Communications giant AT&T has announced a service to help businesses
better manage and help secure smartphones on multiple operating systems within
their organizations. The service, MobileIron VSP (Virtual Smartphone Platform)
from AT&T, provides over-the-air protection and control for both company-
and employee-owned smartphones used within an organization.
The service also provides multiplatform visibility for integrated devices
running on various mobile operating systems and across multiple wireless
service providers. The solution is expected to be available for purchase by
AT&T business customers by the end of this month, according to a company
release.
“More and more companies are using mobile technology as an essential business
tool. However, as corporate information moves onto mobile devices, companies
are challenged with visibility into what is happening with data, costs,
security and applications," said Michael Antieri, president of advanced
enterprise mobility solutions with AT&T Business Solutions. "With the
addition of this new mobile device management service from MobileIron, we're
providing customers the ability to manage devices across multiple platforms.
Our team at AT&T is focused on helping customers find the right technology
solutions to embrace the benefits mobility offers to businesses."
Formed earlier this year, AT&T's Advanced Enterprise Mobility Solutions
group collaborates with product teams across hosting, application management
and UC (unified communications) to help mobilize applications for business
customers, developers and independent software providers. The group complements
AT&T's Emerging Devices Organization, which focuses on wirelessly enabling
devices for consumers.
"Smartphones are transforming the way enterprise users do their work.
After many years of talking about the mobile enterprise, it has finally
arrived," said Bob Tinker, CEO of
MobileIron. "More and more companies of all sizes are embracing both
corporate- and employee-owned smartphones. We're delighted to be working with
AT&T's Advanced Enterprise Mobility Solutions group to help more
enterprises say yes to smartphones."
In a recent IDC market share report, the IT
research company predicted the worldwide mobile device management market will
grow by a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 7.6 percent over the next five
years to reach $382.7 million in revenue by 2014.
"The increasing acceptance of individual-liable devices in the enterprise
will continue to be an important driver of activity for mobile device
management throughout the forecast period,” said IDC
analyst Stacy Crook. “This is due to the increased number of mobile operating
systems that IT will have to support as well as the added security risks these
devices can present.”
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