The potential for apps to change your business may be greater than you realise. The app industry has grown from strength to strength and shows no signs of slowing down. Workers are bringing more personal devices into the work place and are using apps to aid their work in and out of the office. This week David Dungay talked to Aruba Networks that have a proposition in the app space to help solve a lot of the security risks that sit around BYOD.

Solving BYOD?

Aruba Networks has recently launched Aruba WorkSpace, a new component of the company’s ClearPass Access Management System.

Chris Kozup, Senior Director at Aruba Networks Chris Kozup, Senior Director at Aruba Networks

With the addition of Aruba WorkSpace, for the first time, Network Access Control (NAC), Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Mobile Application Management (MAM) systems are a part of one solution and work together to secure company data and reduce BYOD helpdesk costs.

Sitting on the employee’s device the WorkSpace app contains business applications within an encrypted space so that users can keep their personal lives separate from work. This gives IT departments full control over the corporate information in this encrypted space, but no visibility into personal areas of the device, thereby protecting employee privacy.

Chris Kozup, Senior Director at Aruba Networks commented “Coming from the WiFi networking space WorkSpace was a natural fit for us. We are seeing demands on networks in businesses coming from the increasing BYOD trend and so going that extra mile and offering a MDM solution really plays to our strengths. In EMEA we are 100% channel orientated and the UK is a keen target for us.”

Underscoring the critical need for user privacy, a recent Mobile Device Security Survey commissioned by Aruba revealed that 48% of UK users who bring personal devices to work would feel ‘violated’ if they found out that their IT department had accessed personal data stored on their device. Of these respondents, 54% say they wouldn’t immediately report the loss of these devices to their IT department; this presents a significant security concern for enterprise IT. With Aruba WorkSpace, the combination of MDM, MAM and NAC capabilities integrated into one platform allows IT to secure sensitive corporate data on these personal mobile devices without the high cost, significant resource investment, and potential loss of user privacy and productivity that can result from existing BYOD solutions.

Top of the Apps:

Wunderlist Got a deadline coming up? Need to get organised? Wunderlist could be for you! This FREE app for iOS lets you keep “smart” lists for recurring tasks and sub tasks. You can assign tasks to others and the app will let you know once they are completed. Wunderlist will also let you keep track of your activities making sure your day goes as scheduled.

Expensify Is your top drawer at work brimming with unorganised receipts? Expensify allows you keep track of all your receipts in one place by allowing you to categorise expenses by taking photos of your receipts. It can even sync to QuickBooks online and can be a great pain relief when it comes to working out your expenses at the end of each month. The best part? It’s FREE and available on all the major platforms.

Awesome Note This handy app is great for organising every aspect of your life into one easy reachable place. It can integrate your notes, calendar and to do lists in one place whether you are in the office or on the train. It will sync with Evernote and is a perfect for any entrepreneur type to plan and keep track of their day. Available for £2.49 from the App Store.

Genius Scanner This app allows you to scan documents on the go with you phone and then email them in jpeg and pdf format. You can group and easily locate files and save documents in the cloud using Dropbox, EverNote and Google Drive. Currently coming in at £1.99 on the App Store but is also available on other platforms.

For Fun!

Vapp!

Vapp uses sounds to take pictures making it easier to take hands free pictures. Why not clap, bark or even scream to make the app take a picture. Be careful if you settle on the wolf whistle for activation, passers-by may get the wrong impression! Currently free in the App Store.