"Bring your own device" is all the rage these days, as employees use their own laptops and tablets in a variety of locations in and outside their actual workplaces. But that can also be a big headache for IT departments.
"Employees want to work on vacation or from their mother's house or Starbucks, and that's great from a productivity perspective," says Ash Devata, vice president of products for Ann Arbor-based Duo Security. "On the other hand, the IT team wants control, and they need to make sure everyone is complying with regulations related to collecting credit cards or sensitive HR information."
That's where a new partnership between Duo and VMware comes in. At the beginning of August Duo released its Trusted Endpoints feature for mobile devices, integrating VMware's digital workspace platform, VMware Workspace ONE.
Devata says the technology allows an IT team to set up a policy that allows access to a website menu or database with the employee's personal device, but employees must use their company-issued devices if they want access to a critical application that has HR or credit card data.
"It's becoming a trend in how people run a company to give employees freedom to work from wherever they want, but with freedom comes responsibility," Devata says.
Devata says Duo started hearing about VMware from their established clients about 18 months ago.
"They were telling us they used VMware to manage their devices and use Duo products to inspect anything coming into their applications to see if it was a trusted user or device," Devata says.
The clients suggested that Duo and VMware talk to each other about integrating the two platforms. After a few engineering conversations with VMware's team, Duo Security did just that, and they already have several customers using the integrated product just one week after launch.
Devata says that while the new product can help with cybersecurity, employees shouldn't neglect basic security measures. Simple steps like creating secure passwords and updating software with security patches are still the first line of defense, he says.
Sarah Rigg is a freelance writer and editor in Ypsilanti Township. You may reach her at sarahrigg1@gmail.com.
Photos courtesy of Duo Security.
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