I’d been asked to speak to a breakout session at the CITE
(Consumerization of IT Event) conference, and I was joined on stage by
Jason Ruger (Chief Security Officer at Motorola) and Clarence So (a
senior vice president at Salesforce.com).
We
had structured this presentation as a conversation between Clarence,
Jason, and I. Jason acted as the moderator, and questioned
Clarence about typical roadblocks that enterprises can encounter as they
mobilize. My role was to suggest approaches and ideas for
resolving these issues. I was tingling with anticipation about
Clarence’s questions.
Clarence’s first question was right where enterprises start when they go mobile - how do you provide secure and private access behind the company firewall from a mobile device? Fortunately,
this is a solved problem. Most enterprises use a VPN - Virtual
Private Network. This can come in the form of software or hardware or
both. It is often packaged as an appliance solution. Someone in
the audience asked about other techniques, like a reverse proxy. A
reverse proxy supports the same authentication and encryption that a
VPN does, but it doesn’t do packet routing. Some people find it a
convenient alternative for accessing web resources on the intranet.
It’s the reverse of a normal proxy that connects nearby clients to
the distant internet. The reverse proxy connects distant clients to the
resources on a nearby intranet.
The Motorola Mobility booth at the CITE Conference
The
next issue that Clarence raised was one that reflected well on his
company, Salesforce.com. Salesforce’s best known product is its Customer
Relationship Management software which organizes and makes
information readily available online. Clarence pointed out that IT
groups often have problems integrating mobile devices with existing older systems.
The
issue here is two-fold. If the data is not kept in a database or
some other form of structured storage like a data warehouse, then you
may no longer have current documentation describing the data format and
semantics. The original developers will long since have moved on
to other projects. The system continues to do its job reliably, but
opening it up to fresh development is problematic. The second part of
the issue is that there won’t generally be any APIs to access data
in legacy silos. Clarence pointed out that his customer base
won’t encounter this issue, as the Salesforce products provide a rich
data access experience. Some customers use Salesforce to wrap
their data for exactly this purpose. If you don’t have data access
APIs, you’ll need to budget for creating them as the first step in
mobilization.
We
ran through several more issues, and then our speaking session was
over. Jason and Clarence did their usual terrific job, and
thankfully I had good answers for everything. I went downstairs to
the exhibition hall where we had a booth. For the next couple of
hours, I hung out, and talked with anyone who wanted to discuss
mobilization of the enterprise.
I
really enjoy the shows where I can hear the concerns of developers
first hand, and work with them to brainstorm possible approaches to
resolution. It’s a bit like Forest Gump’s box of chocolates - you
never know what you’ll get next. If you’re going to a mobile
device conference soon, look for me in the Motorola booth, and let me
hear about any enterprise mobility issues you have - I’m a good
listener.
Peter van der Linden
Android Technology Evangelist
DJ_Ksar
on:
The Deathly Hallows of Mobile Security
