Orange taps Afaria for remote device management
Orange Business Services will begin offering a new mobile device management service for enterprises in June, with the service based on Sybase's Afaria platform.
The Managed Device Management service is aimed at companies that want to improve the integration of mobile capabilities into their general IT infrastructure, the company said on Wednesday.
"Security compliance, centralised mobile device control and application deployment are major challenges that global enterprises must overcome to benefit from the 21st century corporate mobility world," said Caroline Comet-Fraigneau, head of the mobility business unit at Orange Business Services, in a statement.
The service builds on a hosted device-management service launched by Orange in August 2008. It allows companies to consolidate mobile assets such as devices and SIM cards, implement a mobile security policy, deploy mobile applications and control wireless spending. Other features include data backup and recovery, process automation and scripting.
The security features in Sybase's Afaria device management platform include password protection, device encryption, remote control, antivirus, a firewall and the ability to remotely wipe data. Administrators carry out management tasks via an agent deployed over-the-air.
Orange will deploy the service on any network, making it available, for instance, in countries where Orange has no presence.
It will be delivered on a flat fee per device, per month basis, although pricing has not yet been announced. Customers will be able to choose centralised billing, or billing by geographical region or company division. The service will include service-level agreements and 24/7 technical support, Orange said.
Afaria supports the BlackBerry, the iPhone, and handsets running Symbian and Windows Mobile, but Orange does not plan to offer iPhone support until later in 2010.
The Managed Device Management service will be offered in three versions, with the standard including inventory and configuration management and data backup. A security pack adds security tools as well as authentication control for Microsoft Exchange access, while a premium add-on includes features such as document distribution and remote control.