Symantec delivers complete mobile device lifecycle management

BANGALORE, INDIA: Symantec Corp.today announced its mobile security and management strategy, including three products to help organizations secure and manage data on the rising number of mobile devices in the enterprise.

Symantec’s mobile strategy focuses on the effective integration of its mobile security and management solutions to help customers reduce downtime, increase user productivity, improve response time and provide protection and management throughout the mobile device lifecycle—from provisioning and management to security and eventual device retirement.

“As mobile devices become more sophisticated, provide greater corporate access and store more data, organizations require greater control and management to protect corporate information and ensure user productivity – all while reducing costs,” said Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director, Symantec India.

“Our mobile strategy is designed to protect and manage data wherever it resides and automate procurement and provisioning, provide ongoing maintenance and protection, and quickly retire the mobile devices if they are lost, damaged, stolen or replaced.”

Having a comprehensive mobile strategy in place will become increasingly important as mobile devices continue to permeate the business environment. IDC research indicates that the number of worldwide converged mobile device shipments will reach more than 167 million by the end of 2009 and forecasts that it will increase to more than 291 million by 2013, representing a 14 percent CAGR.

In fact, the smart phones market in India alone, sized at 5 million in 2008, is expecting a CAGR of 23 percent by 2011, according to technology research firm Ascenda. As more mobile devices access corporate networks, often through unprotected pathways, malware writers and criminals will use this window to gain access to sensitive data.

Symantec’s mobile management and security strategy follows a lifecycle model, provides tight integration and aligns with the broad Symantec portfolio. As part of its mobile strategy, Symantec is now offering three new products to help customers mitigate risk, manage complexity, control costs, automate processes and address compliance concerns with efficiency and cost savings.

Symantec Endpoint Protection Mobile Edition 6.0 provides protection for mobile devices against malicious threats and unauthorized access to sensitive corporate information by utilizing award-winning antivirus technology, an advanced firewall, and SMS anti-spam protection. Symantec Endpoint Protection Mobile Edition helps ensure both the protection of the data on the mobile devices and compliance with internal and external security requirements.

Symantec Network Access Control Mobile Edition 6.0 works with Symantec Endpoint Protection Mobile Edition to enforce compliancy with security policies to ensure that only secure, policy-compliant devices can access the network and email on Microsoft Exchange. Symantec Network Access Control Mobile Edition provides client-based integrity checking and centralized alerting of device integrity status. Assessment of host integrity status for mobile devices helps organizations ensure that they are able to consistently enforce IT policy. Centralized logging, reporting, and alerting further enables organizations to proactively monitor the status of managed devices.

Symantec Mobile Management 7.0 increases IT efficiency with over-the-air deployment of applications and updates, improves end user productivity by managing mobile device health, and integrates with Symantec mobile security products to manage and secure mobile devices throughout their lifecycle. Symantec Mobile Management provides powerful remote assistance capabilities, real-time system management, granular software delivery and self repair, and complete visibility into the mobile environment.