Video Demo: Fiberlink's Encompassing Mobile Device Management

We are mobile, which makes us more productive. And more difficult to manage and secure. Tablets are wonderful and the choices are growing, but they also exacerbate the IT management challenge. Forget about growing population of users who access data from multiple devices at once! IT will spend the next few years untangling this mess, but there are plenty of tools.

I've been talking with Fiberlink, and its cloud-based approach is quite promising because it takes into account laptops, not just smartphones; and it integrates with existing device management schemes like BES and Active Sync.

For a broader discussion of enterprise mobility, including a variety of available technologies, read here. For an incredibly in depth look at mobile device management, you can download our report here. (Note: The report requires registration.)

Fiberlink's mission is to manage devices that aren't always sitting inside the corporate firewall, not always connected, or just not connected predictably. These are the most difficult devices to manage, whether they are laptops or smart phones or tablets. Not only is the connectivity of these systems unpredictable, so too is the use; less control means greater risk, especially where data is concerned and especially where compliance is paramount.

Fiberlink's dashboard lets administrators set and enforce policy and manage those devices, all from a single interface; and it lets IT management, including CIOs, understand mobile usage trends, compliance issues and cost concerns. The approach is especially useful in an era where IT isn't necessarily going to hire more support staff just to deal with mobility.

Below is a short demonstration of some of Fiberlink's capabilities. WIth patch management, for example, you'll see that the technology can use a deployment workflow that includes testing target devices, scheduling the patches, detecting the connection speed of the device to ensure an optimal time for an upgrade; or if the patch requires device reboot, it can send a message to the end user. You can see what carrier a user's plan is on, or what carrier their system is accessing at a given time. You can explore whether a device is company owned or personal. You can block or quarantine a device -- perhaps because it doesn't support a critical feature such as remote wipe. And much more.

While it was not part of the demonstration, Fiberlink also can get platform specific with Apple's iOS and Android. With iOS, it uses Apple's device management APIs. With this level of functionality, Fiberlink can control devices down to some of the hardware features.

Fritz Nelson is the editorial director for InformationWeek and the Executive Producer of TechWebTV. Fritz writes about startups and established companies alike, but likes to exploit multiple forms of media into his writing.

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