X
Business

The challenge of a multi-screen enterprise - Dell's mobile software evangelist

Jason Moody knows the pain that enterprise IT feels in managing an explosion of different computing devices and apps...
Written by Tom Foremski, Contributor
JasonMoody

 

Jason Moody (above) an evangelist for Dell Software’s Enterprise Mobility Management group, spends most of his time meeting with large enterprises and finding out how they are faring with the rapid fragmentation of employee technology.

Bring your own device has been a major headache for IT departments, and is further fragmenting into “wear your own device.” Here’s some notes from our conversation:

- Enterprises are still in very early stages in getting to grips with managing staff with multiple devices. 

- IT departments usually have a separate group managing mobile devices and the networking group is managing other aspects. There needs to be operational changes in the organization of IT departments to better manage the increasing number of computer devices used by staff.

- Dell’s goal is to integrate desktop and mobile admin consoles into a single view and with a single approach to policies.

- Enterprises are worried about everything. They worry about cookies, they worry about popular cloud apps such as Dropbox because they can act as a backdoor into corporate data.

- Dell has a special secure “container” to run corporate apps and view documents on mobile devices that prevents other apps from accessing that information.

- Identity management is built-in to Dell’s solution. 

- Enterprises are concerned about NSA snooping but their biggest concern is with corporate espionage and they worry about hiring the right people.

- Most now have special new staff training to control which apps are used, and what can be shared in social networks.

- Enterprises are building apps and Dell also offers app development. Web apps have proven less popular because the user experience is not as good but that will likely change.

- Enterprises worry if the user experience of the corporate apps is poor then staff will use other apps with better performance but with potential security issues.

- Dell offers app testing and has discovered backdoor vulnerabilities in many popular apps.

- Dell’s software can wipe apps and data from remote devices in case of loss or change of job. 

Multinational companies are concerned about the different laws related to technology. For example, Russia doesn’t allow encryption and this has been a factor in deicing where to outsource app development.

Editorial standards