Symantec Mobile Management: Best of TechEd Finalist Interview

Doward Wilkinson, senior principal systems engineer for Symantec, met with me for the Best of TechEd Interview about Symantec Mobile Management.

Wilkinson said one advantage that Symantec has over its competitors in mobile device management is that Symantec does mobile management at every level—in addition to device management, Symantec works with enterprises. datacenters, carriers, and service providers. Symantec's wide base also benefits shops that use its Altiris environment—you can buy a standalone version of Mobile Management, but you can also buy it as a plugin that integrates with Altiris.

"This is one pillar of our total mobile strategy," Wilkinson said.

Mobile Management includes an enterprise app store, which lets admins push specific apps out to devices and allows them to set up self-service selection of apps for users. It can also do a selective wipe—if your users have personal devices that they also use for work, you can wipe corporate info but leave personal content like photos and music.

Mobile Management has a variety of functions, depending on the device it's managing. It currently manages most, but not all of the smartphones in popular use—Windows Phone 7 isn't currently supported. Wilkinson said Symantec is working on adding more devices and features for current devices. For now, check out this chart that shows what features are supported on various platforms:

Mobile Management is mainly used by larger businesses—a single instance of the server can manage up to 10,000 users, and they can be chained together to manage a practically unlimited number. It's popular in healthcare and with companies that want to give devices out to people selling their product. Mobile Management lets companies give out devices and not have to teach employees how to add apps to them.

This product is licensed per device. For more information, see the Symantec Mobile Management page.