With the explosion of the handheld computing market, the convenience of full, wireless access to corporate files and information seems to offer real promise to a world where mobility is fast becoming a primary corporate virtue. The promise, however, seems to come with a price. Opening up corporate servers to wireless access requires a time consuming and potentially risky reconfiguration of the firewall.

A firewall is a computer or dedicated device that's configured to allow only specific traffic in and out of a corporation's network. Companies use firewalls to protect their internal networks from outside attacks. In many cases, the most difficult task in using a new technology is convincing the executives or IT that the capabilities of the new technology are important enough to warrant allowing additional protocols through the corporate firewall. Each protocol that's opened up presents another possible security risk for an organization.

Few IT managers are anxious to punch a hole through their firewall for any reason--especially when dealing with wireless devices that are difficult to authenticate and track. The potential for compromised corporate security is not an issue to be taken lightly. While a number of effective security products offer wireless components, not all corporations have the funding or the available time to apply a large-scale security platform to address this problem.

The company I work for, SkipWire (at http://www.skipwire.com) has come up with a new service called SkipStream that offers an external solution for wireless Palm device distribution. It exists outside of the corporate firewall, meaning SkipWire runs independent of an organization's network and therefore allows companies to take advantage of its capabilities without compromising the internal network.