By Bill Buie

I’m so delighted to be able to tell you that we’ve announced today that we’ve acquired the mobile file sharing company, TappIn.  I’ve put together a few thoughts as to why “going mobile” is critical to GlobalSCAPE:

Much is being written about the “blurring” of personal technology and business technology.  Maybe it’s really a societal statement that more and more of our work  is done on smartphones, tablets and home PC’s.  It’s then a natural extension to ask the IT organization in your company to use them as they see fit.  We have already heard a number of stories that suggest that if IT isn’t ahead of this curve, then users will find a way to do it quite possibly outside the established boundaries and policies. 

We agree that employees should be allowed to leverage the tools that make them most productive.  The productivity improvements alone make this a compelling argument.  And, with remote employees and increasing numbers of contract employees on board, it’s mandatory that they be allowed to collaborate where and how they deem convenient.

This shift is commonly referred to as BYOD, as in “Bring Your Own Device”!  Companies will have to deal with these myriad of devices coming to work by day to connect to your network…and leaving with that access to go home or on the road at night.  For IT organizations who are in the habit of controlling the devices and the configurations, this consumerization of IT will be thought of as a security nightmare. 

They are right.  It will be a challenge. 

This consumerization will require expanded security measures. We’ve heard these smart devices referred to as WMD’s (weapons of mass destruction), given the damage they can do if used improperly.  If you thought passwords and encryption and quarantining information was difficult before this, you haven’t seen anything yet. 
But, the freedom to choose and the productivity gains will rule.   Cisco Systems annual Visual Networking Index Forecast says that by 2015, there will be more than 15 billion network-connected devices, which is more than two for every person on the planet. 

It will be a wise move to work with software providers who realize the importance of this freedom being provided to your employees, with a high degree of security in mind.  We, at Globalscape, take both these perspectives very seriously in everything we do.