Good 6.0 Seeks To Turn Smartphones Into Mobile Laptops

Motorola announced Monday the upcoming availability of Good Mobility Suite 6.0, which it asserts will provide organizations with more secure and manageable mobile access to enterprise information and applications.

Along with push e-mail, the updated suite will allow mobile workers with mobile smartphones such as the Motorola Q to have access to data and applications behind the corporate firewall while delivering a pleasant and seamless user experience.

Good Mobility Suite 6.0 comes from Good Technology Group, which was purchased by Motorola and is part of the company's Networks Mobility and Enterprise Mobility Solutions division. Good's software competes for corporate accounts against Research In Motion's BlackBerry back-end software. Good's advantage is that it dovetails with Palm OS, Symbian Series 60, Windows Mobile 5, and Windows Mobile 6 devices from Motorola as well as other hardware manufacturers such as Palm, HTC, and Samsung.

To help extend that lead, Motorola said its Mobile Connection feature is an attempt to transform a user's smartphone into a mobile laptop, said Dan Rudolph, director of product marketing for Motorola Good Technology Group. He described this feature as the first "managed service" VPN as it allows users to connect to any TCP-based resources, like networked PCs or file servers.

"The mobile VPNs on the market right now simply don't work well," said Rudolph. "The user experience can be awful because you have to constantly re-login to the VPN and repeatedly reset networking configuration screens when you lose coverage."

Good Mobile Connection utilizes the company's network optimization center infrastructure, which allows the VPN session to continue during gaps in service coverage. This connection is secure, and the user doesn't have to go through any extra steps, Rudolph said.

Another key addition to this year's suite is the Good Administration Center, which allows IT departments to easily manage a mobile fleet. From a Web-based portal, IT can enforce security policies, push and update software, and even turn off smartphone Bluetooth ports.

There is also a robust reporting center, Rudolph adds. For example, IT departments will be able to easily determine how many smartphones are on AT&T's network, information that could come in handy during data plan purchasing negotiations.