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Network security solutions specialist ForeScout Technologies announced interoperability between the company’s CounterACT network security and SAP Afaria mobile device management (MDM) platforms.
ForeScout CounterACT is a real-time security offering that provides visibility and automated control for devices, users, systems and applications attempting to connect to or on an enterprise network, whether they are wired or wireless, managed or unmanaged, PC, virtual machine, embedded or mobile.
The integration between ForeScout CounterACT and SAP Afaria MDM is provided through the ForeScout MDM Integration Module, which is an add-on to ForeScout CounterACT, the company’s network security offering.
Through this integration, businesses can fortify a range of user, device, application and data policies though network-enforced controls, such as password strength, configuration, application use, encryption and data protection.
Aimed at companies implementing bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives, the integration allows IT administrators to see and detect all unmanaged, corporate and personal mobile devices, such as iPads, iPhones, Androids and other devices attempting to connect to the corporate network through WiFi or over the air.
“Organizations are looking for an integrated approach to manage and secure the invasion of employee-liable devices connecting to corporate networks, particularly at a time when BYOD is so prevalent,” Chris Hazelton, research director for mobile and wireless at 451 Research, said in a statement. “We see strong synergy between network access control (NAC) and MDM in their capabilities to provide visibility into devices regardless of ownership–corporate or personal.”
Other features include the ability to apply security policy based on user, role and device in order to automatically limit access, manage as guest or enroll in SAP Afaria MDM, or trigger SAP Afaria to profile-check managed devices upon network resource request to detect jail-broken, rooted and non-compliant handhelds, and to restrict access until the device adheres to policy.
“The pairing of NAC with MDM technologies offers organizations the means to easily identify who and what type of device is connecting to the enterprise, to automatically enroll and monitor roles-based controls for any device and user and to secure the growing movement of corporate data across smartphones and tablets,” Hazelton said.
The platform also provides unified visibility and reporting for a variety of mobile endpoint devices, including PCs, smartphones, tablets and laptops, through the CounterACT platform, as well as provide compliance rules engines at the device and network level that support on-demand and automated responses such as reconfigure, remote wipe and network reassignment.
“IT organizations want to rapidly and cost-effectively adopt BYOD without compromising security–giving appropriate access to corporate resources, data and applications that take full advantage of mobile platforms and cloud ubiquity,” Gil Friedrich, vice president of technology at ForeScout, said in a statement. “Through this integration, SAP customers can utilize the rich enterprise mobile device, data and application management provided by SAP Afaria with advanced network visibility and control afforded by ForeScout.”