Tackle These And Get Your Mobile
8 BY BRIEN M. POSEY, MCSE From a support perspective, it is better to keep
the mobile devices as uniform as you can. Of course, manufacturers routinely discontinue mobile device models and release newer models, so it is unrealistic to expect to be able to keep your mobile device selection completely uniform.
Consider Your Support
Infrastructure Carefully Because healthcare is a heavily regulated industry,
you must ensure that your mobile healthcare strategy is aligned with your corporate security policy. This can be a big challenge when it comes to mobile devices. Your existing group policy settings will not apply to mobile devices because, in an Active Directory environment, group policies only apply to domain members. Although there are exceptions, mobile devices usually cannot be joined to a Windows domain. In order to be a domain member, a machine must
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N RECENT years, mobile devices have finally gained mainstream acceptance. Almost everyone has a smartphone, and tablets are all the rage. So it’s only
natural that we have begun to see rapid adoption of mobile devices in healthcare settings. Like PCs, however, mobile devices used in healthcare facilities must be deployed in a responsible manner in order to avoid accidentally introducing security vulnerabilities or putting the organization in a state that is not compliant with federal regulations. As such, deploying devices to support mobile healthcare services requires careful planning.
Choose Your Devices Wisely As an IT professional, one of your primary
responsibilities is designing a mobile healthcare strategy, beginning with the mobile devices you want to allow to be used within the organization. Device selection should be based on your ability to secure the devices, and on how well the device interacts with your existing network infrastructure. Some IT pros have given into pressure and attached
users’ personal mobile devices to the network. This is a big mistake. After all, once devices have been connected to the network, your users will expect the IT department to support them. You don’t want to end up in a situation in which Help Desk staff is required to support dozens of different makes and models of wireless devices.
be running either a desktop (Windows 7) or a server (Windows Server 2008) version of Windows. Mobile operating systems do not meet this requirement and therefore cannot be joined to a domain. As such, group policies do not apply to mobile devices. Some versions of Windows Mobile have a mechanism
that allows the device to be enrolled in a domain. The enrollment process allows the device to participate in the domain on a limited basis without actually being a domain member. However, even if a device has been enrolled, it still cannot use the same group policy settings as a full-blown desktop or server operating system, since because those settings were never designed to be used with mobile devices. Even though your existing group policy settings will not
apply to mobile devices, there are other ways to manage the mobile devices that are used in your healthcare organization. However, you will have to base your mobile device management techniques on the makes and models of devices that you have chosen to support. At the present time, there is no real industry-wide
standard for managing devices specific to mobile healthcare implementations. As such, you will have to search for a mobile device management solution that works with your existing network infrastructure and with the mobile devices that you have chosen to allow on your network.
Understand System Center
Mobile Device Manager As I mentioned earlier, the primary security mechanisms used in an Active Directory environment
CONNECTION
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