]Companies are still being asked to choose between security and usability by mobile device management (MDM) vendors, despite suppliers having had two decades to build appropriate offerings.
So says Nader Henein, regional director: product security at BlackBerry. "Basically, they are being asked to find a happy medium where both the users and the enterprise are equally unhappy."
Asked what he believes the top mobile risks currently being faced by corporates are, Henein says: "The first concern has to be consumer applications in an enterprise environment. Bear in mind the aforementioned applications are not malicious. They are simply not written with the rigidity required in terms of how data is transferred, how data is stored and, more importantly, where it's stored."
Secondly, he says, "marketing security" does not equal "real security". "Many MDM solution providers boast a long list of features. On the surface, it sounds as if most are born equal, but this is almost never the case. In fact, the gap is usually quite vast."
With shadow IT starting to become a headache for many corporate IT departments, Henein's advice is to deploy IT centrally. "This is where data segregation comes into play, but disallowing teams to deploy the solutions they need and not giving them options, reinforces the view that IT is not a business enabler. IT must be in constant touch with the business to understand the need and build solutions to address those needs. Shadow IT comes from a need that is not satisfied, and IT needs to rise to the challenge. As a vendor it is our task to provide the tools."
Henein will address how best to navigate the often chaotic BYOD landscape at an upcoming executive briefing being hosted by BlackBerry in partnership with ITWeb. Click here to find out more about The BlackBerry Experience and to register your free seat.
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