Zenprise, a provider of mobile device management solutions, today announced the availability of Zenprise Secure Mobile Gateway™, a new offering that provides multilayer protection against malicious or blacklisted applications. With Zenprise Secure Mobile Gateway, IT administrators can provide employees the freedom to download and install applications on personal devices, while helping to protect enterprise resources from security breaches and rogue applications.
The Company today also announced enhancements to the Zenprise Enterprise App Store for iOS and Android operating systems, as well as encryption capabilities for Android based devices. Data encryption at the device level is already supported for BlackBerry, iOS and Windows Mobile platforms.
Both Zenprise Secure Mobile Gateway and Zenprise Enterprise App Store are available as part of the latest version of Zenprise MobileManager™. Designed to enable administrators to quickly configure and provision enterprise applications on smartphones and tablets, Zenprise Enterprise Application Store now includes IT “Favorites,” making it easier for users to find safe and approved business applications to download. Zenprise MobileManager can also detect when a user installs an application outside of the approved list and prevent blacklisted applications from launching.
Zenprise Secure Mobile Gateway provides application whitelisting and blacklisting capabilities for both iOS and Android devices. This functionality ensures that only approved applications are given access to the corporate network, including personal or consumer applications installed on employee-owned devices. Zenprise Secure Mobile Gateway can automatically block users violating a whitelist or blacklist by quarantining their devices from the enterprise network.
According to ABI Research, the worldwide application industry will achieve 44 billion cumulative downloads by 2016, led largely by iOS devices as well as Android and Windows Phone 7. Given this rampant increase, Zenprise Secure Mobile Gateway provides a comprehensive set of tools that enable IT to balance employee choice around applications with the enterprise’s need to protect against harmful and malicious applications.
According to a report released today by Carnegie Mellon University and McAfee, four in 10 organizations have had mobile devices lost or stolen and half of lost/stolen devices contain business critical data. More than a third of mobile device losses have had a financial impact on the organization.
“Mobile applications are powering demand for smartphones and tablets in the enterprise, but left unchecked, downloading an app from untrusted sources can undermine an organization’s ability to remain secure,” said Chris Hazelton, research director for mobile and wireless at The 451 Group. “Employees who download an application to their mobile device may be putting themselves as well as the organization at risk, exposing personal, proprietary and sensitive data. IT needs to balance the desires of mobile consumers with the mandate to keep enterprise data secure. To meet both requirements, IT should put in place tools to manage the device, but also control the deployment and use of mobile applications.”
“Enterprises are struggling with the consumerization of IT — especially as more and more employees want to use their personal smartphones and tablets for work. Now we are seeing the next wave — the explosion of mobile applications — creating a whole new management concern,” said Jayaram Bhat, CEO of Zenprise.