Cloud-based Mobile Device Management

Securing and managing mobile devices without needing to add IT staff or breaking the bank

 

Challenges

MDM demo videoSmartphones and portable tablet computers represent a significant and growing share of the corporate computing budget.  Organizations need a way to track and manage both employee- and corporate-owned devices to ensure data security, maintain expense management and cost containment, and manage user productivity.

  • Securing Mobile Devices and Data - Mobile devices are able to access and store sensitive corporate data through emails or other applications, as well as passwords and personally identifiable data.  Lost or stolen mobile devices create security risks.
  • Controlling Mobile Costs - Without proper mobile device management controls, enterprises risk unexpected and extraordinary mobile device service charges associated with unauthorized roaming or excessive data and text use.
  • Supporting Mobile OS and Device Diversity - A variety of mobile devices and operating systems are in wide use today, including iOS, Android, Blackberry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. In addition, employees are bringing non-corporate mobile assets into the enterprise, creating additional complexities for IT organizations.

Service Overview

Virtela's Cloud-based Mobile Device Management (MDM) service gives enterprises centralized control of their global mobility strategy via a single self-service portal - VirtelaView SM. - with follow-the-sun support by Virtela's Network and Security Operation Centers a single phone call away.  The service is the ideal solution for IT departments overwhelmed by the rapid growth in mobile devices in the corporate computing environment, and seeking a reliable and comprehensive outsourced managed solution.  Virtela leverages the company's Enterprise Services Cloud (ESC) platform to provide a unified solution with unprecedented reach into 190+ countries, independent of the mobile operator or platform (including Apple iOS, Blackberry, Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian), with multi-language support.

"Virtela's cloud-based mobility services offer solutions for companies who require best-in-class support without increasing internal IT resources. These mobility services protect us from increased liability associated with downloading inappropriate applications or content, and ensure our ability to meet local compliance requirements around the world while offering end users great experience and tools."--Inteva Products

Key Features and Benefits

Virtela MDM ensures complete mobile device security, asset management and cost controls through a comprehensive set of device management features and capabilities, including:

  • Managed, cloud-based service. Enabled by Virtela ESC, the service saves you time and money, is simple to use, and eliminates up-front investments in deploying a dedicated server environment.   Delivered from Virtela's 50 Local Cloud Centers (LCCs) around the world, the service provides a completely managed global service delivery solution that enables rapid deployment of services and rapid growth to support thousands of incremental smartphone users without having to worry about deploying additional hardware.
  • VirtelaView Unified Management Portal. VirtelaView delivers operational efficiencies and savings by providing a comprehensive "single view" into the mobile device environment, including visibility into both corporate, and employee-owned mobile inventory, as well as mobile OS and applications by device.
  • Security and Application Policies. Also using VirtelaView, companies can quickly ramp their managed mobility strategies by using Virtela-provided security policies, simple-click configuration and provisioning plus control access to key network resources and applications by specific user groups or lines of business.
  • Remote and Selective Wipe. The service can quickly detect if a phone has been lost, delete data to prevent the theft of corporate assets and personal data, thus eliminating a potential security vulnerability.
  • Real-Time Usage Notification and Enforcement. Virtela's Cloud-based MDM service quickly detects when roaming, data, voice, or SMS usage thresholds have been reached, and provides real-time alerts to the IT team as well as the end-user to prevent unwanted billing surprises.
  • Real-Time Notification Service Level Agreement (SLA). Virtela guarantees that you will be alerted within 15 minutes of mobile activities that compromise established corporate policies.
  • Set-up and Ongoing 24x7 Support. The service includes initial policy set-up, device configuration, and ongoing 24x7 technical support as well as a self-service portal for any configuration changes required by the IT team.

Business Benefits

Cloud-based MDM service off-loads overburdened IT organizations and helps companies achieve many benefits, including:

  • Faster Time-to-Service. The service can be activated within hours, rather than months with dedicated server solutions, and allows you to rapidly deploy policies and control access with simple-click configuration and provisioning.
  • Saves Significant Cost. You pay nothing up front and enjoy consistently predictable, low per-device monthly service fees, without requiring any additional IT resources for implementation and management.  Additionally, you can achieve cost savings from having the ability to monitor and control unauthorized or excessive roaming, data, voice and SMS usage with the service.
  • Compliance and Risk Mitigation. You can perform configuration management and back up data within specific countries or regions to better meet local compliance and privacy laws.  The service also uniquely features SMS text archiving and search to meet additional compliance requirements emerging in certain geographies.

 

Related Resources

FAQs: Securing and Managing the Mobile Workforce, Including Employee-owned Devices (PDF)
Podcast: Evaluating Cloud-based Mobile Device Management (MP3)