Five Ways to Mix Business and Personal Data on Your Smartphone
Here are five ways to access your work and personal data without carrying two handsets.
Tue, January 31, 2012
PC World — Smartphones now make up almost half of all phone sales, and many millions of people use them for personal communications as well as work-related tasks. Yet, few people want to carry multiple phones at all times just to separate the workday from their home life. Here are five ways you can access your business and personal accounts without having to carry two phones.
1. Virtual Machines
One method of making a personal phone safe for work data is through software installed onto your personal phone by your employer. Mobile Device Management (MDM) software like Microsoft's System Center can control settings on your phone, making sure your security setup is safe for work data. Another option is virtual machine software like VMware's MVP, which was demonstrated at CES on an Android-powered LG phone, which allows a phone to maintain a separate business environment with its own apps and settings, like a phone within a phone, making a clear distinction between work and personal data. These solutions are still very new, so they may not be an option yet at your workplace.
2. Remote Desktop
Similar to using a virtual machine, there are many apps that allow a smartphone to access a Mac or PC, letting you see and control the programs running on the faraway computer. Examples include TeamViewer on iOS and Android, or LogMeIn on iOS and LogMeIn Ignition on Android. Such remote desktop apps provide another way to have a clear line between work and personal data, but this method relies heavily on having a reliable data connection. Without that, you won't be able to see your work computer or access any of its programs or data.
3. Proxy Account
For some purposes, there are ways to access the data from one type of account via another account. For example, using forwarding and filters, it's possible to forward messages from your work email account automatically to a specific folder or label in your personal account. This is also common on calendars, where you could give your Google Apps for Business Calendar work account full proxy access to allowing you to see and manage it through your personal Google Calendar. You can even use Google Voice to forward calls from one of your numbers to the other. Some of these options are available through other systems as well, like Exchange with Outlook.
4. Multiple Accounts
Having multiple accounts, similar to using multiple login profiles on a computer, is another possibility. Though Android phones don't provide multiple profiles, they do allow syncing with multiple Google accounts. Google's Calendar app uses this to display calendars from multiple accounts, all comingled on the same screen. Google's Gmail app does something similar, but keeps the data from multiple accounts separate, allowing you to switch among them. You can even have different notification sounds for each account, so you know by the tone when work or personal email arrives. Windows Phone 7.5 just added some limited syncing options as well, allowing access to 25 Google calendars on a handset, and a "Send Mail As" option that can include your work email address.
