Shifting the mobility control point to the Internet
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor
First up, a disclaimer – I’m a big fan of SAAS, and anyone who knows my background might not be surprised that my first contribution to the iPass corporate blog extols the virtues of this model and how I see it helping enterprises.
I’ve been involved with several vendors that have successfully gone down the software-as-a-service (SAAS) path. The success of these companies can, in part, be put down to the fact that they identified perfect solutions to be delivered as a service – mail filtering and web security. What better way to monitor what is going on with the web or email traffic than via a web-based service? Don’t wait until a dodgy email drops into your inbox – filter it before it even reaches your network.
This is the same kind of rationale that has led to iPass to embrace SAAS – a pretty bold move given our success with our previous model, but completely sensible. The way that users get connected nowadays has changed and our shift in delivery model reflects this. The internet – not the VPN – is the new control point for corporate users.
Similar to monitoring web traffic from the web, if users are getting connected to corporate assets via the Internet, then it makes sense to manage these connections from this point. With more and more applications being pushed into the cloud, the corporate network boundary becomes blurred: why manage connectivity from within the corporate network when this isn’t really where the action is taking place?
Forcing users to get on to the company network in order to get connected is also an extra barrier to enabling mobile workers. It may sound simple, but with the SAAS model, a user can get connected securely wherever there is an internet connection. And hey guess what, …this increases productivity!
The benefits of this architecture become even greater when you consider the conversation I had with the Global Head of Mobility at a well-known bank. SAAS is often touted as a godsend for small businesses. But for this huge enterprise, the benefits are significant – imagine having to manage mobility locally across a global workforce of tens of thousands! By putting the service out onto the web, all of a sudden, the enterprise much more easily is managing user connections at a global level.
It reminds me of the old analogy used in arguments about IT security architecture and the best approach to guarding a building – do you secure each floor with guards or do you monitor the building with security cameras that can watch and record everyone that comes and goes? A little simplified, but essentially the second approach involves far less effort and complexity. Likewise, the SAAS model we’ve employed for the Open Mobile Platform will give the aforementioned Global Mobility Manager the ability to take control of mobility from one overarching vantage point – the Web.
This is all part of the ongoing simplification of connectivity that we are trying to deliver. We just want it to be as simple for end-users as opening their laptop, turning it on and then being connected automatically. No need to fire up the VPN, no issues with logging on to the corporate network – if there’s an Internet connection available, you’re connected securely via the iPass service.
Tags: SaaS, Security, vpn
