Headquartered in Fremont, MobileASaP delivers real-time mobile risk and security solutions for a converged world of BYOD, mobile apps and enterprise access.

Mobile Density in corporations is increasing by leaps and bounds: three devices per user in 2012 climbing to seven devices in 2016. Mixed-use or BYOD ("Bring Your Own Device") is now mainstream. Mobile application downloads from appstores such as Apple and Android are into billions, and corporate applications are increasingly mobile-centric. Throw in the shift to the "Cloud", which means anytime/anywhere access, and you can see why Mobile is the NEW NORMAL. With this kind of explosive growth, comes a risk, compliance, and security headache.

Let us deep-dive into this a bit more. With the latest device in hand and 20-30 apps downloaded to that personal device, the user (say an employee or guest) comes into the corporate network. Next, IT provisions the user with a handful of corporate apps. Now, the validated user has unfettered access into the network and the public cloud. In the process, this user consumes WAN bandwidth, accesses apps that may or may not meet corporate content standards, and, maybe even use applications that could expose that company's infrastructure to security threats. In each of these scenarios, the problem may not be the user or the device – instead, it could be mobile app itself. Just as IT typically does not leave anything to chance (or honor system) with laptops, nor can they afford to do so with mobile devices.

Next, let us look at today's antidote to this problem space – IT has a set of tools that allows them to authenticate a user, gain visibility into the device, provision company apps, and, maybe even look at the flow of data packets from the device into the network. This passive approach may not recognize that the bigger lurking risk is elsewhere in the form of admission control challenges around mobile apps, both public and private.

Over the years, IT security has evolved from a single-tier to a multi-tiered protection model: endpoint security (anti-virus) to gateway security to vulnerability assessment to intrusion prevention. And, from simply inspecting packets of data to understanding context – who the user is and what application the traffic belongs to. Just the same way, the mobile ecosystem needs to be protected.

Unfortunately, instead of dealing with hundreds of thousands of device and applications, we have to cope with millions of devices and billions of applications. In other words, IT controls need to be more specific, more active (or real-time), and have tools that allow them to ‘Be Selective, Not Equally’ when it comes to apps, users and devices. And, of course, like anything else in IT-land, it needs to be cloud-based, policy managed, and event-driven.
This mobile explosion in corporate America creates opportunities. Along with Big Data and IT Consumerization, Mobile Management offers tremendous entrepreneurial opportunities. We do not anticipate a one-size/one-class of solutions; instead, we expect a robust mobile ecosystem of solutions. As entrepreneurs, we have an opportunity to participate in this 'mobile wave' over the next one to five years.

Our prescriptive advice to entrepreneurs is straightforward: attempt to solve a targeted problem and then expand ("penetrate and radiate; "find a hole and fill it…then, find a bigger hole"); focus on the problem ahead, not just today’s (Wayne Gretzky, the greatest hockey player used to say that he played to where the puck was headed, not where it is), and finally define your success by what you have done for your customers, not by the amount of VC funding you have raised. In the words of Steve jobs: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."