In a world where smartphones are becoming increasingly in the workforce, companies are having trouble keeping up with the amount of phones available. If they let their staff access corporate data with their phones, they would have to make sure that the phone is compatible with the office software, and extra precautions would need to be taken to ensure company security. This has lead to companies providing corporate phones to their staff for such purposes. But for the people wanting to use their own phones and not have the hassle of carrying an extra phone around with them, it is not a very viable solution. Not to mention the extra costs it would incur on the company to provide them a new phone and line. VMware has come up with a solution to this. By installing an app on the user’s smartphone, they can switch the phone to “work mode” whenever they need to work in the office, and go back to regular mode when they’re done. This way, the work mode for all the smartphones used in the office can be easily configured and set up by the people in charge- they just need to install the standardized app on their phones. By ensuring only corporate data can be accessed through the app, administrators can easily control the security of the data and keep tabs on who has been accessing what. In the case of a staff leaving the company, all that needs to be removed is the “work mode” of the phone and they’re done. Users won’t have to worry about their regular phone data being monitored or accidentally erased. A pretty clever solution if you ask me. This technology hasn’t been in use yet, but starting next year, VMware and LG will be working together to bring smartphones with the app integrated within. As of now the app only works with Android phones but it will be ported to other operating systems if the need arises. What do you think of such a solution in the corporate environment? Head here to watch a video of VMware in action.
