Security
With corporate data available on multiple mobile platforms, security has become a huge concern. There were several companies at the show who make this the core of their business. Helsinki-based F-Secure (at http://www.f-secure.com) is helping secure both application servers and wireless devices against hacking and viruses with anti-virus and cryptography products. You can check out their white paper on wireless security at http://www.f-secure.com/get/hh/).

It's not just malicious hackers and virus programs that IT managers need to look out for. There's a tremendous potential for damage to the enterprise when sensitive data leaves the office on a mobile computer or phone. One attendee at the show estimated that in the UK alone, over 250,000 mobile devices were left in taxis and airports last year. Securing the device with a unique ID is an important first step, but companies are now able to authenticate the user through a secondary password (a method familiar to any Lotus Notes administrator).

While public key encryption has been around for a while, the industry is only now becoming comfortable that the keys for wireless devices can be securely distributed to a large population. "It is critically important to identify both the individual and the device," said Margaret Grayson, CEO of V-One (at http://www.v-one.com), a computer security company with several installations in the U. S. government and military.

Knowledge management
One lively discussion at the show centered on the role of knowledge management systems. Knowledge Management involves making large portions of an organization's various current and legacy databases searchable through a common interface. Think about it: companies have spent a lot of money over the years in building databases for sales orders, shipping orders, email, and corporate planning. Technology changes over time, and systems that cost a quarter of last year's IT budget soon become forgotten.

In his Thursday morning keynote address to the conference, David Gelertner (Chief Scientist for MirrorWorlds Technologies at http://www.mirrorworlds.com) reminded us that a key promise of wireless is anywhere access to corporate information. However, setting up a separate interface for wireless users only adds to the jumble of systems that need to be mastered by the mobile workforce. Knowledge management tools provide a searchable real-time index of these streams of data, allowing managers to make more informed decisions.

The first product of MirrorWorlds is Scopeware, and it's one of the more elegant solutions for managing corporate information that I have seen. Instead of using the accepted desktop metaphor, Scopeware organizes information by the date of its creation in the company's database. Ten years ago Gelertner described such a system in his popular book from which his company takes its name (its still a good read for beginning computer scientists, though it was written before the Web came into existence). Unlike the Web, Scopeware's user-interface takes some getting used to, but they have successfully implemented the system in environments where users have little computer experience.