The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement has gained unstoppable momentum. And thanks to the burgeoning mobile app market, employees have high expectations for these tools. They want an attractive user experience tailored to their devices. In other words, companies need to invest in building apps, period.

During my two decades of working in enterprise IT, I’ve observed the client-server revolution, the internet explosion and the service-oriented architecture (SOA) boom. Despite all the buzz around cloud and big data, I believe mobile will dominate enterprise IT transformation over the next decade and help to shape those other two trends. Our company, Layer 7 Technologies, and competitors such as Apigee and Mashery, are providing API management solutions to support mobile integration for the consumer app market. I believe that BYOD will spark an ever greater demand for API management to address enterprise mobile apps.

I’ve seen some companies try to cut corners by pushing their existing browser-based enterprise apps out to mobile devices, and the returns are not encouraging. One electronics company Layer 7 worked with wanted to create a multi-platform mobile app for their employees, but discovered that their web security tokens were truncated on iPhones. An airline we worked with rolled out their first iPhone app and failed to get traction, because the user interface mimicked their backend green screens. These companies limited themselves by not taking advantage of the unique features of mobile devices, and employees were uninterested in using the clunky apps.

These are cautionary tales, but they have happy endings. Both companies ended up investing in the user experience. And by reusing much of their existing enterprise infrastructure, they still saved a lot of money. The electronics company fixed their mobile security protocol without replacing their access control servers. And the airline rewrote their mobile app to be more user-friendly without changing the backend enterprise application. Both companies combined their existing enterprise assets with an API management solution to create mobile-friendly APIs. These APIs powered the mobile apps with suitable security, reliability and performance.

Redrawing the borders between the presentation, logic and data tiers

These examples signal a shift in the enterprise IT landscape. During the internet explosion, applications settled on three tiers: presentation, logic and data. Because of the enabling technologies, the lines between the presentation and logic tiers frequently blurred, and a hard border was created between the logic and data tiers. For example, a web app for order processing might include business logic steps in the browser code either deliberately or by accident (if the same developer codes both tiers). With the enterprise mobile movement, I think that the tiers will remain the same.

However, I believe that the overwhelming emphasis on user experience combined with the impact of cloud and big data will now blur the line between logic and data, and the border between presentation and logic will become much more complete. That concrete border has a name: it is the API. That order process now needs to be available on the web and to a variety of mobile devices, so that the logic tier can be accessible to all channels through the API.

The API border is the new security perimeter

Because personal mobile devices cannot be trusted the same way a company-owned and managed desktop PC could be, the concrete API border is also the new security perimeter. For these reasons, an enterprise API proxy that provides secure, multi-channel access to the logic and data tiers will be valuable.

This API proxy plays a dichotomous role. It opens and eases integration with enterprise APIs, and it enforces the policies that check user identity and control access to backend resources and data. Due to the mixed personality of BYOD devices — business and pleasure — no API request message can be trusted outright. Identity must be checked using any number of principals — app, device, end user — and weighed against the requested assets.

The value proposition of the API proxy increases dramatically if it is able to map between the security protocol of choice in the mobile world, OAuth, and the existing security infrastructure in the enterprise. Web single sign-on solutions are too heavyweight for mobile devices, but their underlying policies and infrastructure can be reused in this context. The API proxy is the key to bridging the gap between the integration and security needs of the mobile devices and the existing and proven enterprise services and policies.

Companies are using the API proxy at the core of their API management solution for secure mobile app integration with their enterprise systems. A healthcare company we worked with wanted to offer an iPad-based app to collect their member data. The company was very concerned about data privacy and access control. Through the proxy, they were able to exceed the industry’s security requirements and easily reuse their enterprise applications to launch the app.

A developer-driven approach to integration

Driven by BYOD, companies are also following consumer app trends and offering API portals where developers can find out which APIs are available in the enterprise, how to connect to them, and how to establish contracts that include quotas, costs and service levels. I believe that this developer-driven approach to integration is a refreshing shift from the current SOA state and will help to improve the overall agility of enterprise IT.

Business and IT leaders who are wrestling with whether or not personal devices should be allowed in their company’s network should embrace this change. There is no stopping it, it’s already here. And there is a big upside to BYOD beyond employee satisfaction. People treat their personal mobile devices as an extension of themselves. Employee productivity improves with each new task that they can accomplish on their favorite toy and a ton of costs can be saved through reduction in paperwork and manual processing in general.

If companies turn their worries to figuring out how to engage field employees with apps that leverage 1080p resolution and LTE connectivity, they can rest assured that through API management they will have a solution that delivers on the promise and protects against the threats of the mobile future, adds immediate value to the present, and leverages the investments of the past.

Matt McLarty is vice president of client solutions for Layer 7 Technologies, a provider of API management solutions. Prior to Layer 7, Matt led technical sales for IBM application integration middleware and worked extensively as an enterprise architect in the financial service industry.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Robert Agthe.

Simply view these compelling success stories and then vote for your favorite entry. The IBM Business Partner with the most votes will receive social media and potential press exposure, and a speaking engagement at an upcoming IBM event. Additionally, the winning story will be filmed professionally and syndicated across multiple high-profile online publications.

Hurry! Voting ends March 23, 2012.

Click Here to Vote Now

Until last year, lost and stolen laptops were to blame for the largest percentage of breach types. Now, hacking has claimed the top spot.

Computer intrusion was responsible for 83 percent of the total reported exposed records in 2011 and a third of the total breaches, according to the year-end “Data Breach Intelligence” report from Risk Based Security, affiliated with the Open Security Foundation, which chronicles security incidents.

Last year saw nearly 368 million records breached, the highest ever, and the all-time tally sits at 1.3 billion, according to the report, released last week. The previous high was 191 million records in 2009.

2011 was aided by a number of massive breaches, namely the Sony PlayStation Network hack, which compromised some 77 million records. Valve, owner of online video game distribution network Steam, saw 35 million credit card numbers exposed. Another massive incident involved Tianya, China’s largest online forum, when data on 40 million users was leaked.

Meanwhile, also last week, Javelin Strategy & Research revealed that identity fraud rose 13 percent in 2011, when 11.6 million U.S. adults became victims. However, out-of-pocket costs diminished by a whopping 44 percent thanks to enhanced prevention and detection tools, and fraud alerts.

Javelin attributed the fraud rise to breaches and increased reliance on social media and mobile devices.

Microsoft’s award to i3 Business Solutions recognizes its leadership in the SMB Tier.

“This award validates our commitment to delivering the right solutions for our clients,” said Mike Ritsema, president of i3 Business Solutions.  “Microsoft Office 365 Cloud solution, security and continuous process improvement are our focus for 2012.  We refuse to lock our customers into traditional and expensive on premise solutions,” he continued.

I don’t know how I got on Clare De Graaf’s mailing list – but I’m glad I did or am.  This 4 minute video says a lot about our changing culture – our children, you & me.  Technology, smart phones, online games and social media are changing all of us – especially the millennial generation.   I challenge all of us to 1.]  be aware of what’s happening  2.]  resist the change – organize our lives around the important – not the urgent.

They say, and I am saying, five years from now you will become the sum of who you associate with and the books you read.  Who are you hanging around with and what books are you reading?  I’m a slow reader and it takes work and discipline to plow through books.  That’s why I’ve consumed hundreds of books on tape and CD in my car in the last 30 years.  I’m considering subscribing towww.audible.com to accelerate my reading results.  I challenge each of us to picture the three feet of books we’ve read that will define us five years from now.  Commit now to reading a book a month – minimum!  And for 2012 reflect on who we’re hanging around with.  If I want to change or improve any area of my life – who might I associate with that could change or improve that area of my life?   I choose intentional results in all areas of my life.   Um, yes, this video has serious implications for our children and may require specific action  … and also causes me to reflect on my own life, habits and direction.

Dr. Philip Zimbardo is a world-renown psychiatrist and he’s speaking at the 2011 TED Conference.  This conference is held once a year and features short presentations by the foremost leaders and thinkers in the world in every possible field.  Whether Dr. Zimbardo is a Christian or not, his observation are worthy of our attention.  It’s obvious that experts of every stripe are now recognizing the damage both porn and video gaming are doing to men and ultimately to the woman they hope to marry.

Click here to watch the video

The ideas presented below come from my friend, Don Pearson, a Pastor of Student Ministries at Blythefield Hills Baptist Church.  Don has amazing insights into the world of teens and young adults and you’ll do well to listen. www.facebook.com/iparented

So what can you do?

Rather than simply whine about the problem, Don offers three specific steps you can take to address the issue of the demise of guys.

1. Get a copy of iParent, written by Don Pearson.  I was stunned when I read the short but powerful book that centers on how young people are being shaped by social media in ways I’d have never guessed!
2. Plan on attending the iParent discussion on Monday, January 30, 2012.  (Click here for details or put in the web address.)
3. Read Don’s blog this week.  Boys to Men, 10 great alternatives to shape real men.  (Click here or put in the web address.)

Please check these resources out and then forward this email to everyone you know.

Clare De Graaf
Author of The 10 Second Rule

Symantec has admitted that unknown perpetrators had breached its servers and stolen source code to a number of its security products despite previous claims to the contrary.

Read the full article, click here.

Hackers breached a server belonging to online retailer Zappos, allowing them access to the personal information of more than 24 million customers, the company announced.

In an email letter sent Sunday, CEO Tony Hsieh advised users to change their passwords after intruders gained access to parts of the company’s internal network through one of its servers in Kentucky. He did not indicate when or how the incursion occurred or when it was detected.

Investigators believe the hackers harvested names, email addresses, billing and shipping addresses, phone numbers and the last four digits of credit card numbers.

Click here to continue reading.

(via MLive)

Why Sherry Turkle, MIT Prof, Author of ‘Alone Together’ thinks we must discuss technology’s hidden costs :

GRAND RAPIDS — These days, everybody and their brother carries a mobile device allowing them to text a friend, “tweet the deets” or post their location for the world to see.

For Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Sherry Turkle, there’s a fundamental paradox in that social norm, whereby folks have become so busy communicating with each other that many of us have lost the ability to connect in a meaningful way.

“People are comforted by being in touch with a lot of people who they are also keeping at bay,” said Turkle, a technology and society professor, licensed psychologist and author of “Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other.”

Speaking to a standing room-only crowd in the Covenant Fine Arts Center at Calvin College, Turkle, the kick-off speaker for the college’s January Series, highlighted the hidden costs of being able to “bail out” of the real world at any moment on an iPhone or Blackberry.

Being able to connect with anyone, instantly, on social networks like Twitter or Facebook, creates the “illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship,” something she calls the “Goldilocks Effect” — connection made to measure; the ability to hide at will.

This cultural shift is becoming evident in people who would rather text than talk to one another, such as teens who find a phone call “too real time” for them.

The pressure to respond to text messages or emails immediately is resulting in shorter, simplistic bursts of communication, which is poor training for people growing up in a world that’s become increasingly complex. “It’s like we’re putting ourselves all on cable news,” she said.

Moreover, people are so compelled by the blinking light on their phone that they’ll rudely interrupt a meeting or disregard their safety to check it while driving, because, she says, “their mobile device feels like the place of hope in their life — the place where something good will come.”

In teens, feelings of isolation are an important part of learning to cope with emotions, but young people nowadays are losing comfort with being alone, which Turkle said allows someone gather themselves in a kind of refreshing solitude that can become the wellspring for creativity.

As result, a kind of “I share, therefore I am” ideal has developed, whereby the validation of a feeling becomes part of establishing it, she said.

“Your contact list becomes like a list of spare parts to support a fragile adolescent or adult self. You almost don’t feel you had the feeling until you had it validated by sharing it,” she said.

“There is a great psychological truth: if you don’t teach your children to be alone, they will only know how to be lonely.”

Turkle hopes to spark a cultural conversation about the effects of “inappropriate fantasies of substitution” for real life inherent in certain technologies, but counsels that framing the in terms of an addiction is self-defeating because the only remedy becomes to “quit cold-turkey.”

Instead, she suggested that rather than shun someone critical of our technological trajectory as a “Luddite,” we should consider them to be someone who knows that “just because we’ve grown up with the Internet, doesn’t mean the Internet is grown up.”

Calvin’s January Series continues Thursday with John Varineau, associate conductor with the Grand Rapids Symphony, who will discuss the uses and misuses of music.

The award-winning afternoon lecture series also features presidential adviser David Gergen and runs through Jan. 24.

E-mail Garret Ellison: localnews@grpress.com, or follow him on Twitter.

Join i3 Business Solutions on January 12th for:
Seven Security Risks Every Executive Should Consider
Executive Briefing

Join i3 Business Solutions Thursday, January 12th, from 12-1pm. Our keynote speaker, Brandon Fannon, is a digital forensic expert at Axiom Investigative Services, LLC and President at Mainstay Data Services, LLC.

Join us for great conversation and get an insider’s view of the latest technology:

• Security threat vectors
• Business technology risk management
• Technology Forensics – who can find what where & when?

Featuring: Brandon Fannon

• Digital Forensic Expert at Axiom Investigative Services, LLC
• AccessData Certified Examiner (ACE)
• Certified Computer Examiner (CCE)
• Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (CHFI)
• Data Recovery Expert Certification (DREC)
• EnCase Certified Examiner (EnCE)

Brandon will share amazing stories digital forensics and the reality of our digital paradise and answer the question, “How safe and secure is my data?”

Click Here to Register