Samsung Releases New Mobile Platform that Includes Mobile Device Management

A question that brings shivers to enterprise MDM solution providers is, “What if device makers start shipping new products with the solutions already on board?” That is how Blackberry got such a strong foothold in the enterprise and it looks like Samsung is doing just that with their new mobile platform KNOX 2.0 for the Galaxy S5.

In announcing the release, the company stated, “The Samsung KNOX platform is no longer one product but represents a portfolio of multiple products and services designed to better meet the rapidly evolving enterprise mobility needs of customers. As a result, the original product launched in 2013 as Samsung KNOX – the core security platform and app container –has now been renamed KNOX Workspace.

Announced at MWC 2014, KNOX 2.0 includes KNOX Workspace, EMM, Marketplace and Customization. KNOX Workspace is currently available on the newly launched Samsung Galaxy S5, which can be activated by IT managers for later use. KNOX 2.0 will be available on other Samsung Galaxy devices through OS upgrades in the coming months. The MDM previously used with KNOX 1.0 is also fully compatible with KNOX 2.0. The workspace users of KNOX 1.0 will be automatically migrated to that of KNOX 2.0 with the OS upgrade.

“KNOX has been widely deployed by enterprises since it became first commercially available in the market in September 2013,” said JK Shin, President and CEO, Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division, Samsung Electronics. “As a result of this rapid adoption, we needed to evolve the Samsung KNOX platform to directly address the ever-changing needs of the enterprise as we demonstrate our commitment to protect and respond to future enterprise mobility and security challenges.”

New and evolved features for the KNOX 2.0 platform include:

• Core Android Platform Security: KNOX Workspace offers a series of core security enhancements to better protect device integrity from kernel to apps. These upgraded features include TrustZone-Protected Certificate Management, KNOX Key Store, Real-Time Protection for System Integrity, TrustZone-Protected ODE, Two-factor Biometric Authentication and the Enhanced Generic Framework of KNOX.

• Improved User Experience: KNOX Workspace provides an enhanced user experience with new features for its container for a more flexible approach for enterprise deployment.

• Universal MDM Client (UMC) and Samsung Enterprise Gateway(SEG) make user enrollment process simpler than before since the user profile is pre-registered to SEG by MDM servers.

• Expanding Ecosystem: In addition to the core features of KNOX 2.0, brought by KNOX Workspace, users will also enjoy access to two new cloud based services, KNOX EMM and KNOX Marketplace, and a customization service, KNOX Customization. These broaden the KNOX 2.0 customer base by catering specifically to SMBs.

Perhaps most interesting for enterprise solution providers are the details of the KNOX Mobile Device Management and Identity and Access Management offerings which can be found by following the link below:

https://global.samsungtomorrow.com/?p=36435#sthash.Ig3WQ5PQ.dpuf