The Era of ‘Everything Mobile’ and Business !!

As technology proliferates into business, organizations find themselves juggling with complications related to Identity management. The Identity Management landscape spreads beyond Identity checks, syncing applications, authorized access and more. The recent layer to the IAM landscape is – Mobile IAM.

Mobile handset is more than just a gadget – it is about a user’s personality. Every user wants to exercise a democratic choice while choosing a handset. In order to allow employees to carry a sense of belongingness with their gadget, Employers are increasingly putting in-place not only Buy Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, but also Chose Your Own Device (CYOD) policies.

Adopting new channel for business and allowing flexibility in conducting business widens the scope of technology usage. Many companies see it as a costly investment and put it on hold. While some shy away from allowing an all-encompassing device usage environment. Due to vast number of devices to select from, it becomes equally important for employers to shield information on these devices from leaking and causing identity threats. Here we bring you what are those real threats:

1. IT Managers have been in a secluded IT environment so far. Owing to some real threats – most of the companies have sheltered themselves within the confines of their physical infrastructure. Now when business is required to move out of those confines the IT managers are not equipped with the required competencies and how to securely handle the data.
2. The present business environment calls for embracing new technologies in a dynamic fashion – that ranges from Operating Systems, Applications, Device features and counting….  Most organizations end up creating multiple management systems to manage the devices. It creates a complex matrix of security layers across each of the touch-point such as BlackBerry, iPhone and Android.
3. Ensuring smooth transition keeping in perspective that the future will be desktop free with a lot of handy devices. Companies are already witnessing this transition, and the management of IT environment control systems needs to make space for a long term smooth transition to a future capability centric world rather than a reactive hush-hush adoption.
4. Besides keeping track of usage, defining usage terms to the workforce, dealing with a sudden increase in the number of devices to be managed are understandably big challenges. Allowing downloading anything may leave an organization’s internal system vulnerable to viruses and thefts. It is, therefore, recommended to create an organizational ‘app store’ so employees know what’s available and what’s going to be usable for their job functions.
5. Managing the applications on these devices should be done in a consistent and cohesive way. It is required to drive business and ensure efficiency. Any glitch in usage may result in business loss; therefore companies are recommended to frequently conduct tests to identify voids in their system and minimize them.

Businesses adopting a contemporary approach to an all-encompassing identity management solution along with device management stand a better chance to manage future transition. The possibilities of limitations in terms of linking hardware technology and business foresight make a strong identity management possible to address who has what devices and when used for office work. Users expect a seamless experience and flexibility in terms of using any application from any device and any location is the way for the future.