Rama Kolappan, Mobile Director with Accellion, recently addressed the topic of Enabling Secure and Mobile Cloud Collaboration at Secure Seattle 2013 . The 3 key messages to enterprises:
1) You are not alone; mobile productivity challenges face all types of organizations.
2) The BYOD trend can do more good than harm.
3) Sharing enterprise content securely in this era of the iPad is realistic and easier than you think.
Check out the full presentation below.
Ever wonder what type of toothbrush your dentist uses at home? Or how often your trusted mechanic gets the oil changed on his/her own car? Wouldn’t it be nice to know what products and practices the experts actually rely on behind the scenes? Well, thanks to a recent article in The Guardian, we gained a glimpse into how the mobile productivity editor of TIME Magazine – Harry McCracken – stays productive while out and about on the reporting scene.
Here’s some of what we learned:
• Harry’s tablet of choice? An iPad.
• A good keyboard is key: A keyboard can transform an iPad from a media consumption device into a legitimate productivity tool. Sure, some people do just fine with on-screen typing, but for Harry, he wanted a physical keyboard to be able to see more of his writing at one time. He’s tried out a lot of models and has found his favorites are from two companies – Zagg and Logitech.
• Desktop be gone: McCracken has traded in his desktop for a laptop at the office, although you’ll usually see him on an iPad, even when at his desk. He said that he traveled with his laptop for a while as a security blanket but then realized that the iPad could support his mobile computing needs just fine.
• Skeptics are everywhere: Despite being on the cutting-edge of mobile technology, Harry’s reliance on tablets has been met with raised eyebrows. “People get very defensive when someone is taking a different approach to computing then they do. My feeling is, there is no wrong way to use computers. If you’re happy and productive, all ways are equally good.”
Are you using a tablet for your day-to-day job? If so, check out the latest news on our Secure Mobile Productivity Suite, which allows employees to easily create, edit, and share files on a mobile device without exposing sensitive business information. It’s mobile productivity at its best.
Whether you are an organization with 50 employees or 50,000, finding a way to manage and secure employees’ mobile devices and access rights to corporate data is imperative. BYOD policies aren’t just for the big guys. If employees are bringing smartphones, tablets, or other devices into the office, then the chances are good that those same employees have plans to use (or are already using) those devices to access and send work-related files. It’s up to the organization to dictate when and how that happens.
We’re seeing a positive uptick among SMBs addressing the mobile device movement, with new research by iGR showing that 62 percent of IT managers at SMBs have an official BYOD policy in place. Yet, the same research found that 73 percent unofficially permit workers to use personal devices for work purposes.
It’s great news that so many smaller organizations have put a stake in the ground with a written BYOD policy. Hats off to you! It’s the 73 percent that are allowing employees to use devices without any official parameters that has us concerned.
Acknowledging that mobile access is a work must-have is an important first step. But, that needs to be followed with IT controls to ensure that files are being accessed only by authorized users, all mobile content is being shared securely, and that users are only turning to file sharing applications that have been thoroughly vetted by the organization.
So whether your organization has less than 50 or more than 50,000 employees, consider secure mobile file sharing an essential element of your mobile strategy, and make BYOD an official order of business.
No one would be shocked to learn that organizations aren’t big fans of employees playing online poker or roulette on the job. Which is why, when 1,200 IT decisions makers at private companies were asked to name the top three worst apps that employees could download, gambling was at the top of the list, with 58 percent of responses.
Right behind concerns about bringing a bit of Vegas into the office are serious worries about certain online file sharing applications. But not just any apps – Dropbox and Box in particular. Fifty-one percent of survey respondents named these unapproved cloud file sharing apps as some of the worst offenders in the enterprise, earning the number two spot on the list. And, of the 45 percent of respondents who blacklisted apps, 57 percent named Dropbox and 42percent named Box as the apps being banned.
What happens is that users genuinely need a way to share large files and when there’s not an IT-approved solution in place they find one on their own. Consumer-focused online file transfer solutions, such as Dropbox, are then used behind the scenes to send proprietary documents, creating security risks and headaches for IT. It’s this need for a Dropbox alternative – a secure, proven, enterprise-class solution – that drives organizations to Accellion.
Accellion customer, MiTek, a global construction company, had been there, done that, leading the company to ban Dropbox, deploy Accellion, and not look back. Here’s what Justin Daniels, Web Services/Software Engineering and IT Support Manager with MiTek had to say:
“With public cloud providers, there are so many unknowns when it comes to security: Where exactly are your files? How do you get them back if you change providers? How do you know where your employees are sending files? We weren’t willing to give up the rights to data that was sensitive, proprietary, and was rightfully ours. With Accellion, we know exactly where our files are, can track and monitor both senders and recipients, and enforce file sharing policies at a user- and corporate-wide level.”
When customers say “yes” to Accellion, it makes saying “no” to Dropbox and Box a no-brainer.
In our last post, “New Research to Drive Your Mobile Policies”, we talked about how mobile devices are redefining the workplace, pushing the need for ubiquitous access to enterprise content. But, the big question is how to give users what they want – user-friendly, around-the-clock data availability – while maintaining strong IT security and control. It can be a big undertaking if you don’t know what to look for from a file sharing solution.
Here are 10 must-haves to help meet both users’ and IT’s needs:
Extend security to every file and every device within your organization and embrace the BYOD trend. Your users will thank you.
With so many organizations wondering how to support the boom of mobile workers, we recently hosted a sponsored webinar, “Empowering the BYOD Workforce”, to provide insight into the state of mobile affairs, the evolving workplace, and what types of users are driving the BYOD charge. In case you missed it, Chris Silva with The Altimeter Group, LLC provided some great research to help guide the development and prioritization of BYOD strategies. Here are some highlights:
So, the big question is: how do you make enterprise file sharing accessible on phones and tablets to support the mobility trends outlined above, while maintaining tight control and security? Check out our next blog entry to learn how to navigate the security challenges of BYOD while enabling your growing mobile workforce.
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