Mobile device management and security heat up
Combine two of the hottest buzzwords in IT, and what do you have? Why, mobile device management in the cloud, of course.
MDM startup Zenprise today announced its ZenCloud offering, which functions as a public cloud, a private cloud, or in a hybrid mode. The public cloud MDM services include user provisioning, device configuration, application provisioning and policy setting and enforcement across BlackBerry, Apple iOS, Android and Windows Mobile platforms.
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The private cloud offering leverages the Zenprise Secure Mobile Gateway, announced last month, which acts as a “customs agent” at the perimeter of the enterprise network by blocking unmanaged devices and blacklisted applications, according to Ahmed Datoo, chief marketing officer. In addition to the mobile platforms mentioned, Secure Mobile Gateway provides application firewalling and access control for webOS, Windows Phone 7 and Symbian mobile OSs, he says.
The optional hybrid mode combines the public cloud MDM service with the Secure Mobile Gateway on-premises device.
Zenprise announced a 100% SLA with its cloud MDM service, even though Datoo is quick to acknowledge that its service is unlikely to remain up 100% of the time.
Such promises are more about per-minute credits during outages than they are about high availability. They were a bone of contention in the early VoIP days, when service providers such as Virtela offered 100% network uptime promises, which were basically impossible to keep but sounded impressive. (Incidentally, Virtela now offers an MDM cloud service, too.)
That said, a 100% SLA does beat a poke in the eye with a sharp stick; it provides financial motivation for the service provider to hustle to fix outages and “put our money where our mouth is,” says Datoo.
Datoo adds that in Zenprise’s case, if downtime should drag on, the service credits go up. After a certain period, the credits double and beyond another threshold, they triple, he says. This beats having no insurance built into your service, as is the case with many other MDM suppliers. Many enterprise IT professionals counter that the true cost of service downtime, which has reputation and security implications, can rarely be recouped through mere credits.
Other vendors with MDM cloud services include HP, Fiberlink and, as mentioned, Virtela.
