Managing Data and Applications in a 'Porous' Enterprise
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Enterprises manage global commerce and communications across a distributed infrastructure of networks, devices, and services. Mobile workers download applications and files from anywhere, sometimes exposing the enterprise to malware or other threats. To embrace the mobility of global business, IT professional need devices with secure execution spaces that protect the enterprise from these threats. |
Enterprises today – from small businesses to multinationals – have global operations where employees, partners, suppliers, and customers must interact daily. With the recent explosion in consumer connectivity solutions, devices and services that were originally developed for casual consumer use are increasingly finding their way into enterprise use as well. Devices such as smart phones, notebooks, and other network-enabled devices are essential mobile business tools – but often can be found serving both consumer and enterprise purposes. As a result, employees use their personal devices to access company resources. Others use company-issued devices to download consumer-oriented applications. Social networking applications used both for personal and enterprise purposes further muddy the consumer and enterprise distinction. The former bright line between the enterprise domain and the consumer domain has blurred considerably
This trend has caused the outer perimeter of the enterprise to become more porous – significantly increasing the risk of malware or data breaches The IT administrator’s task is complicated trying to control how, when, where, and by whom all enterprise applications and data are accessed and used.
Since it’s unreasonable to expect a return to the world where these two domains are entirely separate, IT managers need a technology solution that manages these devices without sacrificing their utility for global business. First, they need the ability to remotely control these perimeter devices by creating, updating and enforcing policies as to what data is accessible or applications are allowed to run. Second, to ensure these policies are enforced, these devices need to have secure execution spaces. These ‘partitioned spaces’ create invisible “walls” that can isolate mission-critical enterprise data from personal, consumer applications or malware.