IT security and data protection company, Sophos, has announced Sophos Mobile Control 2.0, the latest version of its mobile device management solution.
Sophos Mobile Control supports a variety of mobile devices and operating systems, such as Apple iPhones and iPads - including the latest iOS5 release - Google Android phones and tablets, Windows Mobile devices and RIM BlackBerry - managing all of these from one Web-based console.
“With the continued proliferation of mobile devices, many people are using their personal devices for work as well,” says Brett Myroff, CEO of Sophos distributor, NetXactics. According to data from Aberdeen, nearly three quarters of companies allow employee-owned smartphones and/or tablets to be used at work. A quarter give employees a white list of allowed devices, while almost half let employees use any device.
The International Data Corporation (IDC) further indicates that, worldwide, media tablet shipments rose 303.8% year-over-year in the second calendar quarter of 2011 to 13.6 million units. And according to research from Gartner, by 2016, at least 50% of enterprise e-mail users will rely primarily on a browser, tablet or mobile client, instead of a desktop client.
“Accessing sensitive data on these devices is causing an array of security and compliance issues for businesses and their IT staff, which are now tasked with enabling the use of consumer devices, developing new mobile applications for business use, while maintaining consistent policies and device compliance for all employees,” Myroff says.
Sophos Mobile Control allows IT administrators to quickly secure, monitor and control smartphones and other personal mobile devices. Enhancements incorporated into the latest version of the software include:
* Enterprise App Store, which has the look and feel of a typical app store, but allows IT administrators to configure, require or recommend apps to download. This feature also enables administrators to deploy company-specific apps that are not published in the Apple App Store or the Google Market.
* Compliance Enforcement, which allows IT administrators to set specific rules that execute consistent policies from device to device, including such actions as denying unencrypted devices or blacklisting specific applications. This new feature logs all compliance issues on a Web-based dashboard that permits the administrator to see all non-compliant devices, details of the violations and actions required to remediate the issue. Non-compliant devices can be automatically disabled from receiving further access to corporate data.
* Self Service Portal, which allows users to access features such as locking or wiping mobile devices, locating devices and resetting passwords after an employee device has been registered. With the self-service portal, employees are now able to resolve most problems on their own without exhausting IT resources.
“As businesses become increasingly mobile, they add an extra layer of complexity. The enhancements in Sophos Mobile Control streamline and simplify device and data protection, while giving employees the flexibility they want, and IT departments the protection they need,” Myroff adds.
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Sophos
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data-protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use, and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award - winning encryption, endpoint security, Web, e-mail, mobile and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centres. With more than two decades' of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US, and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.
NetXactics
Established in 1998, NetXactics is a South African company that specialises in sales, marketing and distribution of IT and related products. Its approach is quite unique, focusing on long-term growth, coupled with exceptional customer stability. NetXactics has also been nominated as one of the top ICT companies in South Africa for four years running, and has attained a level 2 B-BBEE rating.
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