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Netflix and Good Technology like NFC for building access

Ryan Kim — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 04:00:20 +0000

While Apple passed on integrating near field communication (NFC) into the iPhone 5, a couple of Silicon Valley neighbors have been testing the short-range wireless technology for building access to see how workers can one day use their smartphone as keys.

Netflix and Good Technology recently completed two pilot programs with security specialist HID Global, in what HID calls the first enterprise test of NFC for building access in Silicon Valley. Under the pilot programs, which began in early August, about a dozen employees at both companies were outfitted with Samsung Galaxy S III smartphones, which were equipped with a microSD card with an NFC chip. Using the HID’s digital keys on the phone, users could open doors by tapping their phones on iClass SE readers from HID.

Netflix used NFC-equipped phones to replicate its proximity keyfobs, which its employees use for building access. The company was able to provision the phones over the air with the needed digital keys for access. Good Technology went a step further by testing out a two-factor authentication system, so users were required to enter in a pin before tapping their phone at a reader.

Netflix and Good Technology are still evaluating the technology and there’s no immediate plans to use NFC for wide-spread building access. But the companies found a lot to like about using phones for physical entry. Here’s some of the feedback:

More than 80 percent of Netflix testers said the application for unlocking a door was “intuitive,” and nearly 90 percent described it as easy to use.
87.5 percent of Netflix respondents said they would want to use a smartphone to open all locked doors at Netflix.
More than 80 percent of Good Technology users said the smartphone was more convenient to use than their existing access card.
More than 83 percent of users at Good felt that building security was improved by using a smartphone.

Using a smartphone for building access works in part because people rarely leave their phone behind, something that happens more frequently with access cards. And the phone also provides more security because users can secure the phone with a password and are trained in how to use the digital keys.

But don’t expect NFC-equipped smartphones to be used for building entry right away. The tests also highlighted several challenges as well. Respondents said they needed an always-on solution, that can work even when the phone is dead or in use for calls or other actions. That’s going to take some work on HID’s part. And the use of NFC cannot drain the battery, respondents said. Relying on NFC-based smartphones for security will also require a lot more devices to be supported, including hopefully the iPhone, a favorite of many workers.

And companies like HID will need to be able to work more closely with the carriers and handset manufacturers, who control the NFC secure element. For example, with the pilot tests, HID wasn’t able to access the Galaxy S III’s NFC chip because the carriers have not opened up access to the secure element on their phones.

Debra Spitler, vice president of mobile access solutions with HID Global told me that the tests, which follow a similar pilot last year at Arizona State University, demonstrate the appetite for using NFC in mobile phones for building access. She said NFC is on its way to becoming a useful tool for enterprise customers, even despite Apple’s snub.

“In a perfect world, we would have suggested they use NFC but we don’t think it’s a showstopper in these early days,” Spitler said. “It’s just something we need to work through.”

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Finance, healthcare jobs most likely to allow personal iPhones, iPads

Erica Ogg — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:00:22 +0000

It’s not news that more and more businesses are allowing workers to bring their smartphones and sometimes tablets of choice to the office. But would you have guessed that two of the most highly regulated industries (finance and healthcare) would be the ones leading the charge for this BYOD (bring your own device) trend? That’s what a study undertaken by Good Technology, makers of enterprise mobile security software, found. Good’s data also shows that size of the company is not an impediment to making BYOD work, and that even when workers are paid a small stipend toward a device they bring, businesses save money overall by having more productive workers.

Good’s survey includes responses from 400 of Good’s largest customers, with 2,000 employees or more, in October. And according to the results BYOD is being very clearly embraced: 70 percent of respondents said they currently let employees bring their own smartphone (or tablet) to work, 19 percent are considering allowing it, and just 9 percent said they had no plans for BYOD programs.

Being a large company isn’t a deterrent: among those polled, 80 percent that allow BYOD have 2,000 employees or more, 60 percent have 5,000 or more and 35 percent have 10,000 or more. And of those companies, half allow employees to bring their own smartphone or tablet to work as long as they pay for all the costs, while 45 percent offer some kind of stipend for employees to use toward buying a device or a way to expense monthly costs.

BYOD is not as popular among retailers and government agencies, according the the study. But the reason that it’s finding so much success at highly regulated industries, like healthcare and finance — which have very high bars for security and compliance — is the existence of software available that allays those concerns. (Like Good’s, hence their survey.) New mobile software can be installed on personal iPhones or Android phones that “create strong separation between business data and what’s happening on the personal side of the device,” John Herrema, SVP of Corporate Strategy at Good, said in an interview. That separation helps hospitals, banks and other meet compliance standards like HIPAA, PCI data security and more.

“Once you solve that problem, we’re not surprised that [these industries] are the broad adopters,” he added. “They’re very much information-driven, knowledge-driven, real-time, access-to-data-driven,” which having your favorite mobile device in your pocket can help with.

As far as what kinds of devices these workers are bringing in when given the choice, it’s not a huge shock: “Overall, our customers are absolutely activating iOS and Android to the exclusion of everything else we support,” said Herrema. “Historically, we’ve supported Windows Mobile, Symbian, some are even on old Treo devices. Bu these days it’s all about iOS and Android all night.”

The exact breakdown among smartphones brought to work (among Good’s customers) is: 60 percent are iPhones, and 40 percent Android. In tablets, it’s not that close: 95 percent of tablets brought to work are iPads, just 5 percent are Android-powered.

For those companies or IT managers hesitant about the practice, consider this: BYOD can help you save money. It’s fairly obvious that by having employees buy their own smartphone instead of issuing them a BlackBerry you’re going to see savings in your IT budget. But even those companies giving a stipend are seeing the financial benefit.

While Good found that most companies offer a stipend of $61 or more per month for mobile devices, some are varying stipend level by role of the employee. By doing that, the organization can assign how much productivity benefit they think a person with their own mobile device brings — for instance, is it worth more to have a sales director with a mobile device or a general office worker? “So they put a dollar value on that role, which puts them in complete control of the ROI calculus,” said Herrema.

Companies can save money by not buying smartphones anymore, but they get more out of each employee in terms of productivity when they have a device they can use and that they want to use.

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Defining work in the digital age: an analysis by GigaOM Pro

stoweboyd — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 08:01:02 +0000

The future of work is already here. It is just already distributed, one might say. The freelance economy, microtasking, mobile workers, coworking spaces, crowdsourcing: All of these point to how work is increasingly shifting from the twentieth-century model of Taylorism (think scientific management applied to labor processes such as assembly-line production and fixed workplaces) to a more flexible, hyperspecialized and connected workforce. This report examines the new world of work, from the devices and software services we use to the growing role of social media, the importance of a group-centric mentality and how the roles of employees, managers and organizations are evolving.

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Good Technology gives enterprise apps a secure launchpad

Ryan Kim — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 04:00:23 +0000

Good Technology has already enabled companies to extend security and management to a fleet of mobile devices that consumers are bringing to their IT managers. However, the underlying structure has worked primarily with some basic applications such as email, contacts and calendar.

Now, the company is looking to extend its technology to independent software developers, corporate customers and systems integrators, allowing them to build apps that can ride on Good Technology’s secure platform. The new product, called Good Dynamics, will allow developers to create and manage secure mobile apps using Good’s infrastructure, which acts as a container around the application and all of its data. That should enable companies that have been itching to create their own in-house apps or software developers looking to sell apps to corporations to move ahead with apps that will meet tough security standards, which is important for many business customers.

Nicko van Someren, CTO of Good Technology, told me in an interview that many enterprise customers have worked up apps in-house but they can’t deploy them because they haven’t passed the necessary security requirements. He said with Good Dynamics, enterprise customers can move ahead with those apps while leaving the task of encryption, authentication and connectivity to Good.

“It’s not just about encryption, transport and security, it’s a holistic solution to manage these apps,” van Someren said. “In regulated industries, you need to be seen as keeping data secure.”

Developers can plug Good Dynamics’ code libraries into their apps to secure their data and get access to it. Good Technology maintains the Network Operating Center infrastructure and, in the event of a security breach, customers can kill the Good Dynamics-enabled app without affecting any personal data on the device. Good has already been testing Good Dynamics with a number of software makers and clients, including Aji, Accellion, Box, GroupLogic, MeLLmo, Pyxis Mobile, Quickoffice and Unisys.

Good Technology will offer Good Dynamics alongside its Good for Enterprise, Good forGovernment, and Good for OEM/Carriers products. It should be available for customers next month.

Good Dynamics is a logical next step for Good Technology. The company can try to create apps itself for enterprise customers but it makes more sense to extend its platform to a host of apps already waiting for more security. In this app-addicted world, Good’s in a strong place to capitalize off the habits of companies and end-users.

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iPad moves ahead of Android at corporations

Ryan Kim — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 13:00:27 +0000

The iPad is on a tear in the enterprise, and is now being activated more often than Android smartphones, according to the latest data from Good Technology. The enterprise software maker said the iPad accounted for 27.2 percent of all activations of its software in the second quarter ahead of Android phones at 24.4, the first time Apple’s tablet has pushed past Android phones.

The iPad and the iPad 2 now account for 97 percent of all tablet activations. And iPad figures have helped boost Apple’s overall share of activations to just under 80 percent, compared to just under 70 percent in the first quarter. IPhone activations are up to 66 percent, compared to 62 percent in the previous quarter. Good said iPad adoption was driven by the financial services sectors, which accounted for 46 percent of all adoption, more than triple that of any other industry.

It’s a pretty impressive showing for the iPad, which has been out for a little over a year. And the fact that it’s pushed past Android phones, which are the leading smartphone on the market, underscores how big the opportunity can be for tablets in corporations.

Good Technology, which provides management and security tools that allow companies to deploy smartphones and tablets, doesn’t account for Research in Motion devices, which connect through a BlackBerry Enterprise Server. So it’s unclear how the Playbook or BlackBerry phones figure into the mix. RIM recently said it shipped 500,000 Playbook tablets. Good is in the process of supporting of Windows Phone 7 later this year but until then, doesn’t have data for that platform either. But the results show how iOS and Android, two platforms not designed specifically for enterprise, are faring in corporate adoption. Good Technology is used by 40 of the Fortune 100.

The latest Good figures falls in line with Apple’s own data on enterprise use of iOS devices. Apple said Tuesday during its quarterly earnings call that 91 percent of the Fortune 500 have deployed or are testing the iPhone up from 88 percent last quarter. And 86 percent of the Fortune 500 are deploying or are testing the iPad, up from 75 percent in the previous quarter.

Android tablets are still just getting going with Honeycomb devices hitting the market, led by the Motorola Xoom, the most popular Android tablet in the Good survey. Android tablets account for 3.1 percent of all tablet applications, down slightly from the previous quarter.

The figures show that Apple continues to gain traction in the enterprise and has a bright future ahead, especially if it can get companies to develop corporate apps for iOS. And the one-two punch of having a smartphone and tablet also seems to be paying off for Apple. It raises questions about tablets challengers and how well they’ll perform in the enterprise. Rivals need to have a credible answer for both smartphones and tablets and having a stable of corporate apps that can run on both may help decide who wins in this space.

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iOS and Android Devices Continue Their Assault on Enterprise

Ryan Kim — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 16:01:46 +0000

IOS and Android devices are finding fast adoption by corporate customers, according to new figures from Good Technology, which found that iOS devices represented more than 50 percent of new activations from June to September, fueled by interest in the iPhone 4 and the iPad.

iOS and Android Devices Continue Their Assault on Enterprise

Ryan Kim — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:57:38 +0000

While RIM has been a stalwart in the enterprise market, iOS and Android devices are finding fast adoption by corporate customers, according to new figures from Good Technology.

Good, which provides management and security tools that allow companies to deploy smartphones, found that iOS devices represented more than 50 percent of new activations from June to September, fueled by interest in the iPhone 4 and the iPad. Android activations accounted for almost 30 percent of new activations over that period, while Windows Mobile devices represented 15 percent of net new adds over that time.

This doesn’t include RIM numbers, because most of those customers use a BlackBerry Enterprise Server and don’t need to rely on technology like Good’s. However, it does give some insight into how well iOS and Android, two platforms not designed for enterprise, are doing in that market.

Among individual devices, the iPhone 4 is now the top activated device, despite only being launched in late June. The iPhone 3GS is in second place, followed by the iPad, another new addition that has zoomed into one of the top spots. The top five is rounded out by the Droid X and the HTC Cedar, a Windows Mobile device.

The biggest leaps from May to September were by iOS and Android devices. The iPhone 4 jumped from about 27 percent to about 32 percent from July to September, while the iPad grew from 5 percent to about 12 percent from May to September. The Droid X climbed from 7 percent to about 11 percent from July to September, and the Droid 2 debuted in September at 5 percent.

By platform, iOS commands 56 percent of Good activations in September, trailed by Android at 28 percent. Microsoft is suffering a predictable slide with Windows Mobile from more than 20 percent in June to about 13 percent in September as it waits for the October launch of Windows Phone 7.

The Good figures don’t include an aggregate number of activations so it’s hard to know how this compares to RIM. But Good Technology said it has thousands of companies that use its technology, including 40 of the Fortune 100.

What’s interesting to note is how Apple and Android devices are increasingly being accepted into enterprise. Bloomberg recently reported that several banks, including JPMorgan Chase, are looking at supporting iPhones and Android devices as an alternative to BlackBerry devices. Apple said on its most recent quarterly call in July that 80 percent of Fortune 100 companies are deploying or testing the iPhone while 50 percent of the companies are doing the same with the iPad.

I’m sure it has a lot to do with the popularity of iPhone and Android devices and the shift to bring-your-own-device policies that many companies are adopting, part of a larger trend in the consumerization of IT, but it demonstrates that companies are increasingly seeing the value of mobilizing their workforce, and are embracing a wide array of new devices. Having a technology like Good’s certainly helps in enterprise adoption of these devices, but the move toward mobility would have happened either way.

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Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user Gonzalo Baeza Hernández