Customers deploying mobility solutions have a major challenge in deploying secure solutions to their clients in a BYOD environment. Enterprise Mobility Management is a growing space and at MWC 2014 I had a chance to meet with Carl Rodrigues, President & CEO of Soti and Roula Vrsic, VP of Marketing to learn about how their company helps enterprises maximize their workflow productivity.

Vrsic said enterprises are looking to maximize the number of applications they roll out on mobile. She mentioned how healtchare is going mobile but we may not have envisioned this trend some years ago. Using the company’s solutions, healtchare providers can ensure they have a HIPAA-compliant way of maximizing their productivity.

By providing the ability to detect and block security threats before entering the enterprise network, SOTI’s Android+ technology provides an additional layer of defense to embedded security mechanisms used by mobile OS vendors. In addition to bridging the security gap, SOTIprovides numerous management features for Android devices. These features include real-time remote helpdesk, lockdown/kiosk mode functionality, web content filtering, geofencing, anti-virus prevention with multiple remediation options and much more.

In a geofencing example Rodrigues explained a member of the military could have a policy which kicks in when they go on the base. The policy could disable the camera and other features. The phone can then be turned into civilian mode when soldiers leave the base.

Likewise for educational tablets – games can be locked down in the school.

You can also set a similar policy in your R&D building to ensure you can’t take any pictures of sensitive information and leak it to the media, competitors etc.

They also have distracted driver compliance which disables features of the device when driving. Moreover, there is antivirus supports which automatically removes a virus and/or malware. Devices can also be prevented from sideloading. There is also the option to provide we filtering – keeping children for example from accessing adult web content on educational devices.

They beleive wearable tech is a new frontier which needs to be protected and/or managed in the enterprise so we can potentially expect some news in this area soon.

Rodrigues said, “Android device manufacturers are standardizing on SOTI’s Android+ technology. They no longer have to change their operating systems to achieve security and enhanced management on their devices. This saves them precious resources and speeds their entry into the lucrative enterprise market. The rapid growth in OEM adoption of SOTI Android+ is evidence of SOTI’s commitment to working with our partners to deliver deep cross-platform support. SOTI Android+ enables our Android partners to provide the same level of security and management as Apple iOS, Windows and other operating systems.”

He went on to say 35 OEMs have been approved and 25 more are on the list waiting for approval in the Android+ platform. They feel they are really solving the Android fragmentation and security problem.

Carl said they have been investing in Android+ technology for over seven years – putting them on the leading- edge of the BYOD market.

Is Samsung Knox competitive I asked? He said Samsung has containerization technology but needs SOTI to push apps onto and off of devices in an automated fashion. He further says his company’s solution lets you wipe a device 24×7 anywhere in the world and moreover, Samsung works with them currently to sell solutions.

Soti also has a secure content library on its supported devices allowing for example updated spec sheets to be downloaded automatically to devices without user intervention. Moreover, the containers can be set apart using policies and templates. Moreover, the containers be virtually shredded – allowing confidential information to be seen temporarily. The container can also be linked to geoware policies allowing access to certain data to be accesible in certain locations. This technology will soon be embedded in vehicles as well the company says.

Another useful policy could be setting a container to self-destruct after three invalid passwords attempts which take place outside your home or office.

In the end, the company feels it is making Android more enterprise-ready through a blend of security and device management solutions which work across an ever-expanding range of devices. As BYOD has increased management costs in the enterprise, Soti aims to make device management much more affordable and streamlined. The bottom-line goal is to make Android as uniform as iOS but even more manageable.

One last thing – expect the company to come out with survey results differentiated by vendor int he future and expect to see some MSP specific news. Keep your eyes peeled on TMCnet.com for more.