Mobile Business Applications Boost Security Demand
By Jatinder Singh
New Delhi, Oct 8, 2007

Enterprises and content owners in India today have to pay heed to the opportunities created due to the unparalleled growth in number of mobile users and their demand for premium mobile content. Similarly, they have also realized the importance of secure distribution, which is essential to the crusade against piracy.

Business users are treating smart phones as important as laptops. They want to use the same applications on their smart phones that are available on their laptops, and this is quickly becoming a common trend.

The trend of employees bringing smart phone devices into work has raised security and systems management concerns. This has led enterprises to accelerate mobility plans and to a better understanding of how damaging security breaches can be.

Security and systems management concerns created by the trend of employees bringing smart phone devices into work are among the issues that are forcing enterprises to accelerate mobility plans. And thereby, enterprises understand just how damaging security breaches can be.

According to the findings of McAfee, 83 % of mobile operators questioned have been hit by mobile device infections. The number of reported security incidents in 2006 was more than five times higher than in 2005.

Prakash Panjwani, senior vice president and general manager (Commercial Security Division) of SafeNet said, "The progression of mobilizing enterprise business applications is in a very early stage in India as the market is very young and companies haven't embraced mobile business applications on a large scale because the software and device platforms are still not available to them in a mature way."

Enterprises will need to further develop and support their information security infrastructure, which will enable them to achieve their business goals. Software makers, device manufacturers, customers and enterprises are all currently working to encourage security solutions, thereby resulting in maturing of this market.

Enterprise penetration in India is going well and enterprises can be seen as the real game changing players.

Through innovations such as Blackberry and through the greater use of mobile data services, businesses have begun to wake up to the many benefits of mobile business solutions, Panjwani further added.

SafeNet, an information security solutions company, has already launched its solutions for securing mobile business and entertainment applications in India.

Solution like Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) has enabled telecom operators to provide subscribers access to multimedia applications and high-speed data connectivity. Whereas by integrating Toolkit4TVstandards-based Digital Rights Management solutions (DRM technology), content owners can be assured that their content is protected from piracy.

While companies like SAP and Oracle have already perfected their wireless systems, large customers would still need time to build business cases and budget.

The next few years will be very crucial for enterprises as they will provide a growing number of management and staff with mobile devices outfitted to access corporate data and applications, and will considerably increase use of applications such as VoIP, instant messaging, and picture/video messaging.

Enterprises will struggle to find the right direction to push wireless use beyond e-mail, till the time software makers and device manufacturers can get their products to align more seamlessly.

Related Links:
Future Point Uses Safe Net to Deter Piracy
Mobile Security Incidents Go Up