Mobile enterprise solutions present a number of data security challenges, particularly for small to medium-sized organizations who may not have technical expertise in this realm. When evaluating mobile enterprise software, it's important to understand the security implications of your options.

FieldCenter is a hosted web application, right? I think I might feel better with an application operating on our local network.

Certain mobile application builder platforms, which install on users PC within the corporate network, offer "web services" data sync - the ability to synchronize data from deployed PDAs to a PC over the internet. This highly insecure method, which requires an open firewall port to the users network, should only be implemented by companies with web hosting competency.

Unlike many mobile software platforms which introduce network security holes by requiring open firewall ports, FieldCenter provides an innovative application infrastructure that does not require any modification to a customer’s secure network.

Because FieldCenter is a hosted web application, you don't need to open up your network to the world. You simply use the application within your web browser, which doesn't require any open firewall ports.

Can anyone else access our data?

No. Each hosted application is private with it's own database, separate from other customer applications. Your application is password protected and all communication uses SSL encryption, the same level of protection used in online banking.

Is our data safe on your servers?

Yes, the FieldCenter application is hosted in a highly secure data center with redundant network and server infrastructure and continuous backups. We operate our service with a 99.9% uptime guarantee and offer 24x7 support.

What about if a PDA is lost or stolen, is that data safe?

Yes. The FieldCenter Smart Client is password protected, with an entirely encrypted mobile data store. So even if a device falls into the wrong hands, no FieldCenter data can be accessed.

OK, this all makes sense. But if I want to keep a copy of our data on our local network too, can I do that?

Yes you can. FieldCenter provides the capability to download data in commonly used formats such as XML and Microsoft Excel. You can also integrate data from FieldCenter into other applications with the confidence that your firewall can remain closed.