October 22, 2014

MobileIron solves persistent data loss threat to the enterprise

Mountain View, CA --The personal cloud is the most persistent security challenge facing enterprises today. Employees use their own cloud apps to store and share work documents, fundamentally compromising enterprise security.  MobileIron has introduced a solution for s ecuring business documents in the personal cloud called Docs@Work secure content hub.

"The personal cloud has become the center of our digital lives, and, like it or not, enterprise information now lives everywhere," says  Ojas Rege, vice-president strategy, MobileIron. "Users demand best-of-breed mobile productivity solutions and, many times, those are actually consumer services. CIOs must implement an architecture that provides consistent security and policy across business and consumer services to enable their employees to use the tools and workflows that make them most productive."

The company outlines the three phases to secure the personal cloud:

• Phase 1: Personal Cloud Access Provide native access to popular cloud-based content repositories through a secure mobile interface. Users can now search and find their content across the cloud.

• Phase 2: File-Level Security Establish file-level protections to ensure that enterprise information stored in the personal cloud is encrypted and cannot be accessed by unauthorized apps and users. When this phase is completed, IT will be able to create security policies that follow data wherever it lives.

• Phase 3: Best-of-Breed Ecosystem Enable MobileIron's application partners to access protected cloud data when authorized. When this phase is completed, users will be able to choose the best productivity solutions for them.

Docs@Work  represents the first phase of personal cloud security. The new app expands access to popular cloud-based repositories and is available for iPad, iPhone, and Android tablets and smartphones.

Key enhancements in Docs@Work include the ability to:

• Connect natively to cloud services like Box, Dropbox, Microsoft Office 365 (SharePoint Online), and Microsoft OneDrive Pro

• Search, view, download, and save documents across the user's preferred on-premise and cloud repositories

• Edit both locally on the device and remotely through an integrated browser

Users demand best-of-breed productivity solutions

"In a mobile world it's difficult for IT to define all the tools that are used by employees to be productive on mobile devices," says  Chris Hazelton, research director, enterprise mobility, 451 Research. "Among companies where IT bans the installation of consumer apps, 44 per cent of employees have installed or are interested in installing consumer apps outside of company policies. Mobile workers want to be productive, and will download third party apps to get work done. Given this, it's nearly impossible for IT to stop the use of consumer apps."

Collaboration tools and data repositories will remain fragmented, and the pace of innovation is so fast that employee choice will become increasingly important. MobileIron transforms the personal cloud from an IT nightmare to a powerful tool for employee productivity.