Securing your content has always been and is still a hot topic.
With tools like EMC Documentum and SharePoint it is easy to make sure people within the (extended) enterprise get the right access to the content and with extensions like RSA rights management you can make sure that, within that environment, the information within that context is also secured. You cannot access or print it if the owner (or the enterprise) does not want it.
Same goes for publishing this information to that group. Personalizing and securing the information presented within the enterprise is standard and accepted functionality.
But now everybody is talking about Bring Your Own Device. (BYOD). This means that the easy solutions where you install some IRM software on the enterprise controlled hardware is not applicable.
Than the fun kicks in with all new BYOD devices. Someone (the famous Steve) came up with the app paradigm. The new devices all consist of very loosely coupled app’s that can easily be downloaded from the app store. And suddenly everybody thinks it is normal to download a simple app to have some functionality or information set.
This paradigm makes IRM outside the enterprise so much more simple. Millions where spend to make small and light footprint solutions to connect to some authentication server to do the authentication of that user. It all had to be on-line because of the security risk and the light footprint.
But now the app’s are there. It is the new normal to download an app, install it on all your devices and when you want to open a certain document this app kicks in and you authenticate yourself. As it is a full blown app it can store user information and authenticate once and reuse this even if the user is off-line.
As more and more sync solution are available (I suddenly see a business case for Syncplicity) the user can work off-line and be sure they (and only the right person) can see and use the information anywhere anytime.
As this is a full app, RSA can put more and more control/functionality in it.
So to conclude: The world of apps makes personalized secure content possible outside the enterprise.