Juniper Networks has launched an over-the-top smartphone security solution that enables cellcos to monetize services such as data back-up and parental controls.
The Junos Pulse Mobile Security Suite, launched Tuesday, builds on the company’s existing SSL VPN solution, which enables secure access to corporate LANs via smartphones.
Features in the new solution include anti-virus, personal firewall, monitoring and control services, anti-spam, and loss and theft prevention, as well as remote back-up, remote restore, and the ability to track devices that are lost or stolen using GPS.
“This is the first time anyone has offered this level of depth across all threat vectors in the mobile space, and across the three key vulnerability points: devices, the network and apps,” said Mark Bauhaus, executive vice president and general manager of Service Layer Technologies Business Group at Juniper Networks.
The solution works across most major OS platforms, including Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile. It doesn’t yet support Apple’s iOS (although iOS is supported on the SSL VPN solution), but Juniper says iOS will be supported in the first half of 2011.
Juniper also opened a US-based Global Threat Center dedicated to tracking and responding to detected threats to mobile devices that will enable its mobile security offering to stay updated on the latest malware and spyware.
Handset security will become a big issue for enterprises, operators and consumers as smartphone penetration increases, said Juniper CEO Kevin Johnson.
“The history of malware tells us two things: One, that malware will continue to get more and more sophisticated, and it’s already starting to target smartphones. Two: waiting and acting after the fact is a very costly proposition,” said Johnson at the launch event in San Francisco. “That’s why getting out in front of all this before the big wave of smartphone malware and other threats arrives is the way to go.”
Bauhaus says the mobile security offering can enable mobile operators to monetize security solutions to consumers, including virus protection, remote back-up and parental control solutions, more easily because the security platform is an over-the-top solution that doesn’t require any extra network reconfigurations apart from enabling billing capabilities in the backend.
Perhaps more importantly, it also enables mobile operators to target enterprises with corporate mobility solutions more effectively, not least because of its support for multiple mobile OSs.
“You already have so many people using their own smartphones on the LAN, and it’s hard for IT managers to manage so many different devices running a half-dozen or more separate operating systems,” said Sanjay Beri, head of Juniper’s access unit.
“It’s more compelling for a carrier to come in and say, ‘You can use this to manage all those devices and they don’t even have to all be on our network’, because it’s a hard sell if your sales pitch requires everyone in the office to sign up with that service provider.”
BT Global Services is the first carrier to publicly adopt Juniper’s mobile security platform for its consumer and corporate mobile broadband services.
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