Mobile security is an extremely important part of AVG’s consumer and SMB strategy.  Even though today the majority of smaller companies still use on-premise solutions, the business benefits possible using mobile devices to connect to cloud applications are becoming harder to ignore.  Gartner even goes so far as to say that by 2017, half of employers may impose a mandatory BYOD policy — requiring staffs to bring their own laptop, tablet and smartphone to work. AVG has a lot to offer in this area. For example, we make it easy for businesses to address their mobile security concerns.  .

It’s clear that I’m not the only one who thinks mobile means business. Solutions for business mobile management are very much in vogue as this article by  SMB blogger Adrian Bridgwater goes to show.

A common solution to the security problem – particularly among smaller companies – is to ignore it.

According to a study involving nearly 1,000 IT professionals  by AVG partner Spiceworks, only 16 percent of small and midsize businesses (SMBs) have any sort of formal policy for managing those mobile devices. Some 37 % of SMBs were either managing or planning to manage mobile devices using MDM.  The remainder had no plans citing that the security threats were not big enough to justify the expense or that they did not know how to implement MDM.

My message to those end user customers is that BYOD security is now affordable for startups and that it is your trusted IT professional who can implement it for you.

At AVG we believe responsibility for securely managing small businesses’ networks, applications and mobile connectivity will be outsourced to locally-based trusted IT providers.  And this week we are making it even easier for these trusted providers to manage the IT of their small business customers.  We have added an administration console for Android™ that extends the mobile management capabilities of the AVG CloudCare™ cloud-based, security services platform.  We have had an iOS console available for some time which generated a lot of partner interest. This latest step recognizes the growing popularity of the Android platform - around 62 percent of the market - and has been developed in line with growing market and partner demand.

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For any small business that is looking to better come to terms with the changes technology is introducing to the workplace I recommend they take a good look at our new BYOD eBook - also released this week.  Packed with facts and advice it explains the benefits, risks, legal issues of BYOD and provides protection tips for any business owner concerned about what this trend might mean for their business.