F5 Networks has developed F5 Mobile App Manager, a hybrid cloud solution for mobile application management that enables organizations to safely and cost-effectively support enterprise BYOD initiatives. With F5 Mobile App Manager, enterprises can extend corporate applications and data to employees’ personal mobile devices while leaving all personal content under the control of the device owner.
In true BYOD spirit, F5 Mobile App Manager combines the policy management and secure application delivery features of the BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) with the scalability and affordability of a SaaS offering. It is fundamentally different from “BYOD 1.0” MDM solutions in that it securely connects only corporate applications to the enterprise network, and it manages only the enterprise content and applications on a device rather than the entire device itself.
Many employees are now looking to include both their personal and business data on one device, while still wanting the separation of the two, as demonstrated in the launch of the BlackBerry 10 last month. This method is designed to isolate personal data from corporate oversight yet gives employees the convenience of using their own mobile devices for both work and personal use.
For IT organizations, F5 Mobile App Manager relieves the burden and responsibility of managing employee-owned devices while still enabling them to control device access to their network, track inventory, monitor threats and vulnerabilities, and protect corporate information.
As a hybrid cloud offering, F5 Mobile App Manager opens up new opportunities for enterprises that have not yet embraced BYOD, enabling them to do so without incurring the expense of deploying and managing yet another solution in their own data centers. For organizations dissatisfied with their MDM solutions, F5 Mobile App Manager provides a secure, flexible, and cost-effective alternative that is less invasive and restrictive for employees.
F5 Mobile App Manager complements F5’s existing unified access solutions, which provide secure, accelerated remote access and identity federation for SaaS applications. By implementing these offerings in conjunction with F5 application delivery firewall, application security, and application access management solutions, organizations can effectively protect their entire enterprise footprint.
Available for both Apple iOS and Google Android mobile devices, F5 Mobile App Manager is simple and straightforward for employees to use. It provides PIN-protected and encrypted enterprise applications, including corporate email, a secure web browser, and an F5 App Store from which corporate applications and content can be securely downloaded.
On the administrative side, F5 Mobile App Manager not only enables IT to better protect corporate applications and data, it greatly simplifies device management and policy enforcement. Using the management console, IT can manage individual devices or device groups, push and/or retract applications and data on a device, and lock or wipe only the secure workspace rather than the entire device.
Beyond enterprise customers, channel partners and carrier service providers (CSPs) can benefit from F5 Mobile App Manager as well. It is a low overhead differentiated service that channel partners can quickly make available to their customers because, as a SaaS offering, it can be added to customers’ existing BIG-IP APM deployments and it requires no additional infrastructure changes or on-site installation. Likewise, for CSPs that are looking to grow their average revenue per user (ARPU) beyond voice and data plans, F5 Mobile App Manager can be resold as a value-added enterprise managed service.
