Post-critical care using iPhone and iPad

 How MobileIron iOS device management enables iPad deployments.

As a leading provider of hospital-based rehabilitation facilities, medical and surgical therapies, and outpatient services, RehabCare has one important goal: helping people regain their lives after medical treatment. Now RehabCare has turned to iPhone and iPad to make both its caregiver services and its business operations faster, more accurate, and more responsive.

At the company’s headquarters in St. Louis, MO, as well as hospitals and medical facilities throughout the U.S., iPhone gives RehabCare employees immediate access to the resources they need, from business applications to phone, email, contacts, and calendars.

“Mobility is an enormous part of the job here,” says Dick Escue, Chief Information Officer. “We have more than 1200 client hospitals and Skilled Nursing Facilities in 43 states, and we also own 34 long-term acute care and rehabilitation hospitals. So a big part of IT at RehabCare is providing solutions to a workforce spread across the country. To meet that need, we are using iPhone, and iPad.”

“By giving therapists these devices, we can share information with them that we couldn’t before,” says Jim O’Brien, Assistant Vice President of Technology Services. “iPhone excites them because they know it’s helping them provide better patient care.”

Streamlined Patient Services

Before iPhone, patient preadmission screening was a time-consuming process involving multiple paper forms and questionnaires. To simplify this workflow, RehabCare built a customized iPhone app based on the Force.com development platform from Salesforce.com, and deployed via the App Store.

“We took that manual paper process and developed a cloud-based application in about a week,” explains Jayson R. Chitwood, Vice President of Information Services. “Collection of patient data can happen very quickly, and folks have access to it instantaneously. iPhone supports that immediate information transfer.”
RehabCare also contributed to the development of SmartTX Mobile from Casamba, a caregiver app that enables therapists to quickly record patient activities at point-of-care. With Smart TX on iPhone, therapists can record accurate, complete documentation of the time-based activities that drive their billing and compensation.

“Using a mobile device at point-of-care saves time,” says Chitwood. “We’re capturing the treatment delivered, the time spent, and any other relevant clinical information, which makes documentation more accurate and increases compliance.”

iPad Makes It Easy

Rolling out iPhone at RehabCare was straightforward — and iPad was even easier. “We knew we would be able to deploy to iPad rapidly, because the hurdles had already been cleared on the iPhone side,” Chitwood says.

For RehabCare’s executive staff, iPad has become the preferred business tool for meetings and presentations. “I'd rather use it than anything else to bring up email or look at my calendars,” says Escue. “The speed and the battery life are fantastic. I have days where I never turn around and use the desktop. I just use iPad.”
With its large, easy-to-read screen and fast Internet access, iPad is an unbeatable mobile interface for clinical applications and documentation, from diagnostic and imaging tools to nursing notes and patient intake forms. “iPad will be the new workstation for health care workers,” says O’Brien. “With iPad and virtualization technologies, there is nothing we can’t do. It was all about the proper form factor, size, and capabilities. And it’s all there, out of the box.”

Managing Devices Smarter

iPhone and iPad integrate easily into RehabCare’s mobile device management infrastructure, and require only minimal training and support. “It just works,” O’Brien says. “Connecting with Exchange to deal with contacts, calendar, and email is a very simple process.”

The IT team at RehabCare uses the MobileIron app to manage and monitor the company’s iPhones and iPads. MobileIron’s visually rich, intuitive interface allows them to track individual devices, perform remote wipes, and view custom reports in a management dashboard.

“We can see which devices are in compliance and which ones need updates,” says O’Brien. “MobileIron gives you better visual representation to get to the problems. This solution gives us just enough control, and also ensures that our mobile devices are functional and secure in this highly regulated industry.”
Using Citrix virtualization apps, RehabCare executives can remotely access corporate servers via iPhone or iPad. “Citrix enables us to use any enterprise application on these devices,” O’Brien says. “If I want to connect to our health information systems or get into my workstation, it’s the missing link.”

A Healthier Business

Equipping RehabCare’s staff with easy-to-use, process-driven apps on iPhone and iPad helps them improve patient care. It also makes for a more motivated workforce and a healthier bottom line. “iPhone instantly met or exceeded our most fundamental needs,” says Escue. “It reduces spending. It reduces staff requirements. It reduces our support workload significantly.”

“Whether we’re documenting a patient’s treatment, showing a potential patient or family member what our facilities look like, or delivering training to our therapists, we’ve got an iPhone or an iPad in place that supports them,” Chitwood says.

“Everything about RehabCare is people-centric,” adds Escue. “Helping people get back on their feet and get back to work. Using iPhone and iPad, we can do a better job of getting people back home.”

http://www.apple.com/ipad/business/profiles/rehabcare/

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Managing and securing iOS 4 devices at work | Phones | iPhone Central | Macworld

Apple’s iPhone has always had something of an image problem in the workplace, which isn’t surprising given that Apple has always marketed its smartphone more to consumers than to the business world.

In fact, when the iPhone debuted in 2007, there was no way to put third-party apps on one without jailbreaking the device, it didn’t support 3G data networks, it didn’t integrate with Microsoft’s Exchange, and you had to use iTunes to activate it initially and back up or sync data later on. Plus, there were security concerns, since there was no way to require a passcode, encrypt business data or remotely wipe an iPhone if it was lost or stolen.

A lot has changed for the iPhone, its operating system and the smartphone industry as a whole in three years. For people who want to use the iPhone at work and the IT departments that support them, the changes have been good. In fact, some of the major updates in each new iteration of the iPhone operating system (now called iOS) were the ones that made it easier to manage and secure Apple’s mobile platform.

With each passing summer, Apple has polished the business and enterprise features of iOS. It has added Exchange support, support for remote wipe, security and configuration policies (either through Exchange or with configuration profiles that can be loaded onto each device), VPN options and encryption—both whole-device encryption on the iPhone 3GS and targeted app data encryption in iOS 4.

While each of the changes was an improvement, it wasn’t until this year’s arrival of iOS 4—and the iPhone 4 itself—in June that Apple included a new mobile device management (MDM) service that companies could use. As a result, businesses finally got something sorely needed for enterprise iPhone adoption to make sense: the ability to more easily deploy, manage and monitor iPhones used by employees — a capability that has long made Research In Motion’s BlackBerry one of the most trusted mobile platforms.

Note: Although iOS 4 has been rolled out for the iPhone, the iPad won’t get the operating system upgrade until this fall.

Third-party vendors are part of the equation

One surprising thing about how Apple rolled out MDM is that the company largely left implementing it via a server up to other companies. Considering Apple’s penchant for secrecy about upcoming products and its tight control over the App Store, this move seemed out of character. Most people, myself included, figured Apple would offer a robust over-the-air device management solution. And we expected Apple to take a page from RIM’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server and ship something as part of its own Mac OS X Server platform. (That could still happen in the next major OS X Server release.)

Whether or not Apple comes out with its own management server, there are advantages for companies looking to support iOS devices in a secure and managed way. The most obvious one is competition. With seven different options either already on the market or slated to be available by year’s end, companies can choose the one that works best for them. Although many of the core management features of iOS 4 and the MDM service offered by each vendor are essentially the same, there’s still plenty of differentiation among them.

In some cases, the main difference may simply be the management interface. Or it can mean different levels of integration with other technologies such as Active Directory. Other variables run the gamut from the type and format of reports about mobile device use to system requirements (one option is completely Mac-based), cost, existing relationships with providers and the number of non-iOS platforms each can manage.

Standardizing on a mobile platform is tough

Having a standard computing platform is a relatively simple task for most businesses, partly because there’s a limited set of choices: some variation of Windows or Mac OS X. (Yes, Linux and Unix are options, but they typically aren’t chosen for people outside of IT.)

Getting hardware is also easy, since most purchases are made in bulk and typically from a single vendor. If you’re a Mac shop, you’re buying Apple hardware; if you opt for Windows, hardware choices are plentiful.
That kind of standardization doesn’t work as well for smartphones and tablets. Even if your company pays for a smartphone for each employee, IT shops are still apt to encounter problems. Being tied to a single carrier may not be a good choice for all workplaces; different phone models may sport different features (and potentially different management capabilities); phones might only run certain versions of operating systems or offer different sets of bundled or available apps; and there may be varying levels of integration with other systems like VPN, mail servers and intranets.

When workers bring their personal devices to work—as more of us are doing these days—there’s even more potential for problems. IT shops may not even know what devices employees are using, or for what purpose—to say nothing about how secure they are.

A few years ago, companies could afford to buy mobile hardware for their employees. That’s no longer true, and many organizations are embracing the concept of bring-your-own-hardware-to-work. That saves a lot of money, since there’s no hardware to buy and no monthly cell phone bill (for the company). But then you have to manage and secure those devices—or try to dictate what your workers use. (Good luck with that one.)
The most important advantage to Apple’s approach to MDM is that all but one of the third-party companies that have announced or released management servers offer support for platforms beyond iOS. Two of them, Absolute Manage and AirWatch, offer management capabilities for devices other than smartphones or tablets.
Apple would be hard-pressed to develop its own such multiplatform system, as would any smartphone manufacturer. Of course, the specific mix of supported platforms varies with each product, as does the extent of supported features. But that’s the advantage of competition: You should be able to get the one that best meets corporate needs.

Understanding configuration profiles in iOS

A central component to managing mobile devices involves what Apple calls configuration profiles. These are XML lists of different configuration features and optional restrictions that automatically configure an iOS device.

A single configuration file can contain all of the available settings for an iPhone—complete with user credentials for various network resources—or it may contain just a single value that’s not user-specific, such as the details for accessing your mail server, VPN or wireless network. If you put in a server or network-related configuration without specific user credentials, the user will be asked to authenticate the first time they access the resource.

You can assign as many separate granular profiles as you like to any or all phones and they’ll all be enforced. This is helpful if you need to assign configuration data based on job function or department.
The most important features you can set using configuration profiles involve security: requiring a passcode, setting passcode restrictions and forcing employees to use long and complex passcodes. You can also specify how quickly a device locks when not in use and how many failed attempts to unlock it with a passcode are allowed before the device automatically wipes data.

Another security-related option allows you to disable an iPhone’s built-in camera(s). Since it is common for employers to ban camera-enabled devices to avoid sensitive information from leaking, this is an important option in many organizations.
Beyond the security options, there are a number of ways to customize an iOS device for use with your company’s network and resources. You can preconfigure access to Wi-Fi networks, VPN and e-mail servers. You can also pre-populate bookmarks for the mobile Safari browser to ensure that users can easily access internal (or external) Web-based resources. You can even specify Web pages or Web apps to appear as icons on a devices home screen for easier access.

In short, you can do a lot with configuration files to lock down an iPhone.

For more details about configuration profiles, check out Apple’s documentation of the iPhone Configuration Utility. This is the free tool (available for Mac and Windows) that Apple developed for creating and testing configuration profiles. Apple also offers information about various management and deployment scenarios as well as overviews for iOS 4 business integration.

In addition to setting configurations through profiles, the MDM service allows you to query any managed device for more than 20 different pieces of data (including device- and carrier-specific details, as well as usage and verification that security policies are being enforced).

Beyond setting configuration profiles and querying devices, the MDM service allows you to take certain actions on managed devices. You can, for instance, force the device to lock and/or wipe all data. And you can temporarily remove a passcode (in case a remote user has forgotten it). If a passcode is required, the user will be required to create a new one.

You can also install or update configuration profiles as well as installed apps and enterprise application provisioning profiles and in-house apps. All this can be done in the background without user intervention, allowing you to make sure that software, configuration and security policies are in place.
(See below for a full list of the available management and monitoring capabilities of iOS 4.)

Enrolling iOS devices for management

Apple made the process of setting up device management pretty simple using SCEP. A user is instructed to visit a secure Web site and authenticate with his or her user account (typically an Active Directory account or some other LDAP-based directory service). This allows the iPhone to generate a certificate enrollment request and then an identity certificate for the device.

Using that identity certificate and the user’s credentials to establish a secure connection, the device then processes the list of assigned configurations and presents them to the user. When the user agrees to the configurations, the device will download and install the related profiles and can be fully managed.

Management server options

Now that we’ve covered the what and the how of enterprise management, here’s the list of vendors and the expected ship dates for their products:

• Absolute Manage: Expected availability in the third quarter of this year.
• Afaria by Sybase: iOS 4 beta program now in progress, with availability also expected in the third quarter.
• AirWatch: Availability listed as summer 2010.
• Good for Enterprise: Now available.
• MobileIron: Now available, and offering discounts to existing Good customers.
• Tangoe Mobile Device Manager: Now available.
• Tarmac by Equinux: Now available.

Note: Equinux is known for media and networking tools for Mac OS X and iOS. Tarmac is its first step into the realm of device management and is an iOS-specific solution. It lists a Mac as part of its system requirements, and overall it might be better for small and midsize organizations — particularly those that have a strong Apple presence.

Management and monitoring options for iOS devices

When building configurations, you can specify details about the following: Exchange or POP/IMAP mail servers; VPN configurations; Wi-Fi networks (including hidden networks and networks requiring a passcode or radius authentication); LDAP directories for contacts, access to a CalDAV and/or CardDAV server, public or private calendars that support iCal (.ics) subscriptions; carrier (APN) settings; digital certificates; and Web clips.
You can also mandate a variety of security policies, such as requiring an unlock passcode; allowing a simple passcode or requiring an alphanumeric passcode with a special characters; setting how long a passcode can be used; specifying the length of time before automatic screen locking takes place; setting the number of failed passcode attempts allowed before the device is wiped automatically; requiring that the backup created when syncing to iTunes be encrypted; and indicating whether users can remove configuration profiles.
When it comes to locking down an iOS device, you can restrict access to the following: app installation, the camera, screen captures, automatic mail sync while roaming, voice dialing while the device is locked, in-app purchases, items tagged by iTunes as explicit and access to the security settings for the mobile Safari browser. You can also keep users from launching Safari, YouTube, the iTunes Store and the App Store.
The goal is simple: You want to set as many parameters as needed to ensure that the device is as locked down as your company needs.

In addition to device management, MDM is a service that relies on Apple’s push notification system to receive queries and instructions from a management server to interact with any iOS 4 device in the background. That it runs as an always-on background process is the reason third-party vendors couldn’t create such a solution on their own.

You can build queries for a single device or multiple devices that encompass the following areas: unique device identifier (a value unique to each iOS device); the device name; iOS version; model name and hardware version; serial number; total storage capacity and available free space; IMEI number; the modem firmware version; SIM card ICCID; MAC addresses for both the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth receivers; current carrier (home carrier or roaming); the carrier identified by the installed SIM card as the primary carrier; the version of the carrier settings (APN) data; phone number; whether data roaming is allowed; the installed profiles; installed security certificates and their expiration dates; enforced restrictions; hardware encryption capability; whether a passcode is set; installed applications (including app identifier, name, version, and size); and any application provisioning profiles and their expiration dates—something that’s required for internal corporate iPhone apps distributed outside of the App Store.

Some final thoughts

It’s still unclear whether iOS 4 will truly end the belief that the iPhone (and iPad) platform is more about personal entertainment than workplace functionality. It’s also hard to know for now which smartphone and tablet platforms will have the staying power to dominate the market — though I wouldn’t bet against Apple. For now, it seems clear that workers and businesses will have a wide variety of choices over the next few years, with Apple being just one of many players trying to get their feet in the enterprise door.

Being able to effectively support and manage multiple platforms is crucial for any organization that wants an effective mobile strategy. For iOS 4 devices, and others, these tools offer ways to make the coming diversification easier to manage and secure. And while they certainly don’t ensure that Apple’s devices will be welcomed by IT shops, they do make them increasingly viable options for companies in the years ahead.

[Ryan Faas is a freelance writer and technology consultant specializing in Mac and multiplatform network issues. He has been a Computerworld columnist since 2003 and is a frequent contributor to Peachpit.com. Ryan was also the co-author of O’Reilly’s Essential Mac OS X Panther Server Administration.]

http://www.macworld.com/article/153316/2010/08/ios4_devices_workplace.html?lsrc=rss_weblogs_iphonecentral


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A New Mobile Operating System for IT

Had a very interesting conversation this week with a forward-thinking IT department.  They are trying to address the mobile client fragmentation and consumerization problem head on.  They know the demand they are seeing from users will only increase and they know unnatural restrictions on that demand will only inhibit innovation and the growth of the business.

Their strategy is to have a single central management platform that operates across client OS and apps, and then push the decisions and responsibilities for the applications themselves to the lines of business.  In other words, set the standards, enforce the policies, but get out of the way of the applications.  So an agnostic core that supports a diverse and evolving set of user experiences.

It struck me that the central management platform actually becomes IT’s mobile “operating system”.  If we assume that user devices will continue to be spread across multiple client operating systems (e.g. BlackBerry, iOS, Android, Windows variants, Symbian), the only way for IT to truly scale is to reduce the complexity IT itself faces at the core.  Users get to use what they need, lines of business get to deploy what they want, and IT doesn’t get fragmented beyond repair.

95% of the IT teams I talk to these days believe multi-OS is the future.  So the notion that multi-OS management is required is broadly accepted.  However, some look to it as a band-aid to solve the immediate problem of the CEO buying a cool new unsupported device.  What it needs to be, however, is a strategic foundation to ensure IT efficiency and responsiveness in the smartphone era.

http://mobileiron.com/blog/2010/08/management-as-operating-system/


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MobileIron Announces Migration Offer for Businesses Looking to ...

About MobileIron A Gartner Cool Vendor for 2010, MobileIron is solving the ... The MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform is the first solution to give IT ...

it.tmcnet.com/news/2010/07/15/4902463.htm

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MobileIron: A Matter of Trust

Had a very interesting conversation this week about the evolving trust model for mobile security in the enterprise.  I was talking to Terry R, who focuses on risk management and compliance, and he was telling me how his company's perimeter security strategy needs to fundamentally change. 

As he put it:  "Our challenge is that our infrastructure, applications, and databases are designed for a perimeterized world.  Our systems rely on a strong perimeter.  We need to tear that perimeter down."
The catalyst for the conversation was smartphones, which operate almost constantly outside the perimeter.  Since the perimeter is no longer "reliable", security becomes a matter of trust.  Which device do I trust with which data for which user under which circumstance?  The same questions, certainly, as existed before smartphone adoption.  But the answers are now much more difficult to pin down.  The trust model for mobile is a rapidly moving target.  New operating systems appear every year.  New devices appear every week.  New consumer apps appear every minute.  And end-users constantly set and change the debate.

How does a security team keep up?  The more rigid ones will likely fall behind.  The nimble ones will adopt a flexible mindset that can trade effectively between security and privacy, usability and control.  Protecting enterprise data without compromising end-user experience will be the goal.  A dynamic but rational model of trust that can operationalize the model below will be one of the important tools.


(Thanks, Terry, for the ideas behind this post)

http://mobileiron.com/blog/2010/06/a-matter-of-trust/

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MobileIron introduces the enterprise app store

If a device maker like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), a carrier like Verizon Wireless or an OS community like Android can offer an app store, why not an enterprise? As application stores are becoming more tailored to specific platforms and even consumer segments, enterprise mobile software developer MobileIron is taking the same approach to enterprise mobility, creating an internal app store that businesses can use to distribute content and software to their growing base of smartphone users.

MobileIron specializes in making smartphones more palatable to enterprise IT departments, providing tools that allow an enterprise to monitor and control where and how employees use wireless voice and data services on a range of high-powered devices. In August, MobileIron introduced the first build of its software, which generates a virtual image of all of an enterprise’s smartphones so an IT administrator can track employee usage in real time as well as set thresholds for the amount and type of data services used. Today, MobileIron added new features to its platform that give more management control to both enterprise end users and to IT. But significantly, the release also contains MobileIron’s enterprise app store platform.

The app store allows enterprises to create a repository of approved content and apps, which employees can then download and use with the full blessing of IT. Rather than just check off what apps are allowed and which are not, though, the app store allows the enterprise much more nuance. An enterprise can create device or employee categories with permissions for certain types of content. Salesmen, for instance, would find Salesforce.com’s app in their approved storefront, while a field engineer would not. Both field engineers and salesman could have access to vehicle navigation services, and while a desk jockey might be able to download that same application, the company could set usage restrictions limiting when he or she could use it (say, business trips) or require the employee to pay the monthly service fee in a separately generated bill.

“Historically the model for enterprise apps has been the ‘push’ model,” said Bob Tinker, CEO of MobileIron. “IT says, ‘Thou shalt have these applications,’ and they are pushed to your device. But we’re starting to learn from the consumer app store model. It allows the employee to self-select the applications he needs to work.”
The app store has proven to be a platform with which users of all technical backgrounds are comfortable working, Tinker said. In many enterprise models where phones most be pre-loaded with apps or a complex over-the-air push of applications and updates, employees may not realize the full benefits of their device. Some might choose non-approved apps from consumer app stores for the mere fact that they’re easier to access. By adopting an app store approach, an enterprise could be as permissive or restrictive as it likes with its smartphone users, Tinker said.

For example, employees who bring their own smartphones to the table could use it as a consumer device and be billed accordingly, but when they access the enterprise app store, the software they download and the service fees would be paid for by the enterprise. A company could restrict all data usage to the list of the apps approved for the app store, which itself could be open or closed. An enterprise that only wants its customers using their phones for legitimate business purposes could limit the store to just those company-paid and approved apps, or it could chose to include a bevy of entertainment and consumer apps that, while approved, must be paid for by the user.

Version 2.0 of MobileIron’s Virtual Smartphone platform is device independent and can support multiple operating systems simultaneously. So far, the Apple iPhone, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Mobile, Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) webOS and Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerry and Symbian operating systems are all on that list, but Tinker said the Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android platform will be added soon.

For some of the operating systems, MobileIron has had to work within the limitations or restrictions of the distribution platform. Apple’s iTunes App Store, for instance, is the sole source of downloadable software for the iPhone, so MobileIron has developed a solution that allows an enterprise to generate a list of approved apps within the iTunes store. For other OSs, such as BlackBerry or Android, enterprises can build independent app stores that are only accessible to approved devices. Herein lies an opportunity for the operators, Tinker said. While MobileIron is selling the software directly to enterprises that have the resources to host the app store themselves, Tinker said carriers could offer the platform to smaller enterprises or businesses as a managed service.

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Five essential iPad apps for enterprise IT

Apple’s iPad is a revolutionary device. Regardless of whether you prefer or dislike Apple technologies and regardless of whether you believe they belong within enterprise environments, they’re coming. Apple sold more than a half million units in the very first week they became available. Enterprise IT administrators would be smart to consider loading/supporting the following iPad applications to help themselves and users make the most of the new computers.

1. MobileIron Sentry

Many ill-informed iPad detractors criticize the new device, stating iPads place enterprise security at risk. That’s simply incorrect. iPads pose no more of a security risk than do smartphones. Using the free MobileIron Sentry iPad app, enterprise IT departments can track iPhones and iPads, view device inventory, block offending or compromised devices, and remotely wipe stolen, lost or compromised units. The application also enables remotely suspending email access for active staff, just-terminated employees, and others.

Paired with the MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform, enterprise IT departments can leverage MobileIron Sentry to better manage and secure, not only iPad deployments, but numerous other Smartphone platforms. Among the technologies supported are BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian, with Android support forthcoming.

2. Desktop Connect

Enterprise users and administrators needing to remotely connect to other systems can do so using Desktop Connect, an $11.99 application from Antecea Inc. Using 128-bit encryption, Desktop Connect enables iPad users to remotely access and administer Windows XP Professional; Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate; Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate; and Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard systems.

Desktop Connect can also be used to connect to secondary systems to view Adobe Flash video, remotely control media players and presentations, access additional files and listen to audio files. The application can also be used to take remote control of a system in order to provide technical support or remote repairs.

3. Apple’s iWork Suite

Apple’s IWork suite includes the Pages word processor, Numbers spreadsheet program, and Keynote presentation application. At $9.99 each, these Multi-Touch-optimized applications are indispensable when needing to create, edit, or share professional documents — spreadsheets and presentations using the iPad. The iWork suite also enables iPad users to work with common Microsoft Office file formats, including .docx, .xlsx and .pptx files, while on the go.

4. PrintCentral for iPad

PrintCentral for iPad is a $9.99 iPad application. The software, sold by EuroSmartz Ltd., enables iPad users to print email messages, documents, spreadsheets, Web pages, photographs, and other files. Files can also be transferred for printing using iTunes synchronization using a cable, but many users will prefer to print directly to printers connected to their Macs or PCs, which PrintCentral for iPad enables.

Travelers will find additional functionality, in that Print Central enables users to print using thumb drives or using an integrated full-featured email client. The application also permits mounting iPads as a network disk from a Mac or PC, moving and printing files using iDisk and WebDAV technology and even copying files using Bluetooth or Wi-Fi technologies.

5. OmniGraffle

Some of the iPad’s biggest strengths, besides its ease of use, are its portability and ability to comprehend intuitive finger movements. If enterprise users are to truly leverage the device’s full capabilities, a simple application is needed that helps organize thoughts, enable freehand drawing, and essentially replace back-of-the-envelope or napkin drawings.

The Omni Group’s OmniGraffle application, a $49.99 program, is an approachable, easy-to-use app users can employ to create freehand drawings, draft diagrams, create tables, record processes, create Web site wireframes, draft page layouts, and more. With numerous included stencils and templates, OmniGraffle quickly makes an enterprise users’ iPad an incredibly powerful and mobile tool that can be used to fuel brainstorming sessions, power what-if conversations, and capture and record critically important notes, all while leveraging the iPad’s Multi-Touch technology.

Original Article - TechRepublic

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MobileIron Named 'Cool Vendor' by Leading Analyst Firm

Vendors Selected for the "Cool Vendor" Report are Innovative, Impactful and Intriguing

MobileIron, the first company to deliver virtualized smartphone management, has been included in the "Cool Vendors in Enterprise Networking, 2010" report published on April 9, 2010 by Michael King et al, of Gartner, Inc. In the report, Gartner states "Technology providers that qualify as cool vendors must think very far out of the box and provide solutions that are potential game-changers."

Enterprise mobility is in need of such innovation. IT departments are losing control of smartphones due to the challenges of fragmented platforms, user-driven computing, and increasing wireless costs, yet they retain all the accountability. MobileIron's solution combines data-driven smartphone management with real-time wireless cost control. It provides visibility into what's on a smartphone and how it's being used, letting both IT and users better secure data and control costs without compromising privacy, even on employee-owned phones.

"We consider our inclusion in the Cool Vendor report by Gartner confirmation of our mission to solve the challenges CIOs face as business data moves to the smartphone," said Bob Tinker, CEO of MobileIron. "Smartphones are more difficult to manage than laptops ever were. Companies need a scalable solution and that is why we built the MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform."

To access the Gartner report, "Cool Vendors in Enterprise Networking, 2010" please go to http://www.mobileiron.com. You can also see MobileIron in Booth 2009 at the BlackBerry Wireless Enterprise Symposium April 27-29 in Orlando, Florida.

About Gartner's Cool Vendors Selection Process

Gartner's listing does not constitute an exhaustive list of vendors in any given technology area, but rather is designed to highlight interesting, new and innovative vendors, products and services. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness of a particular purpose.

Gartner defines a cool vendor as a company that offers technologies or solutions that are: Innovative, enable users to do things they couldn't do before; Impactful, have, or will have, business impact (not just technology for the sake of technology); Intriguing, have caught Gartner's interest or curiosity in approximately the past six months.

About MobileIron

MobileIron is solving the problems CIOs face as business data moves to the smartphone. The MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform is the first solution to give IT and users real-time intelligence and control over smartphone content, activity, and apps in order to secure the enterprise, reduce wireless cost, and improve the mobile user experience. MobileIron's investors include Norwest Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Storm Ventures. For more information, please visit www.mobileiron.com.

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MobileIron's iPad App Monitors Corporate SmartPhones - Converge ...

MobileIron, a start-up based in Mountain View, California, introduced its MobileIron Sentry App for the Apple iPad. The app provides a mobile command center from which IT departments can monitor and take action on smartphones accessing enterprise email. The MobileIron Sentry App for iPad delivers real-time monitoring and response capabilities including:

* Dashboard view of smartphone connection activity.
* Identification of unauthorized or risky access.
* Blocking of rogue devices.
* Policy setting based on the device type employees are choosing.

MobileIron offers a Virtual Smartphone Platform that helps companies take control of smartphones, including for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, iPhone, Symbian, and Android.

MobileIron is headed by Bob Tinker (president and CEO), who previously led the Business Development team for Cisco's wireless business units. The company was co-founded by Suresh Batchu, previously Engineering Portfolio Leader for application switching and security at Nortel Enterprise Data Network, and Ajay Mishra, who previously was a co-founder of enterprise wireless pioneer Airespace (now part of Cisco).

Original Article - Broadband Wireless News - http://www.convergedigest.com/Wireless/broadbandwirelessarticle.asp?ID=30084

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Businesses Need Mobile Device Management

Mobile operators are struggling to to cope with oversubscribed spectrums, forcing enterprises to resort to mobile management services, says Andrew Garcia

As smartphone adoption continues to increase, mobile operators are struggling—and will continue to struggle—to provide adequate levels of service, as spectrum is oversubscribed or cell-site backhaul gets saturated. So enterprises need to arm themselves with the right information to determine when their client base is adversely affected and their employee productivity is limited by this congestion.

Those of us who work in downtown San Francisco know all too well that AT&T’s service on a weekday is commonly horrendous for both data and voice. We’ve heard this complaint from iPhone customers (including myself, until recently) for well over a year now, and AT&T has acknowledged that it has a lot of work still to do in markets like San Francisco and New York where smartphone data usage (and iPhone adoption) is uncommonly high.

The fact remains that AT&T’s problems in these areas aren’t confined solely to the iPhone. During last month’s RSA security conference in San Francisco, I had lunch with a friend who complained about the mobile phone service around the Moscone Center. She kept getting messages saying “Emergency Calls Only” on her phone. Her corporate-issue Windows Mobile phone, complete with enterprise service plan and contracts, couldn’t get service in the middle of downtown San Francisco.
Mobile device management enters the mainstream

In 2008, I wrote a story enumerating some of the different types of management IT administrators should have over their mobile device and application ecosystem, citing an up-and-coming area that I referred to as service management. I referred to service management as “paying the least buck for the bang,” tracking smartphone usage to cull out and excise neglected devices or those needing different types of plans (like international plans) to better match actual usage. But over time, service management has begun to morph as well, adding intelligence and reporting to be able to track things like dropped calls or signal levels.

When I wrote that story, service management was a pretty niche offering. Operators provided some reports, and third-party solutions could correlate enterprise device and directory data with usage reports from carriers to identify inefficient usage. But now I’m seeing a number of advanced mobile device management platforms adding service management features, starting with cost and usage analysis.

One of the most interesting tidbits I came across during my somewhat unsuccessful attempt to review Boxtone’s device management suite was a series of service management reports that came with its Asset, Expense and Compliance Management module, which attempted to actively define ROI and costs for smartphone usage (or lack thereof). Inventory reports enumerated last message sent and received, providing insight into when a device was last used.

Low-use and no-use reports organise this data, identifying last contact date and the cost of this inaction based on monthly per-device costs. And Productivity reports identify each user’s volume of messages read and sent during nonbusiness hours, allowing managers to assess and put a dollar value on nonbusiness-hour work done via the mobile platform.

Other MDM vendors are growing their service management to encompass wireless performance in the field, which could help an enterprise build a case with their existing operator about poor network performance. That could lead to cost savings—and might even help build a case to change carriers. For instance, MDM maker Mobile Iron’s Mobile Activity Intelligence tracks wireless network performance, logging and mapping dropped calls, signal strength and discovered network coverage gaps over time across the mobile fleet.

Tracking this kind of data requires additional client-side intelligence. BlackBerry devices already have an ongoing dialogue with an associated BlackBerry Enterprise Server that could help form the basis for these reports (Mobile Iron needs to be paired with a BES), but ActiveSync-connected smartphones typically do not. So a device-side client application to collect and report is needed, and Mobile Iron claims to support Windows Mobile, iPhone, Symbian and WebOS. This indicates that enterprises could extend their service management to any employee-owned devices allowed to connect to corporate resources.

Original Article - eWeek Europe - http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/comment/businesses-turn-to-mobile-data-management-services-6235

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Three new options emerge for managing Smartphones in the Enterprise

The surge of iPhones and other smartphones in the enterprise is a major headache for IT departments. Now, there are three new medicines that may help to ease that pain.

All three are hosted solutions for managing and securing smartphones, essentially mobile computers accessing corporate networks and data.

The solutions include a joint effort from Enterprise Mobile and MobileIron; a new mobile e-mail protection service from Mobile Active Defense; and a new add-on for Keynote Systems' automated smartphone application testing service. More

Original Article - http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/converg/2010/031210-managing-smartphones.html

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Panda discovers malware on HTC Magic phone

A Panda Security employee discovered three malware programs on a recently purchased HTC Magic phone when it was plugged it into a Windows computer.

Upon further investigation, Panda found that the employee’s phone contained three malware programs: a client for the now-defunct Mariposa botnet, the Conficker worm as well as a password stealer for the Lineage game, said Pedro Bustamante, Panda’s senior research adviser.

The malware programs were on the phone’s 8GB microSD memory card, which mounts as an external drive when plugged into a PC, Bustamante said. When plugged into a Windows PC, the Mariposa botnet client would automatically run, Bustamante said.

Mariposa was at one time one of the largest botnets responsible for denial-of-service attacks and stealing banking credentials until it was shut down by security researchers in December after they disabled its command-and-control servers. Spanish police have since arrested three men affiliated with the botnet.

Mariposa’s autorun configuration may have overwritten Conficker’s autorun capability, Bustamante said. Conficker is a worm that still infects millions of machines worldwide despite an aggressive campaign by security experts to eradicate it. The password-stealing program would not run automatically unless someone double clicked on the file, Bustamante said.

A Vodafone spokesman said the company is looking into the situation but that it appears to be an isolated incident. “We will obviously fully investigate this and make sure that any necessary changes to our security policies are put in place,” he said.

The HTC Magic phone has been on the market for more than a year, so it’s unlikely that the malware programs were installed at the factory. “It would have popped up earlier,” Bustamante said.

What is more likely is that the phone was purchased by someone else, the microSD card became infected after the phone was plugged into an infected PC, and then the phone returned to Vodafone.

“It was probably returned to Vodafone and sent to another person without flashing it or restoring the memory of the phone,” Bustamante.

Many phones can be reset to their factory settings by pushing a couple of buttons, which would have erased the malware and reset the phone, something that should be standard procedure before selling a refurbished phone, Bustamante said.

“The question is why wasn’t it done,” he said.

Vodafone is tracing the phone, which was ordered in Spain, to see which warehouse it came from, Bustamante said. Vodafone distributes the phone in the U.K., Spain, Germany and France, he said.

Panda, which has published a blog post with screenshots, also plans on purchase two or three more HTC Magics for investigation.

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Enterprise Mobile Unveils Hosted Device Management Solution for iPhone and Other Major Smartphone Platforms

Enterprise Mobile, a provider of outsourced lifecycle services that help enterprises develop, deploy, support and manage mobility strategies, today announced a new Hosted Device Management Solution.

This subscription service delivers a hosted version of MobileIron's Virtual Smartphone platform for managing mobile devices and gaining control over wireless costs, and supports iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian. Android support is planned for Q2.

This hosted offering is one of several Enterprise Mobile solutions designed to provide IT and users real-time intelligence and control over smartphone content, activity and applications through MobileIron's award-winning virtualized smartphone management technology. Together the new hosted offering and Enterprise Mobile's outsourced lifecycle services create the first end-to-end solution for managing iPhones and other mobile devices.

"To protect their corporate networks and control wireless costs, our customers require device management solutions that can securely handle multiple platforms and complement their internal resources," said Mort Rosenthal, Enterprise Mobile Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "With our Hosted Device Management Solution, CIOs can be comfortable with their organization's mobile device management solution, provided through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, paying for the necessary software and IT infrastructure as it is utilized."

"By focusing on mobility outsourcing and implementation, Enterprise Mobile delivers the right mix of processes, tools, and best practices to meet demanding customer requirements," said Bob Tinker, MobileIron President and CEO. "Our continued partnership offers customers excellent leverage of Enterprise Mobile's mobility expertise and MobileIron's innovative platform to solve the security, cost, and usability challenges of smartphones in the enterprise."

The Hosted Device Management Solution includes a comprehensive array of components to enable enterprises to monitor mobile device usage in real-time to avoid unnecessary wireless costs and protect corporate data. Enterprise Mobile provides Subscription Licensing; Set-up/On-boarding; Hosting Administration; Support of MobileIron Infrastructure; and Level I Product Support. Device Management Administration, which includes configuring smartphone settings and polices, and adding, managing and monitoring smartphones, is available for an additional monthly fee.

As an alternative to hosting an organization's MobileIron deployment, Enterprise Mobile can install and deploy the MobileIron solution on a company's premises and proactively provide remote management and reporting services. Regardless of the approach a company prefers, Enterprise Mobile will provide IT with alerts for usage trends, activity spikes, out of network activity and other statistics critical to managing smartphones.

About Enterprise Mobile
Through professional and outsourcing services, Enterprise Mobile helps companies successfully deploy and manage initiatives across multiple mobility platforms. Companies turn to Enterprise Mobile to help them understand and manage new mobility technologies. Drawing on deep mobility outsourcing expertise, Enterprise Mobile can serve as the single point of accountability for enterprise mobility projects, managing the complexities of the ecosystem for enterprises and streamlining processes throughout the mobile device lifecycle. The proven effectiveness of the company's mobility best practices and asset management tools enable customers to outsource mobility with confidence, without reallocating internal resources or hiring new ones. For more information, go to www.enterprisemobile.com.

About MobileIron
MobileIron is solving the problems CIOs face as enterprise data moves to the smartphone. The MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform is the first solution to give IT and users real-time intelligence and control over smartphone content, activity, and apps in order to secure the enterprise, reduce wireless cost, and improve the mobile user experience. MobileIron's investors include Norwest Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Storm Ventures. For more information, please visit www.mobileiron.com.

Read more: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/enterprise-mobile-unveils-hosted-device,1188533.shtml#ixzz0hC8aZccM

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Cooperative Mobility

IT can’t do it alone.  Smartphones are coming in from all directions, many times driven by end-users.  And I haven’t seen many IT departments in 2009 flush with new resources to handle this influx as well as they would wish.  Employees need to share the responsibility with IT to manage security, cost, and mobile apps.  Think of it as self-governance guided by IT policy.

The basic notion of Cooperative Mobility is that most users want to do the right thing but don’t have the data or the tools to always make the right decision.  Cost control is a good example.  Everyone has their horror story of the $5,000 international roaming bill.  Usually it’s not voice – it’s data, because the user just didn’t know how much data traffic email and browsing actually generates.  In almost all instances, real-time visibility would have dramatically cut usage.

But which behaviors can be realistically changed and which require tighter control from IT?  And what is the cost trade-off?  If the premise of Cooperative Mobility is correct, striking that balance will reduce IT costs, scale IT effectiveness and actually increase user satisfaction by pushing more visibility and control to the perimeter.

MobileIron's Smart@Work delivers Cooperative Mobility

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MobileIron Intros Release 2.0 for Smartphones

You might say it's a one-two-three punch coming from MobileIron today. The company introduced Release 2.0 of its Virtual Smartphone Platform, giving more control to IT departments and employees who want to make the most productive use of their smartphones.

There are three parts to the new release: MyPhone@Work, Event Center and the Enterprise App Store.
MyPhone@Work gives workers a searchable history of their communications, similar to how one might look up an old e-mail. The Event Center is a customizable event engine to track and respond to potential security, cost or quality problems. For example, it can reduce roaming costs by capturing international roaming use as it happens and let employees know when they need to get on the proper roaming plan.

The Enterprise App Store component allows IT to customize the store and publish approved internal and external apps, noting whether they are supported and/or reimbursed.

As MobileIron CEO Bob Tinker explains it, smartphones are proliferating in the enterprise, a situation driven by employees, many of whom want to bring in their own devices. IT has less control than desired but still gets stuck with the accountability.

Under a model of what he calls "cooperative mobility," the management of smartphones gets shared more fairly between employees and their corporate IT departments. In the end, users want to do the right thing; the key is driving behavior. "It really is about self-governance with IT guidance," he says. 

"The same things people expect on their desktop ... a lot of that activity is moving to mobile," he says. At the same time, it's important to balance the information that IT needs with the privacy of the end user.

Release 2.0 will be available across all the operating systems that MobileIron supports, including BlackBerry, Windows, iPhones, Nokia Symbian and Palm webOS, with Android support coming next year. MobileIron adds platforms based on what its enterprise customers are asking for, Tinker says.

One of MobileIron's customers is Netgear, a global networking products company where mobility plays an important role in running the business. Generally, MobileIron's enterprise customers have more than 1,000 users.

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MobileIron voted Best in Show

MobileIron won Best in Show at Under the Radar today!  Here's a link to the presentation we gave:  http://www.undertheradarblog.com/  I am really proud of the hard work the team has done to get us here.
It was an honor to be invited to Under the Radar.  There were some awesome mobile startups there and I learned a lot from watching what others were doing.

I thought these guys http://www.m-via.com/ were solving a fascinating challenge of money transfer from US to developing countries over the phone.  And these guys http://hopephones.org/ were collecting old phones and using them to provide better medical care in developing countries - that's impact.

Plus I met Greg Grunberg, who plays the mind-reading cop on Heroes and is both a really nice guy and a mobile entrepreneur (http://getyowza.com/).  A cool day.