HP Announces Remote Management for Laptops, Phones

Users who lose mobile devices like PDAs, smartphones and notebook computers may soon be able to track the devices and remotely disable them, via a single website.

The problem of lost devices and data is growing, according to an August 2007 "Confidential Data at Risk" survey of some 500 IT enterprises in the US.

The research, by privacy and information management firm the Ponemon Institute and data loss prevention company Vontu Inc, found that PDAs and laptops ranked highest among storage devicesposing the greatest risk for sensitive corporate data. Eighty one per cent of the companies surveyed reported the loss of one or more laptop computers during the previous year.

At a major product and services launch in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on October 18 - 19, Hewlett-Packard announced programs and plans to help deal with these issues, given that many Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) have their total enterprise information on their laptops and mobile devices.

Over-the-air device management

HP introduced its Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS), comprising over-the-air mobile phone setup, configuration, diagnostics and security management. This includes a set of web-based tools, on a self-care portal. These can be accessed by individuals to diagnose their device, update its software, or even remotely wipe its data. The service is not restricted to HP products, but has multiple device platform support.

Along with a new range of solid state disk notebooks, HP also outlined their notebook tracing service which gives users a system to trace the location of any lost or stolen machine.

HP cites a case where a businessman in Bali, Indonesia, had his laptop stolen from his hotel room while he was at the beach.

He had subscribed to HP's Laptop Tracing Service when he purchased his computer and, after logging in to his personal email account on the web, he received an e-mail containing information on the network location where his laptop had been activated in the past 30 minutes. Using this information he engaged the local police and was able to recover his laptop within a day.

HP said it plans to expand its Total Care Portal for SMBs to cover the total range of mobile devices.