Balancing Act: Novell ZENworks Endpoint Security Management – Balancing the Needs of Mobile Security and Agility

by David Ferre

Novell Connection Magazine - November 2009

Here's an excerpt:

The deployment of more laptops than desktops has been a rising trend at most organizations for a number of years. The primary driver for this trend is that mobility tends to increase end-user productivity. In spite of this increased productivity, the mobility of users creates significant security hardships for most organizations. Since users need access to their data while they’re on the move, they end up either copying the data to their local laptop drives or they access their data over network connections that are not managed by the organization. As a result, their tends to be a polar relationship between security and the increase in productivity that mobility provides. The further your data moves from the protective boundaries of your physical operations, the more you increase the level of risk associated with protecting that data and preserving system health.

Fortunately, ZENworks Endpoint Security Management delivers the data, access and device protection that laptops need no matter where they go. The solution provides the necessary security defenses, safeguards and controls you need to neutralize the polar affect of giving users the agility they need to be productive while on the move.

Mobile Data Protection

There are a number of vital questions that if organizations leave unanswered in terms of mobile data protection, they open themselves up to serious profitability, credibility and liability consequences. (See Threat Assessment) In terms of mobile data protection, a few of these questions include the following. Do your users ever store on their laptops or remotely access sensitive data, such as intellectual property or customer data? Can users attach and access removable storage devices on their laptops, such as thumb drives, CD burners or iPods? If a laptop or removable storage device is lost or stolen, can its sensitive data be compromised? These are just a few questions you need to answer to ensure the security of the data on your mobile devices.

Read the article here