With over 200,000 devices activated each day, Android is seeing rapid adoption, and today we are launching new administrative controls that make it possible to securely manage these devices in the Google Apps environment. With this launch, Google Apps provides secure management and sync capabilities for all major mobile platforms. You can manage most mobile devices right from the browser, without having to deploy dedicated servers.
Many Android devices feature tight integration with Google Apps, including native applications for Gmail, Google Talk, and Google Calendar, as well as mobile access to Google Docs. Now any employee with an Android device running version 2.2 - personal or company-issued - can access their corporate information while allowing administrators to enforce data security policies such as:
- Remotely wipe all data from lost or stolen mobile devices
- Lock idle devices after a period of inactivity
- Require a device password on each phone
- Set minimum lengths for more secure passwords
- Require passwords to include letters and numbers
When the employee leaves the company, the administrator can withdraw access to corporate info, which allows the employee to continue to use their device if it’s their own.
These policies can be enforced on devices that have installed the Google Apps Device Policy application, which will be available from Android Market in the next few days. They will be available free to all Google Apps Premier and Education Edition customers in the next few days, and can be accessed from the 'Mobile' tab under 'Service Settings' in the Google Apps control panel.
To learn more about these updates in mobile device management for Google Apps, join us for a live webcast with Mayur Kamat, Google Apps Product Manager, on November 10, 2010 at 9 a.m. PDT / 12 p.m. EDT / 6 p.m. GMT. Register now.
24 comments:
Big Bang on Black Berry Services. Go Google Go....
Does the remote wipe feature include wiping info on the SD card? I know my employer (Deloitte Tax LLP) continues to hold out on supporting Android phones because they insist on the capability of wiping not just the device itself but the SD card.
"These policies can be enforced on devices that have installed the Google Apps Device Policy application"
So what if the app is not installed on an Android phone? Are the policies not enforced or is the user locked out from using the Google Apps account on the phone?
@Paul - Android currently does not support wiping the SD card, only local storage.
Mayur Kamat
Product Manager - Google Apps
@Jay Lee - Thanks for the interest. Currently Google Apps admin have the option to control this - they can chose to set policies but still allow users who do not have the app installed to continue syncing data. Or they can chose to enforce these policies, in which case users that do not have the app installed will no longer be able to sync new data from their domain.
Mayur Kamat
Product Manager - Google Apps
Along with the ability to wipe the SD card, we need the ability to whitelist apps that can be installed on the phone, to disable apps that come pre-installed, and view where the phone is to aid in recovery if it is stolen.
Being able to auto wipe/lock the phone if the SIM card is changed (think WaveSecure) would also be helpful. Doing this would require the Google app to override the apps the carriers are foisting onto users.
Eta on managed encryption? FDE or otherwise?
real Working Video (Remote Wipe my iPhone 1:55)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNJQx2NI77I
@Paul
I think that being able to wipe the SD-card would give a false sense of security. The user can just take the SD-card out... preventing any wiping of the card.
This probably isn't the best place to ask this, but does anyone know how to find out about upcoming webcasts? Is there a published listing of events? I've noticed in some previous blog postings the webcasts are linked to in a post on the same day the webcast is occurring. I want to attend more of these, but this makes it difficult.
Will this capability be coming to standard app users too?? The ability to control stolen devices would be useful for us as well.
Will this come to the standard edition or as a standalone app. Having the peace of mind of remote wipe is useful for everybody not just large corporations.
Confused, on this page it appears to say that this stuff may be done on all the major platforms, yet if I'm reading this post right it may only be done on Android devices if the user is running Froyo and has something extra from the market installed?
Also, will admins be able to push out this Google Apps Device Policy en masse or go one by one?
Might that be included and enabled in Gingerbread?
Will employees be able to uninstall it as they would any other application?
If so, if they do uninstall it, will the admin be tipped off about it without having to dig for that information?
Any plans for more BES-like draconian interception and monitoring of all sorts of data or is that not Google's style?
Keep it up Google, I like where you're headed, always have.
@Carlito - This functionality is currently only available to Premier and Education editions.
@Doug - Device Policy app is available to Froyo users only since we depend on the APIs that were introduced in Froyo. We also have solutions for Blackberry using our Google Apps Connector for BES (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/appsconnector) and for iPhone/iPad, Windows Phone, Nokia E-series using Google Sync (http://www.google.com/mobile/sync/)
@Doug - Answers inline
Also, will admins be able to push out this Google Apps Device Policy en masse or go one by one?
[MK] Admins will need to ask users to install the application. We currently do not have to means to push them en masse
Will employees be able to uninstall it as they would any other application?
[MK] Yes they can but then their corporate data will stop syncing.
If so, if they do uninstall it, will the admin be tipped off about it without having to dig for that information?
[MK] This is something on our radar for future version
Any plans for more BES-like draconian interception and monitoring of all sorts of data or is that not Google's style?
[MK] Not currently
Need total app controls, need to control and lock out settings from being tampered with. Need to be able to set up single phone template for users and push all settings, apps and templates out to phones.. Now that would save me some time.
How about a screen replicator within apps that you log in to each phone and view amd mansge phone and it is controlled remotely.....
Does this also mean that Android 2.2 supports MS Exchange Active Sync policies so that they can be enforced on Android 2.2 devices?
Will the webinar be archived?
Policies manageable via Exchange 2010 &/or MDM 2008 ?
Thx !
Once the Google Apps mobile device setting being activated, will it affect existing iphone, ipad or other mobile users? Can we extract list of existing mobile users?
Will the admins been able to protect the data that are in the phones from being extracted from the user of the phone (or at least been able to know if a copy is done)?
the aim is to allow users to see the data contcts and calendar but we want to protect them from doing piracy in copying.
Thank you
I want the Android version of 'iPhone Configuration Utility' much like what Anthony describes. I'm about to roll out a few dozen Android devices instead of blackberry or iPhone and the lack of utilities to config, deploy & control is surprising for a platform that controls such a large section of the market.
I agree with @diversionmary an equivalent of the
iPhone Configuration Utility is really a must for corporate deployment of Android devices (tablets or smartphones).
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