The press has been awash during the past few weeks, withspeculation regarding Blackberry's version 10 and their newdevices. All was revealed during the worldwide unveiling recentlyand here at Globo, we didn't see the news as too impressive or thatdramatic.

It is well accepted that smartphones and tablets are changingthe way in which an employee can interact with enterprise systems,services and data and the BYOD trend is certainly here and growingfast. It is also well accepted that employees are much moreproductive if they have access to their corporate data and giventhat the vast majority of employees are requesting this; it is ofcourse a win-win situation.

However, BYOD strategies and the implementation of solutions tosupport this trend require careful thought and consideration,especially where the security and protection of corporate data isconcerned. Aside from the obvious functional needs and expectationsof a BYOD solution, security presents many challenges for theenterprise and I often see a number of the fundamental requirementsoverlooked, ignored or downplayed.

What happens if a device with access to corporate data is lostor stolen, or if an employee leaves? There are, I believe, a numberof security features that should be considered as mandatory whenallowing an employee to have mobile access to systems, services anddata that are ordinarily very secure when accessed within acorporate environment. Mobile is very different and has a whole setof new challenges for security.

Communications should be proxy-based, the mobile device shouldnot communicate directly with back-end systems; all communicationsshould go through a host which resides in the DMZ. This eliminatesthe need for costly and complex VPN solutions. All data held atrest and/ or transmitted should be protected by end-to-endencryption, preferably using 3DES 192-bit encryption on the serverand AES 256-bit on the device or when sent over the air.Authentication is an often overlooked topic and the support of anorganization's existing login credentials is useful, for examplevia LDAP or Active Directory, thus removing the need for distinctuser accounts for mobile access to be provisioned and managed.

I frequently hear our customer and partners talk about thesecurity of data in terms of encryption; however it's far lesscommon for us to receive questions about the control and managementof access rights and permissions to the data, which in my opinionare extremely important aspects of security, too. For example:Access rights based on employee roles, procedures, policies,connection methods and device types. Furthermore, considerationssuch as allowing or denying access to enterprise data and servicesbased on an individual's actual requirements are paramount and thisshould include the ability to permit or deny functions such as copy/ paste.

The ability to securely and effortlessly manage any data andapplications specific to the enterprise on the device in acentralized manner (without the need for costly or complex MDM orMAM solutions) is a requirement we often receive at Globo,especially from our larger customers, as this allows anorganization to perform functions such as the removal of data andapps from lost or stolen devices, to lock down access from specificdevices, update security policies and user access rights, and lockspecific functionality or features to prevent data leakage.

So, my personal recommendation to anyone looking to implement asolution to support BYOD, whilst ensuring full data security, is tostrongly consider a secure, containerized approach to theirenterprise mobility plans. Such an approach seamlessly segregatespersonal and enterprise in a secure manner. This is also a viewsupported by Gartner, as noted in their recent Research Note onthis topic.

My summary on the implications of security on enterprisemobility and BYOD is to choose any solution carefully; only after athorough assessment and evaluation of your current and expectedfuture requirements, whilst keeping a close eye on the emerging andever-changing technology advancements.

Trevor Goldberg isdirector of strategic alliances for Globo plc in London,England.