Napa County Bottles Up BYOD Phenomenon

In fall 2010, Napa County in California decided to address its data management concerns. The county's 1,600 employees had used BlackBerrys to access data, with every transaction routed through a central server. Then, the Bring-Your-Own Device trend hit and employees began bypassing the server with their own smartphones.

"We were becoming quite concerned about security and being able to meet our compliance regulations," explains Gary Coverdale, chief information security officer and assistant CIO for Napa County. So a new solution was found--one that not only restored order but also reduced the department’s support requirements.

The county, which is home to 130,000 residents, ranks as one of the world’s pre-eminent wine-producing areas. The county government consists of 26 agencies--including education, healthcare and law enforcement--that deliver various services to the locals. The IT group maintains central control of all computing resources, which includes Dell servers running Microsoft Windows, Cisco routers and 40 TB storage (soon to be expanded to 80 TB).

Central control of data is paramount to the county. Napa County has to comply with various local, state and federal regulations, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the state of California’s data breach disclosure law. If it fails to do so, the county is potentially subject to costly fines.

The Research In Motion BlackBerry system had been in use for several years, largely because it provided much-needed data control. But its influence started to wane as employees brought their own smartphones to work. "With the RIM solution, we could not support or manage Apple iPhones because we had little to no visibility into them," says Coverdale.

Problems could arise if one of the mobile devices was lost or stolen. The IT department could wipe misplaced BlackBerrys clean, basically locking all information, so it was not open to intrusion. That wasn't an option with the Apple iPhones, so outsiders could gain access to sensitive county data.

Facing potential fines, as well as bad publicity, the county began to search for a mobile management solution. "Quite honestly, few tools were available," says Coverdale.An email solicitation put him in touch with Good Technology, whose Good for Enterprise has several attractive features. The management product places an employee’s personal information in a sequestered, encrypted container. It features password policy enforcement; prevention of cut, copy and paste from the secure container; and a remote wipe feature. It also offers AES-192 encryption, so government data is stored securely not only on the device but also when sent over any wireless connection.

The cost was roughly the same as the RIM system. The installation began with a handful of employees at the end of 2010. The software worked fine, but there was a learning curve for the staff: "We had been used to working with the RIM system, and the Good solution had a different interface and feature set," says Coverdale.

The agency ran a test for a few months and began rolling it out to its BlackBerry users, as well as those with other devices. Employees now have access to business applications, such as Microsoft Office and SharePoint, and the IT department has the visibility needed to ensure regulatory compliance.

Another plus is the IT department has also become more productive. Good for Enterprise features a Web-based management console that's easier to manipulate than the RIM solution. Consequently, technicians are able to spend more time working on enhancements to existing systems and less time configuring mobile devices.

About 100 users still rely on BlackBerry phones, but that system is expected o be retired later this year. Additional changes are planned: The Napa County Health and Human Services agency has begun using Apple iPads, which eventually may displace the laptops and PCs that employees traditionally have relied on. "We want IT to be viewed as an enabler, rather than inhibitor of new technology," says Coverdale.

Longer term, the county plans to create and run its own catalog of in-house and third-party mobile apps so employees can become more productive. "The BYOD era is clearly here," says Coverdale. "It offers many potential benefits--as long as organizations have tools to ensure that employees using mobile devices do not compromise their IT systems,"

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