Tag Archive for Tablet computer

Six Steps to Avoid BYOD Pitfalls

Six Steps to Avoid BYOD PitfallsIn a recent article on the Forbes CIO Central blog, Dan Woods interviewed Brian Madocks, CEO of PC Helps, a services firm that provides supplemental help desk services for more than 1.6 million end-users. He has been on the front lines as many of its clients have opened up BYOD.

I want an iPadIn the article, Forbes offers advice on how IT departments can respond to users who show up at work and declare: “I want an iPad.”  The author warns that ignoring the corporate use of personal devices (smartphones, iPad’s and other tablets) leave both end-users and the IT department quite unhappy.

Mr. Madocks says the biggest myth is that allowing personal devices to be used for work-related purposes reduces the support burden. At first, this seems strange. If people use devices they know well, shouldn’t they need less help? Also, if an employee is using an iPhone or iPad, won’t their support questions be handled by AppleCare, Apple’s support arm? Mr. Madocks says no. Consumerization reduces some types of support but generates others. Here’s what happens.

ConsumerizationThe number of calls about how to use the device may go down. People know how to use their phones, get on the Internet, and use Facebook. But the number of calls about how to get their corporate email, calendar, and contacts working on phones or tablets may go up. With Apple (AAPL) iPhones and iPads and the fragmented Google (GOOG) Android versions out there it’s even more complicated. The PC Helps CEO reports that users can be frustrated when they go to Apple’s Genius Bar, AppleCare, or to Google for Andriod support and find out that they won’t get any help there because the staff doesn’t know how to support your corporate environment or the applications used within it.

With a multitude of personal devices in your workforce, the support burden may increase and your help desk may not be able to keep up with the unique features and aspects of all the devices. Mr. Madocks concludes that no matter how you allow access to the corporate resources the support burden NEVER disappears.

The support experts from the PC Helps brain-trust, developed a playbook for organizations considering a Bring Your Own Device model:

Don’t just say no to “bring your own technology”: The cat is out of the bag. End users are more productive when they have a vote on the tools they use and their support. PC Helps suggests IT show some leadership and help figure out how to get BYOD (PDF) right so that the company is protected and the users are happy. Recognize that consumerization means giving up some control; learn to live with that.

Listen to the end-users: Create an internal customer advisory group to allow end-users to explain what they want and what they don’t. The article says one of the primary drivers of consumerization is the wish to have work and personal content and capabilities on a single device. Craft a draft set of policies and guidelines based on this input.

Help deskResearch and test your approach: Consider a pilot program before full rollout that includes a mix of key users. Discover the range and types of preferred devices as well as the corporate systems, networks, and applications users will need access to. The blog recommends that you incorporate your findings into the broader rollout plan.

Document and communicate a clear set of policies and guidelines for end-users: Everyone should know what the company policies are for personal devices and where to find them. Explicit review of policies and testing for understanding should be performed from time to time, or as new devices arrive and raise new issues. The policies should set forth:

  • Which devices will be supported.
  • How to request new/more devices,
  • Which apps are authorized,
  • Which apps are forbidden,
  • How to get approval for new apps,
  • What company data is allowed on personal devices,
  • How to get support for devices and applications.

The policies should also answer the following questions:

  • When a device is no longer used for work or an employee leaves, what are their responsibilities to securely deletion corporate data?
  • Where and how will devices be backed up?
  • Who is responsible for backup?
  • Are lock and password-protection required, and how is it managed?
  • Who will provide support?
  • What kind of support questions should be directed to device manufacturers?

ComplexityPlan for a more complex support burden: Allowing personal devices means a world with more devices, which in turn multiplies the knowledge needed from the help desk. There will be more questions on setup, remote access, and use of corporate applications, as well as problems unique to the different devices. There will be more complex support scenarios, such as, how to use Microsoft Office applications on non-PC devices. Be sure you have a support plan and trained people in place.

Don’t rely on device manufacturers for support of your end-users: Manufacturers can handle break/fix and warranty support on products, but they won’t know your corporate policies, processes, nor the core office applications your users work with every day. Apple iPad owners have access to AppleCare and Genius bars, but this is all geared to consumers. AppleCare won’t help with many synchronization issues related to accessing corporate email on the iPad, nor provide urgent support for deadline-related business situations.

a risk to IT’s reputationEnd-users may get the run-around, going to the manufacturer and then to their wireless service provider, to your internal help desk, and to peer support for help, wasting time and productivity on something that could be solved in a single call. Devices for corporate use should have corporate support or they will present a risk to IT’s reputation in the organization.

Prepare your help desk for the task: The help desk in a BYOD IT environment is a different type of organization, one that must be able to respond to the unexpected. Mixed device environments require specialization and expertise, as well as ongoing training and skill-building. Your existing help desk staff may need to be retrained, expanded, or supplemented.

In the end, Mr. Madocks reports that the firms PC Helps assists in consumerization don’t regret their decision. “While consumerization creates complexity for support … The company’s workforce is happier and more productive, and the reputation of IT as a supporter of the business is greatly enhanced.” The end result is generally happier users and happier IT, but there are complications.

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It is my experience that most people who push consumer devices into the enterprise, don’t have a plan. They want their iPads, for valid or not so valid reasons. Some staff seemed surprised when they could not print to the enterprise printer on the enterprise network with the iPad they just brought in.

I place a great deal of the blame at the feet of Apple. I have had Apple engineers look me straight in the face and tell me that iPads are consumer devices and not designed for the enterprise and that Apple does not intend to fix it.

They do not use standard protocols and BYOD proponents don’t even know what Bonjour is, let alone the limitations of Bonjour.

http://blogs.forbes.com/ciocentral/2011/02/07/i-want-my-ipad-avoiding-it-consumerization-pitfalls/
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedInFacebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Tablet Info

Outside the office, workers turn to the tablet over the PC

Outside the office, workers turn to the tablet over the PCTablet computing is not overtaking smartphones or PCs in the enterprise, but they’re definitely carving a new business niche for themselves a survey conducted by cloud content management firm Alfresco shows. According to the data cited by GigaOM, tablets have replaced the PC as the go-to workstation for working at home and on the road.

The Alfresco study found that staff is using tablets:

  • 48% of enterprise employees are using tablets after hours at home,
  • 55% of respondents use tablets at business meetings (vs. 24% using PCs),
  • 50% are turning first to slates at conferences, compared to 13% using their laptops.

Alfresco reported that employees prefer the smartphone at more informal business functions

  • 57% using them at business lunches and
  • 51% using them in coffee shops.

But the tablet is also starting to become commonplace even in those more casual settings: 34% of respondents said they would haul out their slate at a lunch meeting, while 43% would do the same in a coffee shop.

The Alfresco data indicates that the 3-screen reality is coming true. Tablets aren’t replacing either smartphones or laptops, but are instead creating a new space in-between. The vendor says it’s pretty clear that laptops are increasingly tethered to the desk or cube, while tablets are the tool of choice on the go.

RB- This has huge implications on the support side of the equations

Incorporating Tablets into Enterprise Security

Incorporating Mobile Devices into Enterprise SecurityEnterprise information security hasn’t caught up with the consumerization of IT according to Lenny Zeltser in a recent article on the Lenny Zeltser on Information Security blog. The author states that the urgency with which organizations need to account for consumerization is driven by modern mobile devices such as Apple iPhones and iPads.

Enterprises are coming to terms with the idea of employees connecting to the corporate network over a VPN. Be it from personal laptops and home workstations according to the article. However, most organizations haven’t looked at the effect that the proliferation of powerful mobile devices has on enterprise security architecture.

Mobile devices sometimes have VPN-like access to the corporate network. In most cases have access to the company’s email contents, calendar, and address book. The devices are as powerful as laptops were just a few years ago. Yet, their operating system’s security has not benefited from the test of time. Tablets and mobile devices lack most of the security controls we’d expect to find in a “legacy” workstation OS.

Mr. Zeltser argues we need to understand how to model the threat vectors related to mobile devices and how to adjust the security of the enterprise architecture accordingly. The measures will probably involve:

  • Greater segmentation of the company’s network,
  • Treating any device that users interact with, whether it’s a desktop or a mobile phone, as an untrusted node,
  • Standards and tools to lock down the configuration of mobile devices,
  • Practices and technologies for managing vulnerabilities in applications and the OS of mobile devices,
  • Incident response plans that incorporate both “legacy” IT infrastructure assets and mobile devices.

BYO tablet? Three ways business is getting it all wrong

BYO tech? Three ways business is getting it all wrongSilicon.com had an article describing Three ways businesses are getting BYOD all wrong. The author claims the days of the standard work-issued laptop are numbered as businesses let staff use their own computers and gadgets in the workplace.

However, in the rush to adopt bring-your-own tech, businesses are placing too many restrictions on how personal devices can be used at work according to Anthony Vigneron, collaboration services global manager at global law firm Clifford Chance. He estimates that about 10 percent of firms’ 7,000 staff share the same device at home and work.

Mr. Vigneron described for silicon.com three ways businesses get it wrong when it comes to letting staff use personal devices at work.

Use sandboxing

Businesses are often advised to provide personal devices with secure access to corporate systems using sandboxed virtual machines. Sand-boxed machines allow remote access to corporate info via a virtual desktop that is run from the business’ data center.

He says it is better to let users access corporate data and apps from their device’s own OS. “Trying to deliver applications within a sandbox is not what users want. That’s not consumerization, that’s just another way of providing the same apps on different hardware,” he said.

People want to use the native applications. They don’t want to have to log in through some other system.” He concludes “The business should be able to control some of the applications staff use but you don’t want all those things inside another application.

Give them a choice

Mr. Vigneron argues that the line where work life ends and private life begins is becoming increasingly blurred. So it doesn’t make sense to treat them as two separate entities. By not allowing workers to merge their work and home calendars, contacts, and emails, businesses are imposing an artificial distinction on their staff. He explains, “You do want some separation … People want the choice of being able to work with the same interface.

Costs matter

Letting staff use their personal smartphone while working may seem like a good idea. However, employees might be in for an unpleasant shock when they get their phone bill. Mr. Vigneron said “For companies to allow for consumerization, the price has to get to an equivalent of what we can get as a corporate. They’re not doing that at the moment.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedInFacebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

LCD Tech Explained

LCD Tech ExplainedLCD panels are crucial to the adoption of most mobile technology. Without LCD panels we would probably be stuck with mobile devices that still look a lot like the Compaq Portable. Engadget points us to a video from the EngineerGuy, aka Bill Hammack which does a great job of explaining how an LCD panel works and what backlights, light diffusion, and subpixels have to do with viewing talking dogs on your new iPad.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedInFacebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

‘Personal Cloud’ to Replace PC by 2014, Says Gartner

‘Personal Cloud’ to Replace PC by 2014, Says GartnerMike Barton wrote on Wired’s Cloudline that there’s no doubting the cloud invasion. But the research firm Gartner (IT) believes the personal cloud will replace the PC as the center of our digital lives as soon as 2014.

Gartner logoSteve Kleynhans, research vice president at Gartner, said in a statement, “Major trends in client computing have shifted the market away from a focus on personal computers to a broader device perspective that includes smartphones, tablets, and other consumer devices.” He continues, “Emerging cloud services will become the glue that connects the web of devices that users choose to access during the different aspects of their daily life.”

cloud-happy futureIn the article, Mr. Burton writes that Google plans a cloud-centered future with Google (GOOG) Play and Android mobile OS. But the personal computer will also not miss out on the cloud, as Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL) are planning to weave the cloud into the next generation of their desktop operating systems, Windows 8, and OS X Mountain Lion.

But a cloud-happy future will not be as easy as that, because Gartner says, “it will require enterprises to fundamentally rethink how they deliver applications and services to users.” Gartner sees a number of factors are converging to make for a perfect personal cloud storm by 2014.

Megatrend No. 1: Consumerization— Gartner says what corporate IT has seen so far been a precursor to the major wave that is starting to take hold across all aspects of IT as several key factors come together:

  • ConsumerizationUsers are more technologically savvy
  • The internet and social media have empowered and emboldened users.
  • The rise of powerful, affordable mobile devices changes the equation for users.
  • Through the democratization of technology, users of all types and statuses within organizations can now have similar technology available to them.

Megatrend No. 2: Virtualization — Virtualization has improved flexibility and increased the options for how IT organizations can set up client environments.

App-ificationMegatrend No. 3: “App-ification” — Apps change the way applications are designed, delivered, and consumed by users and it has a dramatic impact on all other aspects of the market.

Megatrend No. 4: The Ever-Available Self-Service Cloud
– The cloud opens a whole new level of opportunity for self-servicing users. Every user can now have a scalable and nearly infinite set of resources available for whatever they need to do.

Megatrend No. 5: The Mobility Shift — Wherever and Whenever You Want Today, mobile devices combined with the cloud can fulfill most computing tasks, and any tradeoffs are outweighed in the minds of the user by the convenience and flexibility provided by the mobile devices.

The Mobility ShiftGartner’s Kleynhans said. “In this new world, the specifics of devices will become less important for the organization to worry about. Users will use a collection of devices, with the PC remaining one of many options, but no one device will be the primary hub. Rather, the personal cloud will take on that role. Access to the cloud and the content stored or shared in the cloud will be managed and secured, rather than solely focusing on the device itself.”

Wired says that former Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie made the same point recently, “People argue about, ‘Are we in a post-PC world?’. Why are we arguing? Of course, we are in a post-PC world.” Ozzie reportedly told a conference,  ”That doesn’t mean the PC dies; that just means that the scenarios that we use them in, we stop referring to them as PCs, we refer to them as other things.”

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Goodie for Gartner, they get paid for codifying the obvious. Consumers are moving to the personal cloud. DVDs vs.Netflix streams. Files on your hard drives vs. some distant data center run by Dropbox. Photo albums vs. Flickr. Books vs. Kindles and Nooks.

Related articles:
  • Supermodels, Megatrends, and Ultra Big Paradigm Shifts to the Cloud

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedInFacebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Tablet Notes

Tablet computer ownership will lead the industry over the coming 12 months as all-in-one devices continue to grow in popularity according to the CEA.

Windows 8 Tablets in November

Windows 8 Tablets in NovemberExpect the first wave of Windows 8 tablets to land in retail stores in November, according to CNET. A secret source deep within Intel (INTC) says the Intel-based Microsoft (MSFT) Windows 8 tablets will use Intel’s upcoming Clover Trail Atom chip. DailyWirless says that Clover Trail is Intel’s first dual-core Atom design based on its 32-nanometer process technology.

The author says the tablets will fall into two basic sizes: pure 10-inch tablets and hybrid 11-inch designs with physical keyboards. Windows 8, like Windows 7 before it, will be powered by chips from Intel and AMD (AMD) and will be able to run older, so-called “legacy” applications.

A separate release from Microsoft, Windows RT, will land on devices powered by ARM (ARMH) chip suppliers NVidia (NVDA), Qualcomm (QCOM), and Texas Instruments (TXN). RT will not run older Windows applications.

Chinese Tablet PCs Peel Away at Apple

Chinese Tablet PCs Peel Away at AppleApple Inc may find it harder to keep market share in China because homegrown tablet PC brands will win over more customers says a report on China Daily.com. Sun Peilin with Analysys International, told China Daily, Apple’s (AAPL) market share will shrink to about 70 percent, “Chinese tablet PC makers are trying to form a stronger echelon behind Apple by taking over the market share that belonged to small copycat manufacturers.

Apple’s iPad and iPad 2 took 78.3 percent of the market share in China in Q1 2012, distantly followed by Samsung’s (005930) 5.1% and ErenEben’s 4.5% according to the article. AI’s data indicates tablet PC sales in China are expected to break 4.5 million units. Companies including Lenovo (LNVGY), Acer (ACEIY) and home appliance giant Haier Group, are releasing their own tablet PCs.

Sun from Analysys states in the blog the biggest obstacle Chinese brands face is how to come up with a different marketing angle against Apple, to avoid head-on competition with the iPad. “There are two separate markets for tablets: You can either go entertainment or business. The iPad is a big competitor in terms of entertainment, so Chinese companies should be different from iPad,” Sun suggested. Some Chinese companies have already differentiated their tablets. Beijing ErenEben Information Technology Co, a business tablet PC maker, won a government contract to provide tablets to the police department in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

According to Fang Liyong, COO of ErenEben, the company sold nearly 150,000 units of its first two generations of products in 2010, making it the biggest homegrown tablet PC brand by sales volume. “We are now selling nearly 30,000 units every month in 2011,” he said.

With a touchscreen developed by Japanese graphics-tablets maker Wacom Co Ltd, the ErenEben tablets were designed to offer an experience similar to writing on real paper. The COO boosts, “ErenEben has great growth potential, because China’s tablet market is so big, and Apple cannot take it all.”

iPad Suit

iPad SuitMohan’s Custom Tailors of New York is taking the boring and basic out of the word “suit” by designing a new and improved version for the modern man. According to their website, as men are dressing up and going out to dinner dates, museum galleries, and lounges in fine style, Mohan’s is creating contemporary and handsome designs to fit their needs. Mohan’s has introduced the fashion of the future with their new tech offerings, including pockets for your Research In Motion (RIMM) Blackberry, Apple (AAPL) iPod, iScribe, Bluetooth, and more. Most recently, they have revealed the first-ever iPad pocket in menswear, creating a fashion rush for “techies” around the world.

iPad Bacon Case

iPad Bacon CaseAt Antje Schmitt’s storefront at Etsy, the famous handcrafted Bacon Case for the Apple (AAPL) iPad 3 is now available. The Bacon Case is also available for older iPads, MacBooks, Netbooks, and Notebooks.

ZD.net – “The undisputed king of the weird category however, is the iPad bacon case ($59, pictured), which I’m ordering immediately.”

Gizmodo – “It’s $59, but who cares? Bacon iPad cases are what money was invented for, people. Well, that, and both actual bacon and actual iPads.”

Gearfuse – “Bacon and Apple products go together like peas and carrots. Or lamb and tuna fish. They’re both the perfect byproducts of their respective categories. Pimp your iPad with pork with the custom-made Bacon iPad case. It might not be actual bacon, but it’s realistic design is enough to make you wish you had a side of eggs to go with your balanced breakfast of pork and tablet.”

Clueful Scans Your iOS Apps For Privacy Behavior

Clueful by BitdefenderSecurity firm Bitdefender has introduced Clueful, an app that scans your Apple (AAPL) iOS apps lets you see what information other applications installed on your iDevice might have access to. Once downloaded and installed (iTunes), the $3.99 app scans your iPad 3, iPhone 4s or other iOS Apple products to see what’s installed and puts it in a list that can be filtered based on the various kinds of behavior. This includes things like:

  • Apps that can track location
  • Apps that can read the address book
  • Apps that might drain battery
  • Apps that use iPhone’s unique ID
  • Apps that display ads
  • Apps that gather analytics

These behaviors are listed in the results and explained on each app’s detail page. However, Clueful doesn’t log how often these behaviors happen. Clueful also notes if your data is encrypted, and if app makers anonymize you as a user, CNET News.Com reported.

Besides scanning what you have downloaded, the article explains that the software is designed to let you research what kinds of information an application wants to use before you buy it from the App Store. However, the author says, ” this appeared to be a work in progress, it is slow and unable to pick up a handful of big name games and apps.”

Bitdefender maintains all the data behind the privacy analysis, and users can ask to have apps that are not a part of that system analyzed. CNet states that Clueful comes some three months after Apple came after fire for the fourth time over how iOS and apps log and send user information to third parties.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedInFacebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.