Centrify powers new Samsung Knox Enterprise Mobility Management solution
Provider of unified identity management, Centrify, has today announced that it has expanded its strategic OEM partnership with Samsung Electronics to power the cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) features of the Samsung Knox Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) cloud-based service, which was announced at Mobile World Congress this year.
Centrify is the key technology provider for the cloud IAM capabilities of Knox EMM, and has collaborated extensively with Samsung’s engineering teams to co-develop mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) features for the Knox EMM service.
Also available for non-Samsung devices, organisations can use Centrify’s cloud service to manage cross-platform mobile users and devices to address security and management of enterprise mobility, application access, and BYOD and corporate owned, personally enabled (COPE) device challenges.
Shreyas Sadalgi, senior vice president, business development, at Centrify, commented: ‘Samsung has been a key strategic partner for us for three years and we have a shared vision for devices into the enterprise, in that information should be accessible to any user in the enterprise, in a one-click experience, reducing any friction.
‘On a micro-level, every organisation dealing with embracing BYOD and COPE are embracing the same issues: end users are required to prove themselves with passwords for each app over and over again; while IT has a lack of control and visibility over which user accessed what app from what device and at what time. The result is it’s becoming hard for IT to manage this kind of usability, and tedious for end users. Centrify provides the only single cloud platform combining MAM and IAM, built from the ground up,’ concluded Sadalgi.
While Injong Rhee, senior vice president at Knox business, IT and mobile communications division at Samsung Electronics, said: ‘Businesses of all sizes are looking to address enterprise mobility challenges around securing their users’ mobile devices and easy one-click access to cloud applications from these mobile devices. With Centrify’s cloud IAM, Samsung is delivering the industry’s only comprehensive and integrated EMM solution that combines cloud-based mobile device management with enterprise user identity federation for mobile and SaaS apps.’
Knox EMM is a cloud-based service for organisations that want to enable Samsung Galaxy smartphones or tablets for business use with a simple remote device and mobile app management solution. Additionally, Knox EMM is also available as a solution for centrally managing Apple iOS and non-Samsung Android devices and apps. Knox EMM enables ‘identity where you want it’ scenarios that allow organisations to either integrate their existing Active Directory identities or use cloud-based identities from enterprise cloud directories, such as Samsung EMM Cloud Directory or Windows Azure Active Directory, to enable federated identity to thousands of SaaS applications.
In addition, customers can either deploy hundreds of mobile policies via a fully cloud-based service or via their on-premise Active Directory Group Policy infrastructure to secure and manage mobile devices.
Centrify is also integrated as the de-facto cloud IAM service for SaaS and mobile apps purchased via the new Knox Marketplace, a cloud marketplace platform to unify the purchase, delivery, billing and identity/access management of cloud apps. A paid edition of Knox IAM will also be available for purchase on the Knox Marketplace, that provides several advanced identity management features like unlimited application single-sign on from any device or desktop, multi-factor authentication, SaaS user provisioning and more.
‘Due to our work with Samsung over the years, Centrify has become the key cloud identity provider for Knox EMM, delivering the first integrated cloud and mobile management solution of its kind to users,’ said Centrify CEO Tom Kemp. ‘Through this partnership with Samsung, we are enabling organisations to simply and securely achieve maximum mobile productivity from their workforce via enterprise-class mobile and SaaS management across the platforms of choice for millions of users.’
The Knox EMM solution is available today for use on every device via multiple offerings including My Knox, Knox Express, Knox Premium and Knox IAM.
