EDITOR’S QUESTION
Rabih Dabboussi
General Manager, UAE, Cisco
Today there are 10 billion connected
devices but this number is expected to grow
exponentially – exceeding 50 billion sensors,
objects and other connected “things” by
2020. Adopting BYOD comes with a set of
challenges for any organisation. Many of the
benefits of BYOD, such as having the choice
of any device and anywhere, anytime access,
are somewhat antithetical to traditional IT
requirements for security and support.
The process of creating a safe and productive
BYOD environment begins with understanding
the goals of the organisation with respect to
mobile devices. Most organisations fall into these
four categories: Limited: where the only devices
allowed on these networks are supplied by the
business; Basic: the vast majority of the resources
available on these networks can be accessed and
data that requires protection can be placed on a
secure VLAN and protected from unauthorised
mobile device access; Enhanced: features more
differentiated device and user access and a wide
range of security policies; and Next-Generation:
where environments are created that encourage
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mobile device use and generate benefits from
that use.
Once an organisation decides which BYOD
policy makes sense for them, they can
build an infrastructure that supports it. As
corporations begin to embrace an “any
device, anywhere” strategy, IT administrators
need to address personal mobile devices
in the context of a threat landscape
characterised by highly sophisticated and
sometimes targeted attacks. They need to
know who is on the network, the location
of that individual and whether they are
accessing the appropriate resources.
Obtaining and acting on this information
wwill require multiple departments to
collaborate in defining the processes and
procedures that comprise an appropriate and
successful mobile device strategy.
Once business and security decisions are made
in tandem, security solutions become part of an
organisation’s operating fabric.
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