Centrify Targets Mobile Device Control Using Active Directory

Access control vendor Centrify announced the availability today of a new product for to help manage mobile devices.

Leveraging the new Centrify Cloud Service, Centrify DirectControl for Mobile is meant to address concerns related to the bring-your-own-device approach. The technology allows organizations to manage smartphones and tablets, including Apple iPads and Google Android devices, using existing Active Directory infrastructure, skill sets and processes.

In addition to DirectControl, Centrify also announced the availability of Centrify Express for Mobile, a free security offering for Android and Apple devices. Both offerings are integrated with customers’ on-premise Active Directory (AD) infrastructure and Group Policy-based management tools in order to enable enforcement and updating of mobile security settings.

DirectControl for Mobile and Express for Mobile include the following components:

• Centrify Cloud Service – a multi-tenanted cloud service that seamlessly allows the on-premise Active Directory environment to easily manage mobile devices over a trusted, over-the-air connection, whether or not a device is connected to the corporate network, thereby making deployment simple and further eliminating the need for costly new infrastructure.

• Centrify Cloud Proxy Server – an on-premise software package that runs as a Windows service and facilitates secure communication via https from an organization’s Active Directory to the Centrify Cloud Service.

• Centrify Cloud Management Suite – a collection of Windows management tools that are downloaded and installed and include the Centrify Cloud Proxy Server, as well as Active Directory Users & Computers (ADUC) and Group Policy Object Editor (GPOE) extensions to support mobile devices.

• Centrify Mobile Manager – an optional mobile application that runs on Apple and Android mobile devices that can detect rooted/jail-broken devices and facilitates an automated, enrollment process of a mobile device joining a customer’s Active Directory domain. Customers can also opt to join their devices to their Active Directory domain via a web enrollment page.

“The release of DirectControl for Mobile is a major milestone in the delivery of Centrify’s vision of enabling customers to control access from any device to any resource — irrespective if the device or resource is on-premise or in the cloud,” said Centrify CEO Tom Kemp, in a statement. 

Centrify’s DirectControl for Mobile and Centrify Express for Mobile are available starting today. Pricing for DirectControl for Mobile startis at $36 per device per year. The difference between the paid and free version is that the paid version comes with support and feature updates, while the free version doesn’t.