We live in a convoluted digital identity world. 
We have a corporate or rather office identity with the associated corporate identity credentials, restrictions and privileges. Yet we also have our private identity which is not governed by corporate rules.
The interesting part is the way these two identities intertwine in our day to day activities.
For example, most organizations have strict guidelines governing access to corporate resources. I for one, cannot use my Facebook credentials in order to authenticate to the corporate VPN. However, my personal mobile device contains a corporate VPN profile which allows me to access my corporate email account on my mobile device. T
he same personal mobile device also contains a two factor authentication application which I use to authenticate to other corporate resources which may be located in the corporate data center or the cloud.
We take the use of mobile devices and applications which are embedded in our everyday activities for granted. But in reality achieving the same level of convenience in our work life to that which we are used to in our private life presents a lot of challenges to corporate IT teams.
According to Gartner’s 2016 Planning Guide for Identity and Access Management 1: “Digital business use cases and user familiarity with mobility drive demand for much better user experience in authentication”. This is the reason there is a strong movement to enabling mobile devices and mobile applications for corporate needs.
Here are a few suggestions to keep in mind in order to accommodate your employees’ demands for better user experience in mobile environments:
- Allow mobile access to corporate resources – Best understood by Amazon’s workspaces tagline: “Desktop experience on your mobile device”. Let the end user access corporate resources from their preferred mobile device. The ultimate goal is to match the desktop experience as much as possible but from the mobile platform.
- Provide mobile compatible security infrastructure – It can range from a VPN connection on your mobile phone, SSO portal to Corporate Resources or turning your mobile device into a strong authentication token which ensures secure access to all corporate resources.
- Enable superior deployment and streamlined management for your mobile workforce – It is one thing to take into account the end user perspective but let us not forget the IT personnel that will need to manage that mobile workforce. It is crucial not to overload your helpdesk with additional ticket requests. Find a solution that is easily deployed and a solution that leverages automation workflows and group policies in order to decrease administration overhead.
To learn how Gemalto can help your enterprise mobile security, visit our Mobile Workforce Security site.
1Gartner, 2016 Planning Guide for Identity and Access Management, October 2nd 2015
