mobility as well.
The rise of mobility is disruptive, no doubt about that. It opens up new opportunities and introduces new challenges. But for IT professionals, it's important to see this phenomenon within a larger context.
While the mobility trend may seem like a tectonic shift, the principles an enterprise should embrace to get a grip on this phenomenon are well-known and proven.
Myth #6: From an IT perspective, the mobility phenomenon is growing faster than our ability to keep up.
Insight: You can get ahead of the mobility phenomenon—and make it a strategic advantage for your company—if you invest in comprehensive planning and the development of an actionable road map closely related to your business goals.
First, investigate how the trend is affecting your company and your infrastructure in both overt and hidden ways. Determine how mobility can give you a strategic advantage, and where it might introduce risk. Then develop a comprehensive action plan that not only addresses your current situation, but also anticipates what you may need over the next two or three years.
