Sophos Mobile Control, with millions of users already on iOS and Android, now delivers market leading mobile and tablet security on Windows 8

Mobile Device Management leader Sophos delivers an enhanced SaaS version, support for Windows Phone 8, and simplified reporting and administration

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, July 11, 2013 – Sophos today announced Sophos Mobile Control 3.5, the latest version of its award-winning mobile device management (MDM) solution. Available both on-premise and as-a-service, Sophos Mobile Control 3.5 makes it simple for small and mid-market organizations to secure, monitor and control mobile devices. This new release adds support for Windows Phone 8, as well as reporting and simplified administration to make BYOD (bring your own device) policies easy to define, implement and enforce.

Some recent industry estimates report that as many as 96 percent of organizations now have employees who use both corporate-managed and personal mobile devices for work purposes, forcing IT to adopt new strategies to protect their data on those devices. Even though huge numbers of smartphones and tablets are lost every day, many users don’t enable even basic password protection. Mobile malware and hacking is on the rise and many workers are still using unsecured personal mobile devices to access corporate data—a major concern for organizations trying to protect data while letting users work how they want.

Sophos Mobile Control provides the complete security that IT requires to confidently embrace employee device mobility. This latest version delivers Windows Phone 8 support alongside iPhone/iPad and Android, with self-enrollment and self-service capabilities for users, and allows IT to manage the complete device lifecycle as well as loss & theft scenarios.

Also included is an easy-to-use client app, which provides access to compliance status, messages and support information—allowing for comprehensive reporting and giving IT a holistic view of devices.

Simpler administration is delivered by an updated menu, dashboard and various other workflow improvements. The SaaS version of Sophos Mobile Control 3.5 delivers better integration into corporate IT with a new remote Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) Proxy that enables organizations to block non-compliant devices from receiving email, and remote LDAP support that allows users to easily connect to Active Directory.

“As a financial services firm, we face rigorous compliance and data-loss prevention requirements. That, coupled with the increasing number of smartphones and tablets used by our employees, necessitates the need for a comprehensive solution to serve our mobile users,” said Jack McLaine, Vice President, MIS, VIST Bank. “We have a small IT staff trying to add mobile security to their duties—a considerable challenge, considering they are tasked with protecting personal devices that are often lost or stolen. As you can imagine, we needed to conduct a thorough analysis of mobile offerings, and we ultimately concluded that Sophos Mobile Control best met our requirements while also offering very good value—very simple and very reliable.”

“There are now more smartphones and tablets in use than PCs, so protecting personal mobile devices is a critical piece of any modern IT security strategy, yet many organizations still struggle to enable simple, secure use of these devices. Most Mobile Device Management products were designed for large enterprise security specialists and are impractical for over-stretched IT professionals serving small and medium sized organizations,” said John Shaw, Vice President, Product Management, Sophos.

“We have designed our product to be simple and effective from the start, and as a result, we have experienced 400 percent growth in the last year and now count more than 2.5 million users protected by Sophos Mobile Control.  Our customers recognize that simple security is better security, be it mobile, endpoint or network. With this latest release of Sophos Mobile Control, we continue to make security simple to deploy and enforce, with consistent and robust protection for all devices.”

In related news, Sophos Mobile Control 3.5 recently received a 5 Star rating from SC Magazine in its latest testing of MDM offerings. The review noted that “Sophos Mobile Control provides a full set of features and functionality for management and control of a broad range of mobile devices.” It was also lauded for being easy to deploy and manage.

For more information about Sophos’ mobile offerings, please visit: http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/mobile.aspx.