Mobile phones, PDAs, smartphones, notebooks, remote access and USB storage devices have all been key drivers of business, allowing companies to free their employees from their desks and get them out in the marketplace.
Although the widespread use of these technologies has been good for business, it has also created a nightmare for information technology (IT) departments that struggle to secure these connections, with each new device representing a potential security breach.
Previously, IT departments secured their networks by limiting the types of devices that could access them, but this is no longer an option because companies and employees are reluctant to give up the mobility and productivity gained from their iPhones, BlackBerrys and social networking sites.
As a result, the security industry is pushing through a paradigm shift by transferring the focus from a centralised server-based model to the device at the edge of the network.
'In the old days, everything was processed by the server via an internal network, so server and network security were good enough,' explained Michael Chue, managing director of Symantec Hong Kong.
'But things have changed in the last 20 years. Endpoint devices are more capable and have more processing power, so we are shifting some of the security away from the server and letting the endpoint device do some of the work.'
