Mobility is fantastic, until you have no signal. I had to smile listening to Visage Mobile’s Mobile Justice League webinar when Benjamin Robbins of Palador commented that he experiences “datanoia”. Datanoia is the nagging concern, will I have the right data with me when I am offline? Benjamin (tweets as @PaladorBenjamin) is famous for working, much of the time on the road, entirely “mobile only” for one and a half years now. Tablet and smartphone only. It is definitely a challenge to have the right presentations, spreadsheets, and proposals, etc., at hand when the corporate network and the cloud are out of reach.

We identified this need for offline data a couple of years back. Offline access is a cornerstone of our offering. I can specifically save files for offline access in our encrypted Container. Moreover, if I have accessed a file while I am online, it will be cached to the secure container automatically. If I lose connectivity while I am working, I will be able to continue to work with a file which I have accessed. I can read, edit, and annotate files while offline, then sync them back when I am reconnected.

To be very clear, access control and security are of paramount importance to us at Mobile Helix. I only have offline access if IT has granted it to me via role, application and geo-location policy. Our Link solution includes policy control pertaining to:

• Which data can be cached offline
• How much data can be cached offline
• How long data can remain in the container before it expires
• What type of password or pincode is to be used for authentication
• Container idle – after a configurable idle period should the container be locked out?
• Whether the user may edit Word and Excel files
• Offline access to Link Email

Finally, all data is encrypted from end-to-end. The container is encrypted with AES-256. Data in-transit is encrypted with HTTPS/SSL.

Don’t lie awake with datanoia. Take your data with you, encrypted.

– Maureen

Additional Resource: Offline Data Architecture White Paper