Is your ERP data safe on an iPad?
Posted Thursday, September 29, 2011 by Peter Kelly
Apple iPads are everywhere. It seems you cannot go a day without seeing an iPad commercial or hearing someone talk about the ultra-popular tablets. Despite its popularity among consumer electronics enthusiasts and celebrities, a large portion of the business world remains skeptical about the iPad’s readiness for enterprise-level environments and applications such as ERP. Security is the main issue of concern when it comes to accessing financial information from an iPad or even installing ERP software on one. Fortunately, there have been plenty of arguments for and against iPad security for enterprise-level applications. According to the naysayers, Apple has done very little to address enterprise security, and many of its efforts were quickly infiltrated and exposed for their weaknesses. Even more disturbing is that many of those hacks were executed through the tablet’s Safari-based web browser, making even cloud ERP access risky. Moreover, Apple has not offered much support for enterprise technology, which may indicate that the company does not see it as a primary concern.
On the other side of the argument are iPad supporters who say the iPad does not need the same level of security one might assign to a desktop computer to “lock it down” and prevent users from doing what they want with it. They also point out that Apple has made strides to support security features, such as Cisco VPN, AES encryption, and a remote kill function. What an iPad may lack, however, is native support for many of the current ERP solutions. Nevertheless, there are some Microsoft Dynamics Partners who can help you access some of your data using your iPad. Its level of safety, however, will largely depend on the user and the amount of work your IT staff puts into custom security measures for a device that is clearly not designed with enterprise security in mind.
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