An Energy Department laboratory is moving forward with a mobile device management (MDM) program that will consolidate and simplify its approach while broadening access for employees.

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory used two separate MDM services to manage its bring-your-own-device initiative and laboratory-owned devices, Jane Edwards reported in Executive Business.

But running a MDM environment using two discrete services became too cumbersome, so the lab looked for a remedy, Stephanie Kanowitz reported in GCN.

Now 1,400 employees and contractors are using their own devices to remotely access lab data, according to Kanowitz. That’s more participation than ever before, she reported.

The lab’s IT staff chose a Citrix solution because it allowed the Oak Ridge National Laboratory the opportunity to move to a central platform and provide different capabilities for different mobile user groups, Kanowitz wrote. The Citrix solution “also allowed us to reduce some costs [and] become more integrated with our other Citrix applications and services that we have,” Tina Snyder, mobile device team lead at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, told GCN.

Suzanne Willoughby, client computing operations lead at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, told GCN that before the switch to Citrix, MDM costs forced officials to limit the number of users with mobile access and allow just one device per user. Now all salaried lab employees are enrolled in the mobile device program.

Other capabilities Citrix brought to the lab include creating internal applications for specific user groups, delivering virtual apps via Citrix XenApp access, and implementing a single sign-on using user-based certificates, Kanowitz reported.

Join the conversation. Post a comment below or email me at bglanz@300brand.com.

Read More About
No Category Set!
About
MeriTalk Staff
Tags