The U.S. government’s commitment to BlackBerry may be over. Today the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Defense Department will approve the use of Apple and Samsung devices. The approval of both the iOS and Android platforms would suggest that the government will not be requiring agencies to standardize on one or the other. So while Apple may have a large installed base of government employees who use iOS products for personal use, those employees may be issued Samsung devices at work.
Samsung has already won several major corporate accounts including General Dynamics, American Airlines, and Dish Network. Tim Wagner, VP of enterprise sales for Samsung, says he expects sales volumes to triple this year.
Wagner says his goal is to see a Samsung device in President Obama’s hands. “That’s our number one goal – how do we figure out a way to get into the government,” he said earlier this week. “If we get into the government, all the other industries will fall like dominos.” He says the key to dominating enterprise mobility will be working successfully with partners: network vendors, MDM companies, and software providers – including Microsoft.
Windows
“There are verticals that want Microsoft OS on our tablets,” said Wagner. He said that one big reason is the work Samsung has done to increase the security of Android on its devices with Samsung for Enterprise (SAFE) and the company’s Knox software for corporate security. “We are looking at ways to bring these types of solutions to the Microsoft platform,” he said. “It will be demand driven.”
Demand may be significant. Windows and Office are still the dominant enterprise operating systems, and those companies that do not already have an enterprise mobility solution are almost certainly looking for one. “Mobility is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’ in enterprise – it’s an absolute requirement,” says Wagner.
Wagner says that right now Samsung has its hands full bringing secure solutions to Android tablets for enterprises. “Android and Samsung-on-Android had some challenges,” he admits. “Every device made by Samsung is like a fingerprint. They’re all on different carriers and different operating systems. It makes it difficult for IT decision makers. Meanwhile our competitors have consistent platforms. We decided to create a single layer of IT compliance so that all fragmentation issues go away.”
SAFE and Knox
The first part of that layer was SAFE – Samsung for Enterprise. The company has spent $100 million marketing SAFE, and says that 26 Samsung devices now carry the SAFE logo to tell IT managers that they have the software. All SAFE devices connect to Microsoft Exchange servers (supporting up to 80 policies), they all include on-device encryption (up to 256-bit), and they support virtual private networks and mobile device management from third-party vendors like AirWatch, Mobile Iron and SOTI.
Wagner says Samsung works with up to 95% of the mobile device management market, but nonetheless the company decided that it needed its own MDM solution:Knox. “We created Knox because we saw the need to do something from the metal all the way to OS,” said Wagner. “MDMs left a gap because they did not allow end users to have a work/life balance. If you company wipes your device when you leave your job, you lose your pictures and personal data. But with Knox, you have that work/life balance.” Like BlackBerry’s BB10, Knox enables a work persona and a personal persona on one device, so that data is kept separate.
Knox devices are securely tied to Samsung’s version of the Android operating system. “When you turn your device on, the first thing it will do is look for a Samsung operating system,” said Wagner. “If it does not find that it will not boot. It cannot be jailbroken.”
Samsung has worked closely with the National Security Agency to create a security-enhanced version of Android, which is part of Knox. “If you download malicious content, security-enhanced Android will quarantine the application and kill it,” Wagner said.
Wagner said partnerships are a key part of Samsung’s security strategy. Samsung now has 1,000 APIs for which partners can write code, and its security solutions support more than 450 IT policies. This means that its devices and be integrated into companies’ existing security solutions.
GenBand partnership
For office environments, Samsung is working with GenBand to bridge the gap between corporate networks and mobile devices. The two companies are launching a solution they call SAFE, Smart and Simple for business – combining Samsung devices with GenBand’s voice and video solutions for IP networks.
“We chose GenBand because of the thought leadership that they bring to the market,” says Wagner. “We could work with anybody. We chose GenBand for a reason. As our brand gains in value it is because of our ecosystem of partners like GenBand.”
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