What is Android Enterprise?
Android Enterprise is a Secure Containerized Solution That Gives Enterprises the Ability to Manage a Workspace Sandbox on Their Users’ Devices, Separating It From Their Personal Space.
Android Enterprise allows for user privacy and prevents sensitive corporate data from bleeding onto the personal side of the device, leaving the personal side of the device intact and untouched.
82% of Devices Run Android OS
But Many Enterprises Only Manage Apple OS
Mobile Guroo is an Official Android Enterprise Partner of
Android Enterprise Now Makes BYOD a More Attractive and Secure Solution. Trust an Experienced Google Enterprise Partner Like Mobile Guroo to Help You Create and Implement a Best In Class Android Strategy.
There Are Over 1 Billion Android Devices in Use, But Enterprise Approval of Android Has Traditionally Been Lower Than That of iOS.
Compared to Android, Apple has a larger enterprise deployment footprint in North America, where most corporate owned devices tend to run iOS. Apple has excelled in enterprises most likely because of consistent security and provisioning across devices, carriers, and OS versions. Apple’s Device Enrollment Program (DEP) has fulfilled on these objectives and in an easy manner. Employees’ corporate issued iOS devices can enroll with their company’s mobile device management (MDM) server upon being powered on, and the company has flexibility to take advantage of security settings for applications (apps) (via Apple’s Volume Purchase Program (VPP)) and devices that are not available for personally owned devices.
Similar to Apple’s DEP, Android Enterprise’s solution set for work-managed devices and its soon-to-be-launched zero-touch enrollment will offer comparable benefits to enterprises (zero-touch enrollment is currently available with Pixel devices).
Why do organizations need an Android strategy?
Given the latest market trends showing increasing adoption of the Android OS by various original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) worldwide (e.g., HTC, LG, Motorola, OnePlus, Huawei, and Xiaomi), corporate IT departments must contend with the growing number of Android users. As such, IT must have an effective solution in place for managing both corporate and BYOD (bring your own device) Android devices whereby work-related resources are managed remotely. This is true especially in Asia, where Android is more readily adopted even in enterprises.
The Problem:
The 5 Largest Challenges of Enabling Android for Your Employees
1. Fragmentation
Since Android is an open-source platform, security and compatibility variables create device fragmentation in the market. Whether you are using Corporate Owned Personally Enabled (COPE), Choose Your Own Device (CYOD), or Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), these methods lack the ability to enforce security uniformly across all device models, OSs, and OEMs.
2. Lackluster Security
The inability to prevent users from adding corporate data to unmanaged apps adds significant risk to any mobile security program. This is also true for the inability to prevent users across all OEMs from downloading third-party apps from unapproved app stores and/or sideloading malicious apps.
3. Standardized Management
Although you might be able to create a complex passcode policy or a mail profile on most OEMs, you may not be able to create a Wi-Fi profile or allow/block near-field communication (NFC) functionality across OEMs. Previous solutions to this problem sacrificed security and severely handicapped any BYOD strategy.
4. BYOD and Complex Support
Because older Operating Systems may contain vulnerabilities, any BYOD deployment strategy is made riskier by outdated OSs. Raising the the minimum Android OS version makes many BYOD devices ineligible for work use while a true BYOD policy makes it very difficult for IT to provide quick resolutions and high end-user satisfaction.
5. Data Separation and Leakage
Data-leak prevention (DLP) policies cannot be enforced across the board for all work apps. MDM/EMM container solutions emerged as early as 2012, but they were found to be leaky, unsupported by many app developers and left some enterprise app data exposed to the cloud or other external unmanaged sources. Many other popular work apps resided on the device outside the container and so these were not protected (e.g., Slack, Salesforce, Workday, etc.) either.
The Solution:
Android Enterprise
Google announced Android for Work in June 2015. As of December 8, 2016, Google has simplified the names of Android for Work and Play for Work, calling them simply Android and Google Play, respectively.1 In this discussion, we use the phrase Android Enterprise to make a distinction from the standard Android OS.
Android Enterprise is a secure containerized solution that gives enterprises the ability to manage a workspace sandbox on their users’ devices, separating it from their personal space. This allows for user privacy and prevents sensitive corporate data from bleeding onto the personal side of the device. Removing all corporate data with a selective wipe leaves the personal side of the device intact and untouched.
Android Enterprise is free and requires no additional device licensing apart from the MDM/EMM solution and a device with Android 5.0 Lollipop or later that has work-profile support. For personal devices, you need a Google Account with Google Play installed. There are other container solutions such as Samsung Knox, BlackBerry Balance (for BlackBerry 10 only), AT&T Toggle (app on top of Android or iOS), and VMware Horizon Mobile Secure Workplace (Type 2 hypervisor). However, Knox and Android Enterprise are the major players.
Benefits of Android Enterprise
Simply put, Android Enterprise securely integrates Android devices by providing a work-related API across all Android devices that meet a minimum OS version, regardless of the device deployment model (corporate, COPE, CYOD, or BYOD). Therefore, Android Enterprise now makes BYOD a more-attractive solution without sacrificing security.
- Manage the Workspace on All BYOD or Corporate Issued Android Devices.
- Prevent Data Leakage From All Work Apps (3rd-Party & In-House) Across All Android OEMs and OS versions.
- Secure Communication Back to the Corporate Network.
- Prevent Unapproved and Malicious Apps From Being Installed in the Workspace.