Keeping Up With Smartphone Data-Storage Security

The more powerful your smartphone gets, the more likely you are to use it to store important business data. And that means paying closer attention to a couple of important storage security concerns.First, no matter which smartphone you use, it's essential to know what your options are if the device gets lost or stolen. For enterprise users, there are a number of ways to remote-wipe a managed device; this is a key feature, for example, of RIM's Blackberry Enterprise Server. Some of these applications, including ones for the iPhone and Android, are also suitable for SMBs looking for a safe, reliable remote-wiping solution.

No matter which option you select, a functional remote-wipe solution doesn't have to be fancy. It just needs to so exactly what the name implies: Let you delete data from a company-owned or managed smartphone if you decide that's necessary.

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And then there's the matter of ensuring that no matter what happens to your smartphone, your data is safely backed up. The iPhone makes this so easy that it's hard to justify not backing up your data; all you need is a Mac or a PC and a copy of iTunes. (Of course, you might also want to store those backups in a safe location -- perhaps a perfect use for one of the better cloud-storage services.)

It's easy to get caught up in the "fun factor" when you're putting a new smartphone through its paces. Just remember that when a device has this much power -- and this much storage capacity -- it becomes a lot more important to worry about data security. If your smartphone goes missing, make sure that your business data doesn't go missing along with it.