Google announces new security features, partnerships for Chrome Enterprise
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Google on Thursday is announcing new security features and partnerships for Chrome Enterprise that, Google says, will help ensure Chrome Enterprise is "the most secure endpoint solution for businesses in the cloud."
Google released Chrome Enterprise in August 2017 to ultimately serve as an endpoint for Google Cloud's suite of products. And as Google points out in Thursday's blog post, endpoint security is increasingly important for the enterprise.
With that in mind, Chrome Enterprise was launched with VMware AirWatch as an enterprise mobility management (EMM) partner. Google on Thursday is adding four more EMM partners from which customers can choose: Cisco Meraki, IBM MaaS360, Citrix XenMobile, and ManageEngine Mobile Device Manager Plus (a division of Zoho Corp).
Chrome Enterprise also launched with an integration with Microsoft Active Directory, enabling employees to use their native credentials for authentication across devices and Google Cloud services. Now, Google is adding enhancements to that integration, such as enabling admins to configure managed extensions directly through Group Policy Objects. Additionally, is adding support for common enterprise Active Directory setups.
Meanwhile, Google is also adding several management capabilities in Chrome Browser and Chrome OS. These include:
- Per-permission extension blacklisting, to let admins restrict access to extensions based on the permissions required.
- Disabling sign-ins from an outdated OS
- Ensuring that only managed devices can connect to their single sign-on servers
- Automatic forced re-enrollment, allowing a Chrome device that has been wiped or recovered to re-enroll into the corporate domain without requiring any administrator credentials