Business assurance technology vendor, Blue Coat Systems, and AirWatch, an enterprise mobility management company, have partnered to deliver a solution that empowers companies to securely embrace and deliver enterprise-wide mobile initiatives.
The companies say the partnership addresses a critical problem in deploying mobile devices across the enterprise. Prior to the partnership, companies were forced to make tradeoffs between mobile device management capabilities - such as application whitelisting, blacklisting and remote lock and wipe - and protection against Web-based threats, they add.
By integrating Blue Coat's Mobile Device Security service with AirWatch's enterprise mobility management capabilities, enterprises can easily extend and manage Web security policies for thousands of smartphones and tablets, protecting employees from Web-based malware and mobile application threats.
According to the companies, the joint solution allows customers to easily update and push content and security policies to mobile devices across the extended corporate environment. For example, a company that provides iPads with product information to its sales force can now simultaneously update content for all users while enabling its team to safely access relevant Web-based material.
A company that allows employees to use their own devices to access the corporate network can now protect them from mobile malware and assure that policies are consistently enforced across all devices.
"The Blue Coat partnership with AirWatch extends our capabilities to empower enterprises to safely use the best mobile technologies and products in the market," says Greg Clark, CEO of Blue Coat Systems. "This partnership demonstrates Blue Coat's commitment to execute and extend our business assurance market leadership by tackling the toughest challenges in mobile security."
"Mobile devices in the enterprise represent a significant opportunity to enable greater productivity, reduce costs and increase efficiency, but there are real security obstacles that prevent enterprises from allowing their employees to use these devices to access the corporate network," says Jon Oltsik, senior principal analyst at ESG. "The partnership between AirWatch and Blue Coat shows how vendors in the industry can work together to help enterprises address mobile security concerns while adopting new business initiatives."
"Increasingly, our customers want to embrace mobile device initiatives, but face a dual challenge of managing thousands of new devices and assuring that employees can safely use those devices to access Web content and corporate data," says John Marshall, CEO of AirWatch. "This partnership brings two industry leaders together to deliver tremendous value to our customers."
"Dimension Data has a long-standing global alliance with Blue Coat, and, in January this year, signed a global partnership with AirWatch, so we welcome this exciting announcement as it complements Dimension Data's approach to enterprise mobility," says Jaco Hattingh, global GM at Dimension Data.
"Deploying mobility solutions is highly complex because it affects a wide range of interrelated components across a number of organisational functions. If not implemented correctly, it could impact existing IT infrastructure. When it comes to deploying mobility solutions for its clients, Dimension Data takes a comprehensive, consultative-led approach, so this announcement not only aligns to and enhances our existing approach, but it also provides added benefits to our clients."
The interoperable solution will be available in August.
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