Pure office work is out: Employees use smartphones and tablets to work ultra-mobile and organize their everyday lives. But secure mobile solutions are needed so that employees can work from anywhere without risk. With the right strategy, IT managers can work today in the working world of tomorrow – securely and ultra-mobile.
Checking a few emails at the bus stop, attending a conference in the car or coordinating an appointment in the queue – There are many everyday situations that could actually be used productively. But: by the time you have booted up your laptop, logged in, set up a VPN connection and connected your drive, the bus has left three times, the queue has disappeared and the notebook is impractical for driving anyway. A smartphone is much more practical: unlock it, start the app and you have access to the company network and specialist applications.
This is ultra-mobile working: being able to work via smartphone and tablet without being restricted by time and place – regardless of whether it’s at midnight on the beach in Corsica or in the waiting room of a doctor’s surgery in the afternoon.
However, many IT departments still lack experience in dealing with security solutions for smartphones and tablets.
High security thanks to container technology
At first, ultra-mobile working therefore causes unease among many IT managers. The fear is that smartphones and tablets with access to company data create a gateway for security threats. The right solution can help here: container-based system solutions such as SecurePIM bring every smartphone and every tablet up to the required level of security, even to the level of confidentiality VS-NfD.
Employees can edit all relevant company data within the encrypted container. The app synchronizes the data with the company’s own network via a secure gateway. This ensures that no data reaches insecure interfaces or third parties. Many solutions also offer Microsoft Office integration. Displaying a security-relevant email? Quickly finalize a management presentation? No problem at all with the right solution.
For sustainability and cost reasons, employees can use their private devices as part of a BYOD model (= Bring Your Own Device) or use their work devices privately in a COPE model (= Corporate-Owned, Personally-Enabled) for reasons of user-friendliness.
Business data cannot get out of the container so that private apps cannot access it for technical reasons alone. For example, WhatsApp cannot access the business contacts stored in the container app at any time. All company data therefore remains securely exactly where it should be – in the company.
AI and new hardware: the future of ultra-mobility
Completely new possibilities for ultra-mobile working will open up in the next few years. Devices such as augmented reality glasses could soon expand the office workplace and make it mobile. And today, there are already security features such as an “internal Smartcard“, which enables secure access to company networks and access to confidential documents and information while on the move.
New technologies such as artificial intelligence could support employees – be it to automatically store data for invoicing, improve code review loops or create Confluence templates.
On the contrary: it is developing rapidly and the benefits for employees and companies are growing all the time.
Author: Dr. Hermann Granzer, Chief Technology Officer at Materna Virtual Solution