Mobile Devices Abound —

Smart phones, tablets, slates, notebooks and even watches are increasingly used for a mixture of internet related activities.   Employees may own several mobile devices and may have access to mobile devices provided by their employer.  Each device may download files, read and write emails, access websites, and share cloud storage facilities.  This results in a myriad of locations for business related data, including important business communications and records.

Mobile device systems administration is becoming more complex as the proliferation of these devices increases.  Systems administration of mobile device, whether privately owned or owned by the business, must be recognized as a necessary business management function.

Some of the major issues surrounding mobile device systems administration are:

Security
Physical security:  How are these devices protected from damage and loss, including theft.  Are access control procedures in place to prohibit unauthorized users from accessing business data?

• Data security:  Is the business data backed up to a media, USB drives or Cloud storage, to which the business management has access for usage and for restoring backed up data?
• Communications security:  Does your business require that communication links provide security, such as encryption?

Backup and Restore Questions
Are there procedures to regularly backup all business data from mobile devices, workstations and servers?

•  Is the backup format and media easily accessible and restored to a difference device?
•  For example, can smart phone data be backed up to a media which allows restoring to a server?

Mobile Friendly Data Presentation Questions
Is your website mobile friendly so that it adapts to different screen sizes while maintaining a coherent presentation?

• Is the resolution of your website images reduced to speed up the web page display rates and to reduce the bandwidth required for the display?
• Have you minimized the size of downloadable images and documents to both save transmission time and storage space on mobile devices?
• Have you reduced, or eliminated, the use of pdf files which often cannot be displayed without the download of an app, or which are too large to display  and read efficiently on a mobile device?

Developing a Mobile Device Systems Administration Plan
The following is a broad outline of suggested steps when developing a systems administration plan.

• Objectives:  Determine the business objectives regarding managing business data on mobile devices.
• Develop a Plan:  Develop a plan which facilitates your employee’s job performance related to mobile devices, which protects the business data on mobile devices and which makes the data available when needed to any authorized user within the business, not just the owner of the mobile device.
• Employees:  Involve employees in developing the Plan, its Objectives, and its implementation.
• Testing:  Test all aspects of the plan which involve access to mobile device data, its restoration from backup media or cloud storage.
• Monitor:  Continually monitor the mobile device business data procedures.
• Update:  Update the plan and employee training as the plan and mobile device capabilities evolve.

Future Blog Topics
Future planned blog topics will provide more detailed discussions and recommendations regarding mobile device systems administration.