If you’ve read my other blogs, you know that I deal with a lot of "it depends". Today I’m going to deviate from my usual path and say that, without a doubt, tablet computing in the enterprise is already here to stay, so you’d better get used to it. There it is. Now what do you do with it?
My advice on that subject is equally firm: You take charge, set limits, create policies and dictate the terms, under which tablets enter into your enterprise. Anything less will only create headaches. Here are three key areas to manage during that muscle flexing.
Suitability
Tablets are an unavoidable part of your IT future, but that doesn't mean you need to reward bad behavior with your tacit approval of inappropriate usage. Tablets are tools and should be treated as such. In certain verticals, such as healthcare, higher education, construction and field sales, tablets are a graceful answer to questions that have been asked for decades. In other industries, laptops, desktops, mobile phones or PoS scanners that have been doing the job for years may still be better choices. There’s no crime in supporting only the hardware that makes sense for a task.
Be sure to factor the degree of effort into your decision. For example, an iPad is horrible for word processing, and a custom app wouldn’t be worth your time; but if a few quick tweaks to your existing Web-based office application can render it iPad-friendly, it can’t hurt to make some friends.
Supportability
When you bring a tablet into your enterprise, you are almost certainly introducing a new operating system, and you are definitely introducing new applications and hardware. To echo a lesson, many CIOs learned the hard way with mobile phones that no two devices are ever the same. Every variation, even within product lines (e.g., WiFi-only iPads versus iPads with 3G) will expand that impact dramatically. To keep your support costs from exploding, limit the selection available to your employees and make it known that 'bring your own' is not an option (or, at least, will not qualify for tech support). And if you do allow multiple hardware configurations, try to stick to a single operating system to ease the process of centralized administration.
If possible, as described above, refrain from writing custom applications unless there is a legitimate need to harness the tablet’s specific hardware. HTML and CSS are standards on nearly every hardware platform, and server- and cloud-based storage will always be more secure and reliable than client-side storage; so, don’t develop custom code unless it’s truly necessary. You’ll only have to support it in the end.
Security
No blog would be complete without a bit of fear, uncertainty and doubt involving security. I’ll try to keep this brief, but it’s worth visiting two key points.
First, you need to secure your devices. A tablet gets lost as easily as a handheld and does as much damage as a laptop. Add the additional risk of theft from the “shiny” factor into the mix, and you have a very dangerous combination. To handle this, combine built-in data protection that comes out of the box with additional remote administration tools to wipe and reprovision hardware, and store as much data as possible on a secure server or cloud.
Second, secure your applications. Hire a third-party security consultancy to test your custom applications for weaknesses, and verify that your tablets’ browsers have not exposed any new holes in your existing Web-based apps. If you’re in a compliance-focused industry, you may be required to perform this analysis, anyway.
For more information, see:
Make "Bring Your Own Technology" Policies Work for Your Enterprise
Five Tips for Smooth Application Rollouts
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