IT security and data protection company, Sophos, on Monday launched Sophos Mobile Control 2.5, the latest version of its offering in the increasingly competitive mobile device management (MDM) space.
The latest update brings an updated web-based admin console and new features designed to provide IT administrators with a simple way to offer BYOD in the enterprise.
According to the company, Sophos Mobile Control 2.5 adds optimized workflows, and offers easy integration with existing IT infrastructure including support for Active Directory, to automatically assign newly-registered devices to existing groups and apply the associated policies to them.
“BYOD is top of mind for myriad organizations; however, it’s causing some concern among IT. The increase in personal devices accessing the network may complicate the process of ensuring devices are secure and compliant with company policies, making it difficult for IT to justify broad BYOD acceptance,” said Stacy K. Crook, senior analyst, Mobile Enterprise Research, IDC.
The company said its new mobile client interface incorporates a compliance tab that displays the device’s compliance status, reasons for non-compliance and any actions the user needs to resolve the issue. Users can also access their current compliance status and view a list of issues through a self-service portal.
While employees enjoy the benefits of BYOD, such as having the latest iPhone Android device, or BlackBerry smartphone, many don’t realize how much control they are often handing to their employer when connecting and registering it as part of corporate network.
For example, Sophos Mobile Control 2.5, along with most other MDM solutions, lets IT departments remotely wipe a device if an employee loses it, leaves the company or does not comply with security policies. Beacuse of features like that, users should be aware of their corporate mobile device usage policies and know what power their IT departments have over their devices—even the ones they own.
Sophos Mobile Control 2.5 offers support for iOS-managed apps, and lets the company to tie their corporate apps to their MDM solution and remotely push them to mobile devices. These apps, as well as any associated data, can be deleted directly from the admin console. In addition, if it a mobile device becomes non-compliant, the new release will alert IT, and administrator can notify to the user for minor violations. And as mentioned before, in the event of more serious incidents, the administrator can configure a set of tasks, which ca be applied automatically, such as full wipes of the device.
Many of the features brought into the company’s Mobile Control solution come as a result of the acquisitions of DIALOGS, a German software company that Sophos acquired back in April 2012.
“Following our recent acquisition of DIALOGS, we have been able to aggressively improve the features within our complete mobile security offerings, which have resonated with the market. We now count more than 1,500 Mobile Control customers using the solution to control and secure half a million devices — companies are saying ‘yes’ to BYOD without risking security and compliance,” said Matthias Pankert, vice president of Product Management, Mobile Data Protection, Sophos. “This rapid momentum in our mobile business is evidence that it is no longer enough for businesses to just control their own devices. They must now make sure that all devices, regardless of whether they are corporate or personal, are protected and secured and meet the corporation’s security standards.”
Sophos Mobile Control is available as a subscription license or as part of the Sophos Complete Security Suite, which combines endpoint, data, email, web, server and mobile protection in one license.