Tag: BYOD computing

Article

HP’s BYOD service protects mobile devices and PCs | PC World

Small businesses now have the ability to manage their smartphones and tablets like their big brethren

From the horse’s mouth

Hewlett-Packard

HP Touchpoint Manager

Product Page

My Comments

A trend that is coming to reality is the concept of “Bring Your Own Device” where employees are bringing in their own computing devices to use as part of their work. This is working alongside the concept of “mobile-first” computing where business computing is primarily focused around client devices that use mobile operating devices.

But these setups require the use of a management system to protect the integrity and security of the business data. Typically a lot of this software was costly, hard-to-use, and only suitable for large businesses which had an integral IT department.

But HP have answered this problem by releasing a Web-based remote-device-management system that is expressly pitched at small and medium businesses. Here, they focus the pricing on affordability for businesses and organisations with up to 500 staff with starting costs of US$2 per month for a basic setup and US$10 per month for a more advanced system.

This system can work with devices that are based on Windows, iOS or Android operating platforms and don’t yet support Blackberry or Macintosh platforms.  The baseline functionality includes a user and devices list and the ability to check on the state of the device’s battery and secondary storage. Pay more and you could benefit from features like finding lost devices, resetting passwords or wiping data remotely on these lost devices. There is functionality like the ability to restrict access to the data if the device is outside a particular location.

Another benefit that HP clawed for in the design of this software is for it to be “radically” easy to use, typically to cater for the small business or organisation where one person effectively is the “chief cook and bottle-washer”. Here, they implement a simplified user interface which is centred around a Web-based dashboard to make it easier to “get at what you want”.

There are some other gaping holes in the functionality like lack of geofencing and data backup but these may be offered later on either as extra functions for different levels of service or as options you can “buy on”. As well, HP even are integrating this service in to their current lineup of business-grade laptops like the Elitebook range. In this particular range, there is the ability for the computers to provide geographic location even if they are turned off.

What I like of this is the way HP has provided an easy-to-manage secure BYOD device management solution that is focused towards the small business or community organisation.

On Thursday and Friday this past week, I had visited the Connect 2014 technology convention as an expo visitor mainly to observe key trends affecting business and personal computing that were surfacing over the past few years.

IP-based telephony

A few companies had shown some IP-based telephony systems at Connect 2014. This is due to telephony moving from the traditional circuit between the local exchange (central office) and the customer’s premises towards Internet-based packet-driven end-to-end connectivity. The trend is being assisted by the goal for reduced operating costs, increased competition in the telephony space and the move towards next-generation broadband infrastructure. It is also being assisted by the prevalence of various “over-the-top” IP telephony programs for mobile devices like Skype and Viber.

One company even showed a desktop IP videophones with wired handsets along with  IP DECT cordless-phone bases. I even raised the issue of integrating Skype in these videophones because this is seen as the preferred “consumer, small-business and community-organisation” video telephony solution. One path that organisations would have to use is an IP PBX server with a Skype video “trunk” which likes Skype to the videophones. On the other hand, he showed me one of the desk videophones which had an app platform of some sort and mentioned that a Skype front-end could be deployed in these units.

Mobile-device computing in the workplace

A key workplace computing trend is to implement mobile computing devices like smartphones and tablets. This can be as a fleet of equipment owned by the organisation or a “bring-your-own-device” model where employees bring their own devices to the workplace and use them for their job. Here, they may be seen as supplanting regular desktop and laptop computers or serving as a highly-portable adjunct to the regular computers.

If these devices were used in the workplace, they would either work with document-viewing and communications tools, and a Web browser to support office tasks typically performed on a regular computer. On the other hand, they would ether work with a purpose-built device-side app or a Web front (task-specific Web page) as part of a business-specific workflow or system.

A few companies were showcasing mobile-device management systems, typically pitched at large corporate and government customers. These worked on a platform-independent manner yet allowed data security whether by implementing a managed “business realm” and “business app store” on a BYOD device or providing a highly-locked-down device.

BlackBerry have set up presence at Connect 2014 in order to show that they are moving from a hardware-based operation to something that is more software-based. This means that they can provide managed mobile computing to all of the platforms such as iOS, Android and Windows and covering all management arrangements ranging from a totally managed and locked-down fleet to a BYOD setup with a managed “business space” on the employee’s device.

In my conversation with a BlackBerry representative, I raised the issue of small businesses and community organisations neither knowing nor defining their intellectual property. We were raising the issue in relationship to these organisations neither being careful or wise about their data security nor being interested in corporate-grade information-security products and services. He stated it in a simple way as being whatever information places your organisation at risk if it falls in to the wrong hands.

A lot of these systems don’t embrace what I covered in the last paragraph because they are pitched at a larger business with its own IT department and significantly-sized server equipment. An effort that I would like to see achieved is the development of “small-business” variations that can run on a hosted cloud service or on-premises using modest equipment like “business-in-a-box” servers or classic “tower-style” server PCs. They would also have to implement a user interface that simplifies this kind of management for a small-business owner.

3D Printing

Heated 3D printer in action

A technology that has been given a fair bit of Web coverage of late is 3D printing. This is where a single-piece object is constructed using a special machine that builds up that object in layers. An analogy of this is the “3D Jigsaw” which had cardboard pieces that were stacked in a particular way to become a known object, typically a figurine.

There were a few companies who were presenting 3D printers that were in action turning out various pieces. One of these machines, which was a freestanding one the same size as those larger gas barbecues that have adorned may Aussie backyards, is able to “paint” colour on to a piece it is printing using an inkjet system. Another machine, this time about the size of a small fridge, used a heated environment to improve accuracy and reliability.

I had a conversation with a representative of one of the companies who do 3D printing and he and I reckoned that the technology would suit a wide range of short-order fabrication jobs. One application I was even thinking of was the ability to reconstruct a replacement part even though the part is no longer manufactured in quantity. One example that came to mind was a mechanism that has a highly-worn or damaged component that needs to be replaced, something encountered by people who are restoring late-20th-century consumer electronics, especially record players, tape recorders and the like, as a hobby. Here, he could scan the component using a 3D scanner and effectively “re-design” that component to what it was like when new, then make it with the 3D printer for reinstallation in that mechanical subsystem.

Similarly, the car-restoration scene could benefit from 3D printing at least when it comes to re-constituting vehicle detail-work such as marque badges and hood ornaments which have been often damaged or stolen from vehicles. This could allow a vehicle owner to make sure their pride and joy is still complete even if any of the detail-work went missing.

The connected home

It was often said that the connected home concept was “nearly there but not complete”. The problems hightlghted here were lack of a desire by industry to implement application-level standards for home-automation setups. This is manifesting in the form of manufacturers developing their own control apps for mobile platforms, making it harder for customers to use competing “smart devices” at the one location or establish task-appropriate control setups in a “smart-home” environment.

Similarly, the home-AV market is being centered around content producers tying up deals with smart-TV and video-peripheral manufacturers or connected-AV platforms. This affects consumers because they are not sure if their favourite content producers or distributors, or their favourite titles are going to appear on a particular connected-AV platform that they intend to buy into. Similarly, it affects content producers and distributors who want to run an IPTV or video-on-demand service because they have to obtain deals with various equipment manufacturers and connected-AV platforms.

Both these situations effectively have the manufacturers, content producers and other companies effectively owning the consumers and stifling innovation and competition in the connected-home space.

In-home telemedicine

A tablet used as part of an in-home telemedicine setup

One concept that was being shown at Connect 2014 was in-home telemedicine, known also as in-home telehealth or simply as telecare. This is something I have covered in this Website in relation to standing for access to proper broadband in rural and peri-urban communities. Here, this technology allows people in these sparse communities access to continual specialist medical care without the need for the patient or caregiver to frequently travel between home and larger towns or cities when clinical supervision is needed.

Bluetooth-connected medical sensors

A functioning demonstration setup which is currently used in the field involved the use of medical-parameter sensors like a blood-pressure monitor or pulse oximeter linked to a tablet via Bluetooth with this setup at the patient’s home. This, in turn was linked to the clinic via mobile-broadband technology and the staff at the clinic were able to look at what’s going on using a Web-based dashboard that highlights critical conditions affecting patients in their care.

A Bluetooth-connected pulse oximeter in action

It is being pitched at community-care organisations and would typically be seen as being useful for rural applications. But there have been some Melbourne hospitals implementing this as part of a “hospital-at-home” program for managing certain chronic diseases. But there was a setup being shown that allowed this kind of telemedicine setup to work as part of an “independent ageing” setup to assure older people the ability to live independently but know they are still being looked after, which is also being factored as the baby boomers become the ageing population.

Conclusion

These technologies that were presented at Connect 2014 are being more about what the connected work and home life is all about with the current technologies.

Introduction

Yesterday, I attended the Symantec Symposium 2012 conference which was a chance to demonstrate the computing technologies Symantec was involved in developing and selling that were becoming important to big business computing.

Relevance to this site’s readership

Most solutions exhibited at this conference are pitched at big business with a fleet of 200 or more computers. But there were resellers and IT contractors at this event who buy these large-quantity solutions to sell on to small-business sites who will typically have ten to 100 computers.

I even raised an issue in one of the breakout sessions about how manageability would be assured in a franchised business model such as most fast-food or service-industry chains. Here, this goal could be achieved through the use of thin-client computers or pre-configured equipment bought or leased through the franchisor.

As well, the issues and solution types of the kind shown at this Symposium tend to cross over between small sites and the “big end of town” just like a lot of office technology including the telephone and the fax machine have done so.

Key issues that were being focused were achieving a secure computing environment, supoorting the BYOD device-management model and the trend towards cloud computing for the systems-support tasks.

Secure computing

As part of the Keynote speech, we had a guest speaker from the Australian Federal Police touch on the realities of cybercrime and how it affects the whole of the computing ecosystem. Like what was raised in the previous interview with Alastair MacGibbon and Brahman Thiyagalingham about secure computing in the cloud-computing environment, the kind of people committing cybercrime is now moving towards organised crime like East-European mafia alongside nation states engaging in espionage or sabotage. He also raised that it’s not just regular computers that are at risk, but mobile devices (smartphones and tablets), point-of-sale equipment like EFTPOS terminals and other dedicated-purpose computing devices that are also at risk. He emphasised issues like keeping regular and other computer systems up to date with the latest patches for the operating environment and the application software.

This encompassed the availability of a cloud-driven email and Website verification system that implements a proxy-server setup. This is designed to cater for the real world of business computing where computer equipment is likely to be taken and used out of the office and used with the home network or public networks like hotel or café hotspots. It stays away from the classic site-based corporate firewall and VPN arrangement to provide controlled Internet access for roaming computers. It also was exposing real Internet-usage needs like operating a company’s Social-Web presence, personal Internet services like Internet banking or home monitoring so as to cater for the ever-increasing workday, and the like. Yet this can still allow for an organisation to have control over the resources to prevent cyberslacking or viewing of inappropriate material.

Another technique that I observed is the ability to facilitate two-factor authentication for business resources or customer-facing Websites. This is where the username and password are further protected by something else in the similar way that your bank account is protected at the ATM using your card and your PIN. It was initially achieved through the use of hardware tokens – those key fobs or card-like devices that showed a random number on their display and you had to enter them in your VPN login; or a smart card or SIM that required the use of a hardware reader. Instead Symantec developed a software token that works with most desktop or mobile operating systems and generates this random code. It even exploits integrated hardware security setups in order to make this more robust such as what is part of the Intel Ivy Bridge chipset in second-generation Ultrabooks.

Advanced machine-learning has also played a stronger part in two more secure-computing solutions. For example, there is a risk assessment setup being made available where an environment to fulfill a connection or transaction can be assessed against what is normal for a users’s operating environment and practices. It is similar to the fraud-detection mechanisms that most payment-card companies are implementing where they could detect and alert customers to abnormal transactions that are about to occur, like ANZ Falcon. This can trigger verification requirements for the connection or transaction like the requirement to enter a one-time-password from a software token or an out-of-band voice or SMS confirmation sequence.

The other area where advanced machine-learning plays a role in secure computing is data loss prevention. As we hear of information being leaked out to the press or, at worst, laptops, mobile computing devices and removable storage full of confidential information disappearing and falling in to wrong hands, this field of information security is becoming more important across the board. Here, they used the ability to “fingerprint” confidential data like payment card information and apply handling rules to this information. This includes implementation of on-the-fly encryptions for the data, establishment of secure-access Web portals, and sandboxing of the data. The rules can be applied at different levels and affect the different ways the data is transferred between computers such as shared folders, public-hosted storage services (Dropbox, Evernote, GMail, etc), email (both client-based and Webmail) and removable media (USB memory keys, optical disks). The demonstration focused more on the payment-card numbers but I raised questions regarding information like customer/patient/guest lists or similar reports and this system supports the ability to create the necessary fingerprint of the information to the requirements desired.  

Cloud-focused computing support

The abovementioned secure-computing application makes use of the cloud-computing technology which relies on many of the data centres scattered around the world.

But the Norton 360 online backup solution that is typically packaged with some newer laptops is the basis for cloud-driven data backup. This could support endpoint backup as well as backup for servers, virtual machines and the like.

Mobile computing and BYOD

Symantec have approached the mobile computing and BYOD issues in two different paths. They have catered for the fully-managed devices which may appeal to businesses running fleets of devices that they own or using tablets as interactive customer displays. But they allowed for “object-specific” management where particular objects (apps, files, etc) can be managed or run to particular policies.

It includes the ability to provide a corporate app store with the ability to provide in-house apps, Web links or commercial apps so users know what to “pick up” on their devices. These apps are then set up to run to the policies that affect how that user runs them, including control of data transfer. This setup may also please the big businesses who provide those services that small businesses often provide as an agent or reseller, such as Interflora. Here, they could run the business-specific app store with the line-of-business apps like a flower-delivery-list app that runs on a smartphone. There is the ability to remotely vary and revoke permissions concerning the apps, which could come in handy when the device’s owner walks out of the organisation.

Conclusion

What this conference shows at least is the direction that business computing is taking and was also a chance to see core trends that were affecting this class of computing whether you are at the “big end of town” or not.

Article

Will The New Wave Of Prosumer Tablets Beat The iPad In The Enterprise? | ZDNet

My Comments

Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet – fit for business

A trend that has been occurring over the past year or two regarding workplace computing is the implementation of consumer and “prosumer” tablet computers in this environment.

This has been underscored by the concept of “BYOD” and “consumerisation of IT” where technology hardware that is owned by employees is used to fulfill work tasks with this hardware existing under the control of the employees. This situation occurs commonly in a small business’s office environment but is being viewed with worry in medium and large businesses who are used to a company-supplied fleet of computers managed by an in-house IT team.

Issues that are commonly raised include the security of the workplace data held on the device and a desire to have a device that is manageable to company policies. This is especially where there is a “Bring Your Own Device” scenario where the employee buys and owns their device and uses it in the workplace.

Even hardware manufacturers are answering this trend through equipment like the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, both of which are equipped with styluses for rapid data entry as well as support for manageability.

Similarly. Microsoft and Apple are intending to court this market through the development of hardware and software that answers business needs like data security and system manageability.

Relevance to the small business

The large-business management options may be considered important for those businesses that have a solution provider or value-added reseller satisfying their IT needs. This is more so with retail and food / beverage / hospitality industries who implement computerised point-of-sale or similar systems. Here, a cafe  or restaurant who have their waitstaff taking customer orders at the table could benefit from tablet computers used for order entry.

It is also worth knowing that some of these tablets have been known to be cheaper in many ways to repair than the Apple iPad. This could be evident both in the increased availability of OEM and third-party spare parts as well as the increased access to expertise when it comes to repairing these units.

But any of these tablets can be relevant to the small business not just for jotting down notes, having reference material on hand or using them as a secondary communications-service terminal. Once loaded with the appropriate software or pointing to the appropriate Web resources, these units would come in handy for long-form data entry such as medical applications or surveys or frequent order entry like the aforementioned food and beverage industry.

A stylus can be a valuable option, if not a requirement if you are expected to do data entry using the tablet. This means that you can quickly “pick” options or “type” on the keyboard. Some devices may even recognise handwriting using this stylus.

For some small businesses, the tablet computer with its touchscreen is a valid trend to observe and, where relevant, implement. Similarly, the idea of “bring your own” IT is not new news in small operations but the manageability of this concept can be investigated when the business becomes larger or deals with a solution provider whom assists with the IT needs.