As we strive to improve and manage our small business IT departments and begin to gain control of our IT services and support, another obstacle looms on the horizon. Mobile workers. Whether you use the label road warriors, home workers, guest workers, or even BYOD (bring your own device) they all contribute to a new management IT issue which is security. At first the issue of company owned or individually owned laptops were the primary concern but now with smarter phones, tablets and other mobile devices gaining prevalence in the workplace all of these devices need to be accounted for.
There are a number of concerns that arise as workers seek to access and take company information on the road. Secure connectivity and transport of data, password protection, lost or stolen devices, shared applications, and a company’s proprietary information are all a concern when a mobile workforce is utilizing corporate resources.
Fortunately there are a growing number of management tools that can help business owners minimize the risk associated with this mobile workforce. These tools can enforce password protection on devices, track mobile devices, push out applications and passwords to multiple devices, and even perform a complete or partial remote wipe of company data should these devices become lost or stolen.
There have been some IT managed service providers such as CSCI in San Diego that have taken industry tools and built them into managed solutions available to small and medium businesses to help with their remote work forces. These kinds of solution providers can help to implement remote management tools to give business owners better security as well as better functionality of their remote device investment.
Also available are various do it yourself tools to perform some of these remote device management functions and new mobile apps that are able to give secure remote access to company information.
In the coming weeks we will drill down on the subject of mobile workers in greater detail. Stay tuned………….
