Apple announced their new mobile operating system version iOS7 on Monday. While the “i”devices are still squarely focused on the consumer, there are some good and some scary things that enterprise customers should pay attention to. The developer beta has only been out for 2 days so many details of these features are not yet available. Watch this space as things develop.

The Good:

1. New data encryption features including data protection by default and per app VPN which is a good sign for app protection. No details available for developers yet.
2. Auto configuration for apps sounds good to make user’s lives easier on day 0, but again, no details at this stage.
3. Enterprise Single Sign-on also sounds valuable, but there are no details in the current beta SDK.
4. Multi-tasking for apps finally puts other app developers on par with Apple apps. In previous versions, Apple was the only one allowed to run apps in the background, enable notifications and updates automatically. Now we are all on a level playing field. This is important for any app to sync automatically in the background so it is ready for the user when they launch it.

The Scary:

1. iCloud keychain – although probably good for consumers, enterprise customers probably don’t want all user passwords collected and stored in iCloud
2. No S/MIME changes seem to be present. Many of our customers use encrypted mail, but cannot use the existing features as provided by Apple. There seem to be no improvements in iOS7
3. A few new ways to share (read: leak) data – new feature called “share sheets” for apps to use airdrop, iCloud now has photo and video sharing and devices have peer to peer connectivity. All this is great for consumer data, but important company IP needs to be controlled and protected.

In the end, there is possibly a lot to like in iOS7 and there is also some things to watch out for. Follow this blog to hear more as Apple reveals it.

~ Andy

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By sharing PRISM with the world, Edward Snowden opened the raging debate about privacy. It focused attention on the ‘flawed’ deal struck by consumers with technology companies where in exchange for free apps they gave up their personal data with free consent. But this phenomenon had started long before when we started using the Internet, using credit cards to travel and simply by living on the grid.

We have known at some level that our privacy is no longer private. Good news is that with the public knowledge about PRISM, we can now talk about this, debate the limits of government intervention, redefine personal privacy laws, and in the end come up with a new framework.

The post The Upside of PRISM appeared first on Bitzer Mobile.

By Walt Paley, @Bitzer_Walt

My anticipation for the weekly TweetChat had built, as a scheduling conflict caused organizers Brian Katz and Benjamin Robbins to push back by three hours. And then I saw it:

Mobile expenses?!? Aww, come on, guys. We normally talk about fun and exciting things, like enablement models, cool security features, or workflows to design and deploy apps. But expenses are like the wet blanket of mobility.

I’m sure it will still be fun, I thought. With this group of characters, we could probably have an insightful discussion choose any topic. Here we go. One hour of complaining about the costs of mobility.

At least we were in some familiar territory with device ownership. For the uninitiated, COPE stands for Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled. It’s a popular method of deployment, particularly for consumer-grade mobile devices.

Art King said that his company was looking to go 100% COPE and the devices themselves were treated as a simple expense, “like a stapler.” This wouldn’t be the last we’d hear from Art. Others called for a one-time allowance for the hardware, or a subsidy on regular intervals. It’s a great example of how there are many ways to attack the deployment problem, as long as you are sensitive to the user point of view.

Managing expectations is a challenge, so think about your policy carefully. Even relatively minor changes can have negative blowback. If an employee has been looking forward to getting a new device and you alter the subsidy interval from 18 months to 24 months, guess who is going to be salty about waiting?

The general consensus here was to offer at least a small subsidy, regardless of whether the employee owned the device. Again, this is part of the goodwill effort to maximize adoption and drive the mobile workforce. The financial investment is the company’s acknowledgement that the device will be used for work. At the same time, it encourages employees who otherwise may be technological hold-outs to join the rest of the team with a smartphone.

Bzur Haun, who I was hoping would attend because of his expertise in mobile expense management, raised an important point here. It is crucial to establish limits on this contribution and spell it out in the mobile policy, so that there is no margin for abuse. Broken or lost devices will need to be replaced, but in a BYOD scenario, company contribution limits should be explicit.

In a sub-question, Benjamin Robbins asked how folks treat accessories. As a “Mobile Only” evangelist, he relies heavily on peripherals, so it’s no wonder that he asked. Brian Katz shared that his company provides a start up kit, which is a very cool idea. Theirs includes chargers for home and car, a choice of cases and a stylus if the employee is in sales. Ben Haines thought that it should be a specialized exception. His example was providing a car charger for traveling salespeople. Bzur Haun suggested that the distinction fell between accessories for cosmetics and those for performance or safety. He pointed out that items such as hands-free Bluetooth peripherals increase safety and efficiency while reducing enterprise liability. That’s a win-win in my book and certainly deserves a stipend.

The camps quickly divided on the method for company contribution. Despite my stance for a straight stipend set according to role and rank, I immediately wanted to join Art King. His company pools voice and offers unlimited data for COPE devices, with users contributing a whopping $18/month. That’s a fantastic perk for employees.

Consensus was reached again regarding companies acknowledging that devices are being used for work, and that a financial contribution is appropriate. Said Brian Katz, “It’s tough not to pay some of the bill when they’re making company calls & doing work… it breeds resentment.” Ernie Huber pointed out that the inverse is also true. Companies don’t need to feel obligated to pay the entire wireless bill for mixed use devices. “I think it is fair to say few if any people use ONLY for work so only part,” commented Ernie. In today’s mobile environment, dedicated work phones are becoming more rare, which is why the COPE and BYOD models are very effective and sharing the costs are key.

In my opinion, the easiest way to handle it is to make employees responsible for their own bill. Just make an automatic reimbursement every month in the same amount, and let the employee track their own bill. Any overage will come out of their own pocket, which keeps their skin in the game and incentivizes them to be careful.

That said, if the company has any responsibility other than a flat stipend, expense management software is crucial. Companies need it to identify issues, whether it is the 440 TB used in one month by one employee that Brian Katz encountered, or the user who downloaded the $99 app, as Jody T. related. Armed with this usage information, you can revise your policies or streamline processes to save money.

Hyoun Park nailed this one. “Businesses should be able to see everything that they reimburse employees for.” Could you imagine cutting that check if you had no idea why the company portion of the bill spiked? No thanks.

Art King spoke up again, promoting pooling and maximizing scale. (Seriously Art, can I get on your $18/month plan?) Matt Rosoff identified international usage and the need to activate appropriate carrier plans when traveling. Jay Fry agreed, and reminded us that the international plans are sometimes left active once the user has returned, creating a financial drain. By the same token, enterprise mobility management tools can turn off roaming capabilities to avoid that possibility.

At the end of the day, the most important thing is to cooperate with your users and find ways to cut costs without restricting their ability to work. Enablement is the goal, and yes, there will be challenges. By discussing with this amazing community of mobility experts, at least you can learn about some new ways to tackle the problems.

#MobileBiz chat is hosted by Brian Katz and Benjamin Robbins, and routinely meets at 10 AM PST, 1 PM EST on Thursdays.

I look forward to seeing you there!

The post Expenses – A Surprisingly Interesting Topic of Mobility Management appeared first on Bitzer Mobile.

Below are the slides from his presentation:

The post Extending the Mobile Enterprise beyond Email appeared first on Bitzer Mobile.

The Boston bombing shook us all up. It was a wakeup call for many reasons. Part of my wakeup call was that it is time to create a bullet proof system where shutting down a city, and in turn, immobilizing citizens does not have to mean that work must stop.

A few years ago an event like the Boston bombing and the city-wide lockdown that followed would have meant a major loss of productivity. Many information workers drive to work simply to access data and interact with co-workers, clients and customers. With video phone calls, unlimited data plans and enterprise mobility solutions, we have been able to address the concerns about data security and data control; and in turn, have created a workspace where employees no longer need to be in the office to work. It changes the paradigm!

Today, we have the technology in place for enabling employees to securely access corporate documents, intranet and apps from their mobile devices, no matter where they are. Devices are smarter, faster, smaller and improving each day. App developers are creating innovative apps for worker productivity at a feverish pace. New enterprise solutions are emerging to address security concerns of IT teams. Therefore, the ecosystem to prevent the workplace productivity disruption stemming from incidents such as the Boston lockdown, Hurricane Sandy, the bridge collapse in Minnesota, wildfires in Southern California or even labor strikes has been created. It’s there for all types or organizations to use if they choose to.

Not all employees or even employers have gotten used to this idea and people are still in the early stages of deploying the needed solutions. But a wakeup call like the Boston Marathon bombing and the citywide shutdown justifies why investments in the right mobile technologies and BYOD can pay off a handsome return and keep the ship moving forward, no matter what adversity faces us.

In parting, while we join Boston as it grieves its immense loss, we know Boston will stay strong!

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As I watch the college basketball tourney come to an end it makes me think about the different mobile device platforms vying for top spot in the enterprise. Much like the NCAA, the enterprise market is a 2nd tier title to the NBA, but still pretty darn exciting space. A couple of weeks ago I talked about Microsoft’s opportunity to become an enterprise player, and I still think they have a great chance. My premise was that as soon as enterprises incorporate Windows 8 desktops it would be a no-brainer for them to bring in Windows 8 tablets. The only question in my mind was when will companies move to Windows 8?

We hosted an Oil & Gas Summit in Houston recently and I asked a few of the big players there about their plan for moving to Windows 8. The overwhelming response I got was: “We’re skipping this one. We just finished migrating to Windows 7″. Many of the large organizations may skip moving to the first release of a new, significantly different OS and wait for the second one, or at least a major service pack. This means it will be a few more years till Microsoft tablets will have a distinct advantage in the enterprise. However, at that point, watch out.

I believe that Microsoft is spot-on about melding touch and desktop interfaces. It is a change and will take some getting comfortable with (have you tried using Metro on a laptop? It takes some getting used to) but it is the right thing to do and Microsoft will be better positioned for doing it.

The post Enterprise mobility – the March Madness perspective appeared first on Bitzer Mobile.

While scouring the web for upcoming SharePoint meetups / user group meetings, I landed on a question on one of the boards, “How can I access SharePoint on iPad?” The poster further elaborated that employees at his company are requesting access to SharePoint from mobile devices, which the company does not support officially.

SharePoint is one of the flagship technologies that enable companies to build portals, collaboration sites, content management sites and business workflows. Microsoft claims that, “two out of three enterprise workers have SharePoint” and brings close to $2 billion annually in revenues.

SharePoint provides access to Intranet from laptops and desktops. It is installed as on-premise software accessible to employees when they are inside the firewall or connected via a VPN. However, things are rapidly becoming mobile with the mass adoption of tablets. Schools, Air Force, airlines, hospitals are moving to tablets (iPads, Android and Windows) in large numbers. As a result, the mobile workforce is demanding uncontrolled access to internal destination sites including collaboration tools to access or upload content and complete business workflows irrespective of where they are and what device they use.

Bitzer Mobile makes the answer to the poster’s question ‘yes’, because our platform enables access to SharePoint sites from iPad without compromising security.

Bitzer’s BMAX gateway and secure container for iPad offer:

1. Sandboxed access to SharePoint. Bitzer’s secure container, which is a specialized iOS app, isolates data and traffic to the corporate environment.
2. Integrated Windows Authentication. The secure container along with BMAX Gateway server performs mutual authentication of the domain user using Kerberos protocol. This is the most secure way of extending the domain trust to iPad.
3. All SSO-enabled SharePoint destination sites are automatically personalized and singled-signed-on.
4. No VPN required. Bitzer’s uses its own gateway to enable authentication and access control.

Whenever, you come across a similar question do not take “No!” for an answer, if you continue to look, you’ll find solutions which provide secure remote access via iPad and other tablets to data, apps and beyond.

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Dropbox has become the metaphor for online storage. Every new, business-focused, cloud storage product tries to position itself as the “Dropbox for the enterprise.” Mobility is the true driver behind this market trend.

Mobile users want to access their content whenever, wherever, on whatever device. With over 50 million users, Dropbox is the leader in online, synchronized file storage across multiple computers and devices, in the consumer space.

Over the last few years, the volume of information that is shared and/or stored in the public cloud has increased due to the built-in operational efficiencies and financial incentives of cloud computing. However, businesses may be at a greater risk of exposing proprietary and confidential information by their employees through the use of public cloud storage platforms such as Dropbox.

Storing data in the public cloud is inexpensive and very efficient, but there are risks that need to be mitigated and addressed. A business could potentially lose its claims to protecting trade secrets and other proprietary information due to security issues that arise from storing data in storage technologies such as Dropbox.

Dropbox lacks the critical features and functionality required by enterprises. Dropbox uses Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) for storage and therefore does not have direct control over the security of the files that are stored. This prompts the need for enterprise-class secure file sharing solutions for today’s mobile and cloud-based organizations. Enterprises require encryption measures that exceed what Dropbox currently provides.

Attempts to establish an enterprise-friendly Dropbox are not intended to replace Dropbox but marry the service’s simplicity and ease-of-use with common enterprise IT needs such as encryption, access controls, and better mobile management. Some of the biggest arguments for a true Dropbox enterprise alternative include the following:

1. Mobile Management
   Device security has been a major issue where mobile devices are concerned. Data stored on a mobile phone or laptop used to be out of reach from IT professionals in the event that the device was lost or stolen. Cloud connectivity and remote access, however, have introduced the ability to remotely wipe these devices from far. However, IT needs an easier way to manage the mobile extension of their cloud storage infrastructure beyond Dropbox’s ability to simply de-link an errant or a rogue machine.

   There are products in the market today that offer IT the ability to remotely wipe the container. This is very useful in bring-your-own-device (BYOD) scenarios where a phone or tablet may not be set up for a device-level wipe. There is an increasing market demand for products that offer secure, remotely controlled and managed cloud access to mobile devices.

2. Monitoring and Provisioning
   IT professionals want to know when, where, and by whom files are being accessed on their corporate networks. This has long been possible on internal infrastructure, but becomes more difficult when mobile consumer devices that are often outside the control of IT staff are thrown into the mix. Enterprise customers need the ability to provision users using Active Directory (AD) or Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) with client devices that can be treated as extensions of preexisting networking infrastructure. The goal is to allow administrators to get granular with file and user access controls.
3. Storage and Security
   Dropbox relies on Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) for data storage, which spreads files across multiple data centers throughout the United States. While Dropbox encrypts these files, the encryption process occurs only after they have been uploaded. For enterprises this approach is not optimal and this prompts the need for an enterprise grade Dropbox with client-side encryption.

While there are many things Dropbox does well in the consumer space, enterprise and business needs will obviously differ. For instance enterprise storage and synchronization needs differ from consumer needs such as the following:

• Version Control
• Backup / Replication
• Intrusion detection
• Search / Query mechanisms
• Organization and delegation
• Data Expiry
• Standards Compliance

The market for mobile management and mobile security is growing at a rapid pace. Analyst Kathleen Reidy, of 451 Research suggests that we need a better name than “Dropbox for the Enterprise”- one that focuses more closely on the mobile aspect of cloud file access and security instead. (Source: http://451research.com)

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I was reading an ZDNet article about the adoption of Windows 8 and amazingly, the pickup is actually slower than Vista, one of Microsoft’s colossal failures. For sure Microsoft is heading in the right direction melding touch and desktop experience as this will be the future, but the question may be “when” are users ready for this fusion. I’m not here to debate about the merits or not of Windows 8, but closer to home, what is the impact on Windows 8 adoption on Microsoft’s mobile products?

Windows 8 usage can’t even keep up with Vista/s poor numbers. (Data from Net Applications)

Microsoft has an excellent chance to take over as the #3 mobile OS and possibly really replace Blackberry as the dominant device for enterprises. The reason Microsoft has this chance is that it owns the systems and desktop management space for companies and it would be logical to just extend this management to mobile devices. It is this dependence on Microsoft infrastructure that makes me think it will be a few more years before Microsoft’s mobile devices will take over the enterprise.

How long will it be before enterprises migrate to Windows 8? Will they skip Windows 8 like they did Vista and wait for the next OS? Once companies move to Windows 8 – based management systems and start to manage Windows 8 desktops then it will for sure make sense that they would add Window 8 tablets and phones to the mix too. It is certainly not this St. Patrick’s Day, but will it be 2014? 2015? Bitzer and Microsoft are hosting an Oil & Gas Summit in Houston next week and I’ll get to put my hands on a bunch of their devices. I’ll check back with you if that changes my opinion.

Microsoft has a great chance to have mobile be a big success in the enterprise, but their mobile success hinges on desktop success and corporations migrating their entire infrastructure. Many companies are just rolling out Windows 7 now so it may be a few more St Patty’s Days before Microsoft finds their mobile 4-leaf clover.

The post Microsoft’s Mobile 4-leaf Clover is Still a Few St Patty’s Days Away appeared first on Bitzer Mobile.

Another year past and another RSA show in the books! This year’s RSA show was a good one, most of all I believe it was a good sign for our economy and also a good sign for the security market in general. The exhibit hall was full, both with exhibitors as well as attendees. I remember the lean years where they had to pull the curtains in to make it appear full. This year the South Hall was packed and it is my understanding that next year it will again expand back to two halls for the expo. This is a good sign for all in the market.

Of course some of the over-riding themes at the conference was the emergence of SOCOMO (Social, Cloud, Mobile) and it’s impact on security. With cloud and mobile, what we are finding is that the network perimeter is expanding and not a fixed firewall edge anymore. With social and consumerization the endpoint is being re-defined to a consumer device be that a mobile device or in the future the “Internet of Things” like a refrigerator or a clock. This expanding network perimeter and consumer endpoints presents new challenges for corporate security.

One item to follow that will be interesting for all is how authentication solutions will expand. The challenge being the tradeoff between security and usability. Which new authentication options will gain traction, will anything every take over the trusty old password? I have been involved in network security and strong authentication space for years and the trusty old password seems hard to replace. I saw lots of interesting options on the show floor at RSA, all which could be interesting alternatives. In my mind, unless Apple or Google (or next up and coming OS) support some new standard out of the box then passwords will still remain the king.

For me the RSA show has always been about partnerships and industry trends and it was good to begin to form some new relationships. Lots of discussions with folks like Oracle, Palo Alto Networks, F5, Cisco, Quest and others as all our worlds start to merge and collaborate. A great show overall and we look forward to seeing you there in 2014.

Watch footage from RSA Expo 2013:

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