* [Blog](https://www2.paloaltonetworks.com/blog)
* [Palo Alto Networks](https://www2.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/corporate/)
* [Mobility](https://www2.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/mobility/)
* Mobility and Human Behavi...

# Mobility and Human Behavior

[](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww2.paloaltonetworks.com%2Fblog%2F2012%2F09%2Fmobility-and-human-behavior%2F)  
[](https://twitter.com/share?text=Mobility+and+Human+Behavior&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww2.paloaltonetworks.com%2Fblog%2F2012%2F09%2Fmobility-and-human-behavior%2F)  
[](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww2.paloaltonetworks.com%2Fblog%2F2012%2F09%2Fmobility-and-human-behavior%2F&title=Mobility+and+Human+Behavior&summary=&source=)  
[](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com//www.reddit.com/submit?url=https://www2.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/2012/09/mobility-and-human-behavior/&ts=markdown)  
\[\](mailto:?subject=Mobility and Human Behavior)  
Link copied  
By [Brian Tokuyoshi](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/author/brian/?ts=markdown "Posts by Brian Tokuyoshi")  
Sep 06, 2012  
5 minutes  
[Mobility](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/mobility/?ts=markdown)  
[globalprotect](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/tag/globalprotect/?ts=markdown)  
[Mobility](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/tag/mobility/?ts=markdown)  
[remote access](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/tag/remote-access/?ts=markdown)  
[VPN](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/tag/vpn/?ts=markdown)

Mobile computing changed the selection process for technology at many businesses. Employees started using laptop and mobile platforms based on personal preference rather than choosing from a carefully manicured and vetted list. Personal choice took precedent over any notion of whether IT supported, secured or even paid for the device and its services.

The IT practitioner that finds themselves with this predicament tends to see mobility as an issue of control. The natural inclination is to make an attempt to reclaim control by trying to eliminate choice, which often can lead into a frustrating exercise that leaves neither IT nor the employee with the optimal results.

On the other side of the coin, what I also see is that the embrace of mobility leads to a number of benefits that aren't even apparent from a cost/benefit evaluation. Mobility can serve as the trigger for evolving social behaviors. When viewing mobility from a humanities perspective, then mobility becomes an enabler to make new paradigms possible. When employees are given the resources to do their jobs in more places, they find better and more productive ways to work.

In the past, it was commonly accepted that people needed to be at the office and seated at their assigned desk, because that's where the immovable resources for their job were located. Regardless of whether it was the best way to work, or even the best location to perform the job, every person was at their desk from 9 to 5, because that's what society expected. Mobility allows the employee to take their work resources to new locations, and the old paradigms drift away while new ones form. The job doesn't change, but the location does, and new patterns of social behavior emerge.

I recently read an article in the Harvard Business Review called [Why Remote Workers are More (Yes, More) Engaged](http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/are_you_taking_your_people_for.html). Here's an example where mobility, when viewed outside of the context of hard cost/soft cost savings, actually provides more effective ways for people to work. Individual contributors could work more effectively (and for longer periods of time) when left undistracted at a remote location. When the remote workers visit the office, the time spent with coworkers is used more efficiently because it's a limited resource, and thus it's put to better use.

Another example is how mobility can unlock new ways of working together even within the office. While in Singapore, I visited a sales and engineering office in the SunTec Tower that was home to hundreds people spread across multiple floors. There were no assigned desks or offices except for upper management. Each person had a rolling locked file cabinet with their personal papers and effects. At the start of the day, each person picked up their file cabinet from the storage room and rolled it over to an available desk and connected their laptop to the network via VPN. Their desk phones were VoIP based, making their phone number permanent but the actual phone they used ephemeral. People would group together in different ways on different days, based on the membership of the teams they were working on for particular projects. Just a few years ago, this type of dynamic collaboration was all but impossible with most people tied to just one desk, but now mobility made it possible so that business professionals can find new ways to work best together on their own, free from the artificial restraint of a seating chart.

With these exciting ways that mobility removes location as a barrier to finding the best ways to work, the issue of security does remain in play. As we noted in the start of the article, there is a great deal of concern about how to add control back to the equation. But instead of thinking in terms of control over devices, think about reducing risk in the areas that you do have full control, namely the network. It makes sense that individuals have a preference for computing, because the employee is fully aware of their own personal job requirement and the technology that they're most comfortable using. Individual choice not only is logical, it's optimal. The task that IT practitioners need to address is how to protect users from malicious activity and enforce corporate policies, even when they may not have control of the device that the employee uses.

The answer is that while we no longer think of physical ties to where our employees go, we do remain concerned about the ways they connect and what traffic they receive. It's the network that is important to control, and that includes maintaining a secure connection, keeping the traffic across it safe, and extending it to all users. By retaining control of the network, organizations can embrace mobility by making it safe for all users in all locations, regardless of the device. Starting from this premise, it becomes much easier to think in terms of how to make mobility work for your organization, instead of trying to stop its progress.

To take advantage of the benefits possible by extending network security to mobile devices, visit [http://www.paloaltonetworks.com/globalprotect](http://www.paloaltonetworks.com/globalprotect)

*** ** * ** ***

## Related Blogs

### [Distributed Enterprise](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/distributed-enterprise/?ts=markdown), [Mobility](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/mobility/?ts=markdown), [Threat Prevention](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/threat-prevention-2/?ts=markdown)

[#### Reusable Mobile App Libraries Introduce Reusable Security Issues](https://www2.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/2014/07/reusable-mobile-app-libraries-introduce-reusable-security-issues/)

### [Secure the Cloud](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/secure-the-cloud/?ts=markdown), [Secure the Enterprise](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/secure-the-enterprise/?ts=markdown)

[#### How Palo Alto Networks and Okta Are Helping Enable Secure Remote Work](https://www2.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/2020/06/network-okta/)

### [Government](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/government/?ts=markdown), [Secure the Cloud](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/secure-the-cloud/?ts=markdown), [Secure the Enterprise](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/secure-the-enterprise/?ts=markdown)

[#### Helping Companies Meet US Government Guidance on Securing Remote Workforces](https://www2.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/2020/04/cloud-vpn-security/)

### [Products and Services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/products-and-services/?ts=markdown), [Secure the Cloud](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/secure-the-cloud/?ts=markdown), [Use-Cases](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/sase/category/use-cases/?ts=markdown)

[#### Times Are Changing for Remote Access](https://www2.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/2019/03/times-changing-remote-access/)

### [Must-Read Articles](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/security-operations/category/must-read-articles/?ts=markdown), [News and Events](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/security-operations/category/news-and-events/?ts=markdown), [Product Features](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/security-operations/category/product-features/?ts=markdown), [Uncategorized](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/uncategorized/?ts=markdown)

[#### Prevent Critical Exposures for Employees on Unsecure Remote Networks Using ASM for Remote Workers Coverage](https://www2.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/security-operations/attack-surface-management-for-remote-workers/)

### [Products and Services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/products-and-services/?ts=markdown)

[#### Cybersecurity Learning in a Pandemic](https://www2.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/2021/10/cybersecurity-learning-in-a-pandemic/)

### Subscribe to the Blog!

Sign up to receive must-read articles, Playbooks of the Week, new feature announcements, and more.
![spinner](https://www2.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/wp-content/themes/panwblog2023/dist/images/ajax-loader.gif) Sign up  
Please enter a valid email.  
By submitting this form, you agree to our [Terms of Use](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/legal-notices/terms-of-use?ts=markdown) and acknowledge our [Privacy Statement](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/legal-notices/privacy?ts=markdown). Please look for a confirmation email from us. If you don't receive it in the next 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.  
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) and [Terms of Service](https://policies.google.com/terms) apply.  
{#footer} {#footer}

## Products and Services

* [AI-Powered Network Security Platform](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security?ts=markdown)

* [Secure AI by Design](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/precision-ai-security/secure-ai-by-design?ts=markdown)

* [Prisma AIRS](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/prisma/prisma-ai-runtime-security?ts=markdown)

* [AI Access Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/sase/ai-access-security?ts=markdown)

* [Cloud Delivered Security Services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/security-subscriptions?ts=markdown)

* [Advanced Threat Prevention](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/advanced-threat-prevention?ts=markdown)

* [Advanced URL Filtering](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/advanced-url-filtering?ts=markdown)

* [Advanced WildFire](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/advanced-wildfire?ts=markdown)

* [Advanced DNS Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/advanced-dns-security?ts=markdown)

* [Enterprise Data Loss Prevention](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/sase/enterprise-data-loss-prevention?ts=markdown)

* [Enterprise IoT Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/enterprise-device-security?ts=markdown)

* [Medical IoT Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/medical-device-security?ts=markdown)

* [Industrial OT Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/medical-device-security?ts=markdown)

* [SaaS Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/sase/saas-security?ts=markdown)

* [Next-Generation Firewalls](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/next-generation-firewall?ts=markdown)

* [Hardware Firewalls](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/hardware-firewall-innovations?ts=markdown)

* [Software Firewalls](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/software-firewalls?ts=markdown)

* [Strata Cloud Manager](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/strata-cloud-manager?ts=markdown)

* [SD-WAN for NGFW](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/sd-wan-subscription?ts=markdown)

* [PAN-OS](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/pan-os?ts=markdown)

* [Panorama](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/panorama?ts=markdown)

* [Secure Access Service Edge](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/sase?ts=markdown)

* [Prisma SASE](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/sase?ts=markdown)

* [Application Acceleration](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/sase/app-acceleration?ts=markdown)

* [Autonomous Digital Experience Management](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/sase/adem?ts=markdown)

* [Enterprise DLP](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/sase/enterprise-data-loss-prevention?ts=markdown)

* [Prisma Access](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/sase/access?ts=markdown)

* [Prisma Browser](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/sase/prisma-browser?ts=markdown)

* [Prisma SD-WAN](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/sase/sd-wan?ts=markdown)

* [Remote Browser Isolation](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/sase/remote-browser-isolation?ts=markdown)

* [SaaS Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/sase/saas-security?ts=markdown)

* [AI-Driven Security Operations Platform](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex?ts=markdown)

* [Cloud Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/cloud?ts=markdown)

* [Cortex Cloud](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/cloud?ts=markdown)

* [Application Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/cloud/application-security?ts=markdown)

* [Cloud Posture Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/cloud/cloud-posture-security?ts=markdown)

* [Cloud Runtime Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/cloud/runtime-security?ts=markdown)

* [Prisma Cloud](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/prisma/cloud?ts=markdown)

* [AI-Driven SOC](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex?ts=markdown)

* [Cortex XSIAM](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/cortex-xsiam?ts=markdown)

* [Cortex XDR](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/cortex-xdr?ts=markdown)

* [Cortex XSOAR](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/cortex-xsoar?ts=markdown)

* [Cortex Xpanse](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/cortex-xpanse?ts=markdown)

* [Unit 42 Managed Detection \& Response](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/managed-detection-and-response?ts=markdown)

* [Managed XSIAM](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/managed-xsiam?ts=markdown)

* [Threat Intel and Incident Response Services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/unit42?ts=markdown)

* [Proactive Assessments](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/unit42/assess?ts=markdown)

* [Incident Response](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/unit42/respond?ts=markdown)

* [Transform Your Security Strategy](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/unit42/transform?ts=markdown)

* [Discover Threat Intelligence](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/unit42/threat-intelligence-partners?ts=markdown)

## Company

* [About Us](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/about-us?ts=markdown)
* [Careers](https://jobs.paloaltonetworks.com/en/)
* [Contact Us](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/company/contact-sales?ts=markdown)
* [Corporate Responsibility](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/about-us/corporate-responsibility?ts=markdown)
* [Customers](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/customers?ts=markdown)
* [Investor Relations](https://investors.paloaltonetworks.com/)
* [Location](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/about-us/locations?ts=markdown)
* [Newsroom](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/company/newsroom?ts=markdown)

## Popular Links

* [Blog](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/?ts=markdown)
* [Communities](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/communities?ts=markdown)
* [Content Library](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/resources?ts=markdown)
* [Cyberpedia](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia?ts=markdown)
* [Event Center](https://events.paloaltonetworks.com/)
* [Manage Email Preferences](https://start.paloaltonetworks.com/preference-center)
* [Products A-Z](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/products/products-a-z?ts=markdown)
* [Product Certifications](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/legal-notices/trust-center/compliance?ts=markdown)
* [Report a Vulnerability](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/security-disclosure?ts=markdown)
* [Sitemap](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/sitemap?ts=markdown)
* [Tech Docs](https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/)
* [Unit 42](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/)
* [Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information](https://panwedd.exterro.net/portal/dsar.htm?target=panwedd)
  ![PAN logo](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/etc/clientlibs/clean/imgs/pan-logo-dark.svg)
* [Privacy](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/legal-notices/privacy?ts=markdown)
* [Trust Center](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/legal-notices/trust-center?ts=markdown)
* [Terms of Use](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/legal-notices/terms-of-use?ts=markdown)
* [Documents](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/legal?ts=markdown)

Copyright © 2026 Palo Alto Networks. All Rights Reserved

* [![Youtube](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/etc/clientlibs/clean/imgs/social/youtube-black.svg)](https://www.youtube.com/user/paloaltonetworks)
* [![Podcast](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/content/dam/pan/en_US/images/icons/podcast.svg)](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/podcasts/threat-vector?ts=markdown)
* [![Facebook](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/etc/clientlibs/clean/imgs/social/facebook-black.svg)](https://www.facebook.com/PaloAltoNetworks/)
* [![LinkedIn](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/etc/clientlibs/clean/imgs/social/linkedin-black.svg)](https://www.linkedin.com/company/palo-alto-networks)
* [![Twitter](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/etc/clientlibs/clean/imgs/social/twitter-x-black.svg)](https://twitter.com/PaloAltoNtwks)
* EN  
  Select your language