NetApp Connect for Access to Enterprise Data From Mobile Devices

The rapid influx of mobile devices into the workplace offers individual employees convenience and productivity, but it presents significant challenges for IT organizations attempting to curtail data leakage and prevent increased operational costs associated with mobile device management. Fueled by a need to access corporate files and documents – from any location, on any device – end users are compromising IT security by adopting unsecured consumer-grade cloud services that place enterprise data at risk. To increase remote worker productivity and realize the value of the connected, global enterprise, businesses require enterprise solutions that combine the consumer mobile experience with enterprise governance of data.

NetApp, Inc. is expanding its portfolio by announcing a new product, NetApp Connect, for secure, instant, and mobile access to data stored on its storage systems. The product, based on technology NetApp acquired from ionGrid, can integrate into a NetApp environment without requiring complex VPN setup or separate authentication tools. Additionally, all data remains on-premise while delivering consumer-class simplicity and ease of use to the enterprise.

NetApp Connect complements the base of NetApp’s partner-delivered mobility solutions such as Citrix ShareFile and VMware Horizon Suite, helping NetApp deliver a more complete range of capabilities to enterprise customers. These partner solutions, integrated with the data management capabilities of NetApp storage (or the clustered Data ONTAP architecture), provide efficient and secure collaboration, data sharing, and mobile device access solutions.

Mobile Access with Secure Data Protection
With NetApp Connect, enterprises no longer need to weigh the reduced IT costs and increased productivity benefits of BYOD policies against the risks of corporate data leakage and compliance violations that often occur with unsecured public cloud offerings. By keeping all data securely behind the corporate firewall and never copied to the cloud, it offers mobile access to corporate data while maintaining the security and control that enterprise IT requires for keeping its data and business protected.

Instant and Effortless User Experience
Currently available for download as an app from the Apple App Store and soon to be released for other mobile devices, NetApp Connect gives mobile workers a user experience and access to the corporate information they need to be productive in the field, whether online or offline.

NetApp Connect users can stream, view, download, edit, and pass on corporate information securely and directly from their iOS devices (including iPhone, iPad, and iPad mini) in seconds, whether it’s on file shares, on SharePoint, or served by intranet web applications. All documents appear on the screen with pixel-perfect rendering and with the overall look and feel preserved for consistency. This enables mobile devices to become a part of the workflow and increase user productivity.

Efficient and Easy to Manage
The NetApp Connect app functions just like any other app on the iPhone or iPad, but it’s a manageable solution that creates a secure container on the mobile device, keeping IT in control of the information inside at all times. This ‘containerized’ approach eliminates many common device-management, BYOD, and corporate compliance concerns. It also gives IT leaders a new level of control over users and their corporate data to maintain existing rules and policies and to customize user access to grant the right information to the right person on the right device at the right time. And, because NetApp Connect doesn’t require complex setup or need to copy or convert data, enterprises can deploy it quickly and with confidence.

Brendon Howe, VP, products and solutions Marketing, NetApp, said: "Enterprise customers today are challenged with connecting their people, devices, and data seamlessly but without compromising IT security. With the introduction of NetApp Connect, our customers now have the ability to provide secure, instant, and easy mobile device access to corporate data stored on NetApp storage without changing the data or the security infrastructure. Our customers no longer need to make a trade-off between securing their business and realizing the value of the connected, global enterprise."

Jorge Pazos, CIO, City of Melrose, MA, said: "Our police force, fire department, school system, and other municipal services all run on NetApp, and all require mobile access to data that sits behind the firewall. However, the solution we’re forced to employ today to ensure data security to remote users is less than elegant, to say the least. NetApp Connect promises to streamline mobile data access and reduce the pain points our users are experiencing today. We look forward to exploring a proof of concept this summer."

Alan Pelz-Sharpe, research director, 451Research, said: "The use of consumer services has long been spilling over into the enterprise world, with employees using their personal cloud services to store work-related files for easy access and sharing. It remains a constant and, indeed, a growing problem for enterprises, one that is proving very difficult to control." (Source: 451 Research, Enterprise aftermath of the Dropbox effect: stand-alone market to commodity functionality, Alan Pelz-Sharpe, February 15, 2013)

To watch Nick Triantos, senior director, mobile solutions, discuss how NetApp Connect delivers information via mobile devices

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NetApp Acquired Discreetly ionGrid
Entering in BYOD