magazine - Connect-World

Secure content distribution
Secure mobile distribution of corporate content
by Ian Evans, Managing Director EMEA, AirWatch
When sharing corporate content in the cloud, with everything accessed via mobile devices,
it can be difficult to manage access. Free cloud file sharing services distribute corporate
documents to employee-owned devices, but offer businesses little protection or control.
Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solutions provide secure corporate content
management and protection,; they prevent leakage and theft while enabling distribution.
Hybrid approaches using a combination of internal and external storage can provide the
most flexibility and help companies control employee user costs.
Ian Evans is Managing Director for the European, Middle Eastern and African regions (EMEA) region at AirWatch, specialised in
enterprise mobility management, mobile security, mobile device management (MDM) mobile application management (MAM) and
mobile content management (MCM) solutions. Mr Evans has more than 20 years of experience in the software industry. Mr Evans
worked previously as Managing Director, EMEA of Aste, a software solutions company. Before Astea, Mr Evans was director, EMEA for
O4 Corporation, and a vice president at InforGlobal Solutions.
Ian Evans holds a degree in Computer Science.
Revoking all access to corporate content
when an employee left a company used to
be easy a decade ago, when removal of door
entree blocked admission to all corporate
information and data. The year 2013 brings
new ramifications, as employees have come
to expect easy access to corporate resources
from any device, anywhere at any time. With
corporate content often shared across users
and in the cloud, IT departments may find
it hard to keep control. As mobile access is
becoming increasingly business-critical, IT
departments in companies across EMEA
are challenged to securely deploy content to
mobile devices, to enable collaboration and to
prevent data loss and leakage.
Business challenges
During the past few years I have seen the
first generation of mobile natives enter
the workforce. A new set of business
challenges emerged, as mobile workers
increasingly utilise widely available and
free cloud file sharing services to distribute
corporate documents, potentially risking
data loss and leakage. Challenges exist also
in the proliferation of personal accounts
used for business, the rapid adoption of
mobile devices and file sharing apps, and
employee-owned devices with access to
corporate content.
In the cloud-collaboration space, users are
very often ahead of IT. When employees
started to collaborate online, they introduced
basic, consumer-grade cloud storage solutions
that do not normally offer the data protection
or enterprise control capabilities businesses
require into the workplace, as alternatives
were not readily available. Today, Enterprise
Mobility Management (EMM) solutions
provide content management security and
protection alongside wider mobility support
to help businesses prevent leakage and theft
and enable the distribution and sharing of
corporate information while ensuring that it
remains secure.
38 • EMEA 2013