The Enterprise Desktop Alliance has changed its name to the Enterprise Device Alliance (EDA) and extending its scope to include Apple iOS devices in response to the widespread acceptance of smartphones and tablets by large organizations.
The EDA and its member companies conduct research, provide education, and deliver solutions to organizations that need to integrate, secure, and manage Macs, iPads, and iPhones within their established, Windows-based IT infrastructure. More information about the organization and the member solutions is available at http://www.enterprisedevicealliance.org .
“IT departments in large organizations are being pushed to accommodate user demands to integrate Macs, iPads and iPhones into their IT infrastructure,” says T. Reid Lewis, president of the Enterprise Device Alliance. “The members of the Enterprise Device Alliance provide solutions that easily extend current IT infrastructure and management practices to secure, to deliver services to, and to manage Macs and iOS devices.”
The adoption of mobile devices by employees of large organizations has reintroduced many of the same challenges brought by the introduction of the laptop. The EDA says the IT staff have to quickly learn and implement best practices to:
° Secure the company’s and its customers’ information when access is untethered from a physical location;
° Ensure that the company is complying with government and industry regulations related to data access;
° Maintain compliance with mobile app software licensing;
° Discourage a resourceful and determined user community from bypassing the legal and ethical constraints related to application usage and data access to which responsible organizations adhere;
° Provide users with secure and managed alternatives to self managed, often unencrypted file downloading and distribution;
° Manage the loss or theft of a device that fits in a pocket, yet can access a corporate database.
The Enterprise Device Alliance is conducting a survey of enterprise administrators to determine the penetration of smartphones and tablets devices into their organization and to examine the management priorities they are confronting. SFor a link to the survey go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RTN2TFV?c=prmac .