MobileIron, which specialises in multi-OS smartphone management, has announced a broad set of capabilities to accelerate the adoption of iPhones in the enterprise.
MobileIron’s new application discovery, zero-touch security, and real-time cost control services leverage the APIs available with iPhone 4 and iOS 4 to provide what the company claims is the first complete management solution for iPhone, iPod, and iPad. MobileIron enables IT organizations to secure and manage iOS 4 devices end-to-end, while preserving the full user experience of the platform.
“The heart of the iPhone is apps,” says MobileIron CEO, Bob Tinker, CEO of MobileIron. “With over 200,000 apps in the App Store, developers have proven the power of the iPhone platform to deliver apps that matter. With MobileIron for iOS 4, businesses can now take advantage of that same power to easily develop, secure, and publish their own in-house apps to their employees. iOS 4 is a watershed release for the industry, that will catalyze mobile application development and shift the battle for the mobile enterprise from email to apps.”
According to the firm. MobileIron for iOS 4 addresses three core enterprise requirements. The first is application discovery. For the first time, it says, application discovery for in-house apps will be easy both for the IT department and the end-user. IT can publish a catalogue of the company’s in-house apps for users to download over-the-air, without the need for iTunes. Different apps can be made available for different users, based on policy. For example, the sales team might have access to CRM and expense-reporting apps, while the engineering team has access to knowledge management and collaborative apps. IT can now also maintain an accurate inventory of what apps are on what iPhones, and restrict access to enterprise email if non-compliant apps are present. 
The second area is zero-touch security. With MobielIron for iOS4, user intervention is no longer required to update iPhone security and application configuration profiles, so IT can push profiles to iPhones without requiring any action on the part of the user. Certificates can be used to authenticate user and device identity. All devices accessing the enterprise can be managed 24×7, with constant management connectivity. Modified iPhones can be kept out of the enterprise and all iPhones can be kept up-to-date and in-sync with corporate security policy.
The third factor is real-time cost control. MobileIron notes that one of the largest and most unpredictable business telecom costs is data roaming charges from apps and web browsing, adding that with MobileIron for iOS 4, IT can now monitor international roaming in real-time. Whenever an iPhone user travels to a new country, both the user and IT are notified, to ensure that costs are tightly managed and service plans are appropriate.
The MobileIron App is available from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and is used in conjunction with MobileIron’s enterprise mobility platform. MobileIron’s current suite of security and management functionality is available for iOS 4 at launch this month. MObileIron’s application discovery, zero-touch security, and real-time cost control features for iOS 4 will be available in Q3, 2010.
