Multiple device management key for enterprise IP
This week's IPExpo has a heavy focus on solving business technology and process issues in a hybrid, diverse IT environment
Many vendors among the predictable multiplicity spruiking their wares at this year's IPExpo Europe chose to focus in some way on mobile management and diversified IT environments in the enterprise.
Frank Puranik, product director at US-based manufacturer iTrinergy, said his company aimed to reduce the difficulty of managing applications and maintaining network performance in this new world.
"The increasing demands of users accessing applications across myriad different devices and mixed networks need to be addressed," he said. "It's about making businesses as agile and productive as possible."
His company launched a three-in-one offering for cloud, mobile and hybrid networks that discovers, measures and benchmarks network resource use from a user, application, and server perspective.
The last thing companies need, Puranik indicated, is layers of complexity or a host of different tools in order to monitor, manage or get visibility of today's more complex networks.
UK IT systems consultancy and developer Centrality unveiled a suite of software tools which is aimed at helping businesses manage and maintain networks of widely-dispersed Windows-based PCs and mobile devices.
Mike Davies, managing director of Centrality, said that the suite was initially formulated to manage the consultancy's customers' IT networks.
"We saw that most organisations that own a network needed the same solution, especially with the complications associated with BYOD, mobile device management, and the challenge of managing a mix of different devices on one network," Davies said.
He said that the OneDeploy suite allows IT to configure, upgrade and maintain a "large" estate of devices running different versions of Windows both locally and remotely.
The problems of keeping diverse devices secure in the cloud has remained high on the agenda. New York-based Tresorit was at the show promoting itself as an end-to-end encrypted, secure, cloud storage provider alongside the launch of its business-focused offering with digital rights management.
Istvan Lam, chief executive officer at Hungarian/Swiss developer Tresorit, said that services providers have been focused on protecting infrastructure -- instead of user data -- and only encrypting server-side files in transit and in the cloud. Conversely, its product protects data in the cloud as well as across users, devices, and corporate network barriers.
"Cloud storage providers are moving up the stack, rushing to add new features on top of gigabytes, but these features do not solve the complex problem of security in the cloud," Lam said. "As soon as data is downloaded to a user's device, any semblance of control is gone, and files can easily be leaked by email, copy, print or screen capture."
Most people do not understand cloud security, he added, so breaches often occur as a result of human error. Tresorit's offering is linked to the document or file that must be protected, so it goes everywhere the file goes, he said, adding that not only is unauthorised sharing not permitted but even screen shots can be blocked.
Even relative Cinderellas of the IT industry like printing got a look-in. Uniprint was at the show talking up its latest software that works with VMware's virtualised print offering Horizon.
Arron Fu, vice president of software development at UniPrint, said that its product addresses issues that emerge when virtual print jobs are ordered remotely, compressing the transfer of print jobs back to the client.
"Issues such as limited bandwidth, slow printing speed, and excessive printer management start to take centre stage when considering printing through remote desktops across the cloud," Fu said.