Tough approach for mobile device visibility, management and control
ForeScout Technologies, a provider of network security solutions, has announced interoperability between ForeScout CounterACT network security and SAP Afaria mobile device management (MDM) platforms.
The combination enables companies to accelerate and fortify the provisioning, HeatherMcLeanistration and security of corporate and personal mobile devices, applications and data in the enterprise.
'Organisations are looking for an integrated approach to manage and secure the invasion of employee-liable devices connecting to corporate networks, particularly at a time when BYOD is so prevalent,' said Chris Hazelton, research director for mobile and wireless at 451 Research.
'We see strong synergy between network access control (NAC) and MDM in their capabilities to provide visibility into devices regardless of ownership – corporate or personal. The pairing of NAC with MDM technologies offers organisations the means to easily identify who and what type of device is connecting to the enterprise, to automatically enrol and monitor roles-based controls for any device and user and to secure the growing movement of corporate data across smartphones and tablets,' added Hazelton.
Together, ForeScout CounterACT and SAP Afaria offer enterprises the means to see and detect all unmanaged, corporate and personal mobile devices attempting to connect to the corporate network via Wi-Fi or over-the-air, apply security policy based on user, role and device in order to automatically limit access, manage as guest or enrol in SAP Afaria MDM, and to trigger SAP Afaria to profile check managed devices upon network resource request to detect jail-broken, rooted and non-compliant handhelds and to restrict access until the device adheres to policy.
The solution also enables organisations to fortify a range of user, device, application and data policies though network enforced controls, such as password strength, configuration, application use, encryption and data protection and provide powerful compliance rules engines at the device and network level, that support on-demand and automated responses such as reconfigure, remote wipe and network reassignment, as well as much more.
'IT organisations want to rapidly and cost effectively adopt BYOD without compromising security, giving appropriate access to corporate resources, data and applications that take full advantage of mobile platforms and cloud ubiquity,' said Gil Friedrich, vice president of technology for ForeScout. 'Through this integration, SAP customers can utilise the rich enterprise mobile device, data and application management provided by SAP Afaria with advanced network visibility and control afforded by ForeScout.'
