Here's an ad you'll never see: "The new Verizon (or T-Mobile or Sprint or AT&T) smartphone: Your IT department's best friend." After all, the smartphone wars have been about the consumer for some time now, promising more features, more fun, more glitz.
Despite earlier reservations, I've come to love my iPhone, especially when visiting a part of the country -- New York City comes to mind -- where AT&T's much maligned 3G network actually works. But when it comes to business environments, the iPhone falls short. In fact, with the exception of the BlackBerry (which isn't much fun), the smartphone as a class appears to be putting the needs of enterprise users and the IT jockeys laboring to protect enterprise security firmly in the backseat.
[ Find out Android 2.0's real odds of unseating the iPhone in "Android 2.0: The iPhone killer at last?" | Find business-oriented iPhone apps the easy way with InfoWorld's online app finder. | See the 21 apps Apple doesn't want on your iPhone. ]
Indeed, something ugly is under way. IT has the same responsibility for security and network management it's always had, but armed with powerful and relatively cheap smartphones, users increasingly have the power to circumvent those policies, says Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney.
And it will only get worse. Smartphones now account for 14 percent of overall mobile device sales, but by 2012 they will make up around 37 percent of global handset sales, according to a recent Gartner report. You'll see PC makers jumping into the fray, the Android platform will take off, and the battle will continue to be about consumer-oriented features -- not business readiness.
That's great news for consumers, who will benefit from competition-driven innovation and, hopefully, lower costs. But for the hardworking folks in the trenches of network management? "IT will be in a losing battle, blamed for things it can't control," says Dulaney.
IT security: All about the image
Notebooks and desktops, says Dulaney, "are typically managed by restricting the choices that users have by reducing the number of software images. This standards-based process ensures control by reducing flexibility." But try maintaining that system when users can buy a relatively cheap smartphone with as much power as a desktop had in the early 1990s.
"Furthermore, attempts by IT organizations to prevent the use of handheld devices has largely failed because of the number of tools [available] to work around IT policies. For example, users who are restricted from using wireless e-mail often find ways to redirect e-mail to outside ISP services, where they synchronize e-mail to their personally owned devices. This raises the security threat for enterprises because it means that control of e-mail routing has been lost," Dulaney says.
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245 Recommendations
I'm sure there are plenty of valid reasons why IT departments must be "restrictive." But let's face it, the SmartPhone phenomenon is here to stay. Users will always find ways around whatever restrictions IT puts on them. Short of banning the presence of the devices in the enterprise altogether, there's not much that can be done to discourage someone who really wants to, from circumventing the usual restrictions.
That said, IT is, first and foremost, a service department, designed to support the needs of users and the goals of the organization. Protecting data stores and corporate intellectual property from unauthorized access is in there, but when IT methods and tactics conflict with users' genuine and approved needs and goals --- which they often do --- this just pushes users to find more circumventions and to become more devious.
Don't let your paranoia exceed your willingness to embrace and enable new tools, but don't stop watching your back, either. Remember, anyone can use a carving knife to cut Thanksgiving Dinner. The same knife is commonly used as a murder weapon, too.
Trust but verify. Education, leadership, and purposeful management are probably the only tools that truly matter when it comes to security. Yes, we need software and hardware that support our goals, but they needn't be so restrictive that we drive our users crazy.
Why do I harp on this? Because this argument is hocked up every time a new wave of technology hits the beach. You should go back in the annals and the archives and read some of the early pulp editions of InfoWorld around the time the PC revolution was just getting underway. IT managers were always harping about how they were "losing control" and "becoming irrelevant" and "being held responsible for user actions they could not control" because somebody was using a PC to crunch numbers or send data over a phone line.
That always sounds like a desperate power grab to me, or a veiled attempt to justify one's salary through layers of technobabble.
Jeesh. What is IT going to do when we have teleportation to contend with?