Sophos Introduces First Cloud-Based Solution with Hosted Version of Mobile Device Management Offering

As a hosted service, Sophos Mobile Control eliminates hardware costs and reduces time to administer MDM solutions

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, September 10, 2012 – Sophos  today announced the hosted version of its award-winning mobile device management (MDM) solution, Sophos Mobile Control, enabling partners to offer clients a choice of delivery models. Based on the recently released Sophos Mobile Control 2.5,  Sophos Mobile Control as a Service allows businesses to quickly and easily deploy an MDM solution without any changes to their existing IT infrastructures, alleviating any further management burden on IT. In addition to Sophos Mobile Control as a Service, the company is planning to introduce a full range of hosted security applications.

Even with limited resources and expertise, device management in minutes
Although a company-installed MDM solution offers advantages, it does require planning and expertise that businesses new to mobile device management often lack, which is why Sophos now offers a hosted alternative that can be implemented within minutes. Companies using Sophos Mobile Control as a Service can complete countless tasks—from creating policies to uploading lists of users and developing Acceptable Use Policies for employee-owned devices through the web-based admin console. The service requires nothing more than a browser on the customer premises.

A solution to fit
Designed with usability in mind, and based on user feedback, the structure of the Sophos Mobile Control web console, self-service portal and the mobile client provide customers with a powerful and intuitive solution that is easy to use and offers the benefit of no hardware on the customer site, resulting in savings to both capital and operating expenditures, as no maintenance is required.

“We provide a hosted Marketing Resource Management product ourselves, which is what made us start looking for a SaaS MDM offering” said Peter Küssner, managing director, Picture Management AG. “As we’ve allowed our employees to start using their personal smartphones at work, we felt increasing pressure to get better control of the devices to protect our data. After discussions started with Sophos, we were impressed by how fast we had the service up and running.”

“The expansion of BYOD programs and the prevalence of mobile devices on business networks means mobile device management is an issue with which companies of all sizes are grappling. This presents a great opportunity for resellers and other solution providers, as many companies are looking to their IT consultants for help managing mobile devices,” said Stacy Crook, senior analyst, Mobile Enterprise Research, IDC. “Sophos’ new SaaS-based MDM solution provides businesses with a sound option for securing mobile devices without creating more work for the IT department. Additionally, Sophos partners can increase their revenue by offering services that meet the growing demand for mobile device management.”

“The launch of Sophos Mobile Control as our first hosted service represents a significant milestone in our product strategy,” said Matthias Pankert, vice president, product management, Sophos. “Security applications are rapidly moving toward the cloud to provide flexibility and scalability, which today’s businesses demand. With limited resources and a multitude of security solutions to manage, mobile devices in particular are often left uncontrolled. Our SaaS-based solution ensures that these devices are controlled and managed, even for small groups of users within a company.”

Sophos Mobile Control is available for on-premise installation or as Software as a Service under a subscription license. The on-premise version is also included in the Sophos Complete Security Suite, which combines endpoint, data, email, web, server and mobile protection in one license. Sophos offers additional mobile security solutions such as Sophos Mobile Security, an antivirus app for Android devices available for free download on Google Play and Sophos Mobile Encryption, an app used in conjunction with SafeGuard Enterprise Encryption for Cloud Storage to allow mobile access to encrypted files in the cloud.