A Contributed Article by Justin Marston, CEO and co-founder of Hypori
Despite the kicking and screaming from IT departments,
organizations have largely resigned themselves to the fact that BYOD is here to
stay. Whether the flavor is iPhone, Android or Windows, employees are bringing
their favorite devices to work en masse with little regard for larger security
and compliance concerns.
Sanctioned or not, now it's up to IT to secure these perimeter
devices without locking out its greatest asset: employees. Virtual Mobile
Infrastructure (VMI) provides a compelling way to do so.
According to 451 Research, "VMI
is emerging as a tool for enterprise mobility as companies want to give access
to corporate data without any footprint on the device."
Similar to VDI, VMI provides remote access to a virtual mobile
device hosted in a public or private cloud. Users can access sensitive apps and
data in an enterprise-secured environment, enjoying all the features and conveniences
of their mobile device without exposing the business to increased risk.
The benefits of VMI range from improved security and compliance
to a more functional user experience, as well as cost savings. Here are five
top reasons to consider deploying a virtual mobile infrastructure:
Support a wide range of
devices-Android is the dominant OS for smartphones, with more than 71
percent market share in 2014, followed by Apple (13.1 percent) and Windows (7.1
percent). However, despite the large user base, Android in particular
represents a fragmented and challenging ecosystem with large numbers of
disparate devices designed by manufacturers around the world. This is in sharp
contrast to iOS, which is well known for its closed system tightly controlled
by Apple. VMI makes managing BYOD for Android devices just as uniform and easy
as iOS, utilizing a single gold disk image of Android to manage and support all
end users, regardless of their device or operating system.
Optimize user experience-Today, many organizations claim to follow
a mobile-first strategy, yet end users on mobile devices struggle to access an
estimated 78 percent of enterprise applications. These
business apps - including ERP, CRM, SharePoint, Lync and others - require
significant processing power and battery capacity often beyond a user's
individual device capabilities. Moving mobile apps to the cloud and providing
geographically distributed compute notes eliminates many of these challenges
while ensuring consistent quality of service and extreme scale.
Ensure security and
privacy-With VMI, all applications and data are stored in a VM on
enterprise servers in the cloud, ensuring there is no data at-rest on a local
device-ever. If a device is lost or stolen, or an employee leaves the
organization, IT can immediately block or revoke the user's access. This
ensures enterprise data remains safe, without requiring remote wiping or other
more complex security measures. It also protects the employee from intrusive
access to and tracking of activities on their personal device by separating
work and personal environments on the same computing device.
Leverage existing MAM,
MDM investments-Many organizations have made significant investments in
enterprise mobility solutions such as Mobile Application Management (MAM) and
Mobile Device Management (MDM). These solutions offer an effective approach for
managing enterprise-owned devices, but face challenges when implemented on
users' personal devices. VMI complements existing MAM and MDM solutions, while
extending their value to contractors, partners and customers outside of your
immediate control.
Save costs and improve
flexibility - With VMI, there is no inventory to manage or replace; just a
cloud of VMs stored on a server, and one virtual device per employee -
accessible from every device they own. VM devices can be created based on
templates (including template-defined resources such as compute, memory, etc.),
allowing multiple sets of users to be created at the same time, driven by an
external system such as Active Directory. When business resources or criteria
change, global updates can be pushed to users without touching every individual
device. VMI also streamlines mobile app provisioning, allowing enterprises to
develop or acquire only one version of an application and deliver it
universally, regardless of employees' mobile platform. Application updates
follow the same one-to-many model.
Employee expectations for BYOD mobility in today's enterprise
are high - for functionality, data access, ease of use and privacy. And
safeguarding intellectual property and security in a diverse ecosystem of
personal devices is a significant challenge. As the mobile-first approach to
business takes hold, VMI can provide an efficient, cost-effective way to
protect your business without handcuffing your employees.
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About the Author
Justin Marston is CEO and
co-founder of Hypori, responsible for the company's overall business strategy,
operations and long-term vision. A seasoned entrepreneur and technology
innovator, Marston previously served as founder and CEO at BlueSpace Software,
where he developed trusted virtualization security solutions for the defense
and intelligence communities. He holds multiple patents, is a published author
and a frequent speaker who has presented at numerous international defense and
entrepreneurship conferences. He holds a master's degree in chemistry from
Durham University and is a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society.