The information security team for Napa County, Calif., resisted supporting its employees' iPhones and iPads for a long time, out of concerns about data security and limited resources. Eventually though, the county's mobile employees wore the security pros down, reports William Atkinson at CIOInsight.

Employee morale is an important consideration, and satisfied employees tend to be more productive than dissatisfied ones, the county's security officials decided. "We didn't want to be a distraction to what the users wanted," said Gary Coverdale, chief information security officer for the county. 

The county's mobile devices typically held protected data from a variety of departments, including health and human services, police and finance, making security a major priority. With county-issued BlackBerrys, Coverdale was able to remotely wipe the devices if they were lost. For help securing Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) devices, he turned to Good Technology, whose Good for Enterprise enables Coverdale's team to control protected information on iPhones and iPads without interfering with personal data on them. 

"We have a bubble around the data that we need to protect," he said. Down the road, employee iPad use may also be instrumental in cutting back on desktop PC and laptop purchases, he speculated.

So are Napa County's mobile employees satisfied now? Not quite--some have already asked Coverdale's team to support their Android phones.

For more:
- see William Atkinson's article at CIOInsight

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