Shadow IT, where workers sometimes go rogue in their efforts to solve business problems, can create challenges – and opportunities – for companies in the best of times. With the COVID-19 pandemic still unfolding, these are not the best of times. With most employees and executives still working from home, the big issue for administrators and IT pros still centers on how to make things work in today’s trying circumstances.
Every major platform has controls IT can use, some of them as blunt as a hammer and others that offer surgical precision. At either end of that spectrum lie two common questions: How restrictive does IT need to be and is there a way to fully communicate areas of risk while making business more secure.
Communication is critical if the IT and business sides of a company are to work together cohesively, regardless of where people are physically working. So, I’m not going to simply list the variety EMM and UEM features available across each and every platform. Instead, I want to focus on building the critical trust relationship that’s key to success – not the least of which is to make IT look less punitive.
Mobile management comes of age
Not long ago, enterprise mobility felt like that last thing you needed for a trip and somehow had to stuff in your suitcase. It was its own separate, important but not well understood piece of IT infrastructure. That’s begun to change as the available tools and APIs have become more consistent across products – i.e. this control will restrict this feature on any mobile device from an Android phone to an iPad to a PC in the same way. The fact that’s possible and relatively simple to do shows just how much this space has matured.