Market momentum for software that helps companies provision, manage and safeguard mobile handsets is picking up where it left off in 2011.
Centrify has unveiled DirectControl for Mobile, a Web-based service that protects potentially sensitive corporate data transmitted via Apple iPhones and iPads, Android smartphones and tablets, and other gadget platforms. At the same time, Enterproid has agreed to integrate its mobile device management software with Broadsoft’s unified communications platform.
The new software products come as more corporate employees are bringing in their iPhones, iPads and various Android gadgets to use in the workplace, part of the increasingly prevalent bring your own device (BYOD) trend.
Centrify aims to set itself apart from Good Technology, Mobile Iron, and others of that ilk, by letting companies use their existing Active Directory infrastructure and policies. This affords businesses significant efficiencies at a time when most large businesses rely on the Microsoft software for identity management and provisioning.
Tom Kemp, Centrify’s CEO, told eWEEK that other mobile device management (MDM) vendors force their customers to tack on new IT gear, change firewall settings or use a new management console. Each device is tied to a corporate user, so the device is automatically wiped when that user quits or is fired.
DirectControl for Mobile also provides automated self-enrolment and single sign-on for multiple devices. This means users will enroll and receive their authentication credentials, email, WiFi and VPN settings, which will ease some of the pain for IT help desks.
Once DirectControl is up and running, IT admins will be able to control mobile security settings, lock or remotely wipe devices, and protect corporate email, VPN and WiFi networks.
Centrify communicates with the on-premise Active Directory environment over the Web for easier device management regardless of whether or not a device is connected to the corporate network.
Centrify DirectControl is a paid subscription service, costing $24 (£15) per device per year.
However, the company also unveiled Centrify Express for Mobile, a free mobile security product that will support as many devices as a business wants to throw at it. Unlike DirectControl, this product will not include technical support so businesses are on their own once they choose to use it.
Enterproid is bringing Divide, an application that splits personal and professional data on a single smartphone or tablet, to BroadSoft’s platform, which supports high-definition voice and video conferencing, text messaging and instant messaging for telecommunications carriers.
This is not the first partnership Enterproid has struck. The start-up is licensing its software to AT&T for Toggle, a software application that essentially does what Enterproid does, but under the carrier’s brand.
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This was a really good article, and I thought the rundown to the various approached between Centrify and Enterproid was very helpful.
We are dealing with the bring your own device ( byod ) from an HIPAA stand point, and how it applied to hospitals who are dealing with doctors and nurses who are texting patient information and files.
While the large enterprise solutions like Centrify have a deeply integrates system where the IT department takes control of the device, in a hospital setting I think the doctors will have a large issue with this.
We are looking into solving the HIPAA issues related with BYOD by using Tigertext ( http://www.tigertext.com ) which while not as integrated as the large enterprise solutions, offers some interesting benefits:
1) Closed network for sending texts, messaging can be archived on your own sever
2) Messaging deletes itself afer a period of time, so losing the device will not open you up to HIPAA related PHI lawsuits
3) Seems to be a much lower cost solution
4) Doctors still feel they control their phone and personal information
Anyways, I think that this is going to be a major security issue of the next few years, and IT managers are going to have to look at all the alternatives.
Some other resources:
http://byod.us/
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/administrative/securityrule/index.html