SAP Afaria

Sybase, Inc. announced on October 8, 2010 a packet of mobile device management and security for smartphones and tablet computers with iOS 4 and Android. The new release of Sybase Afaria allows IT services of the organizations to control and protect completely promptly growing park of personal and office smartphones and tablet computers, providing compliance to tough standards of corporate security, using the single console. Besides, the new means of seamless remote installation of applications included in Afaria in structure (as developed independently, and commercial, in particular delivered through App Store) in combination with the client portal guarantee that access to office applications and data will be provided only to the authorized users. At the same time the specified means and technology differ in the ergonomic, simple and optimized user interface.

Sybase Afaria is applied by the enterprises, including partners in the managed mobility, around the world to expansion of opportunities of mobile employees and simplification of work of IT departments. With new release of Sybase expands guarantees of end-to-end access control to office applications and data which cornerstone the built-in mechanism of comprehensive ensuring compliance with rules is. Sybase offers unsurpassed abilities to manage for a broad set of mobile devices, delivering the means necessary for the organizations for equipment of their mobile labor power.

In the recent report on the independent research of the market of management tools smartphones released Forrester Research, Inc. ("Market Overview: Smartphone Management", August, 2010), is noted: "Management tools smartphones — in particular those which in development purchased universality concerning types of the supported devices — will become obligatory attribute for most the organizations worldwide".

The management tool corporate mobile devices and ensuring their security allows Sybase to expand the list of supported platforms which already enter iOS, Windows Mobile, Symbian and RIM BlackBerry, smartphones based on Android.

Afaria differs in control functions and safety for devices on the Android platform among which:

• The new feature of exhaustive informing on a status of devices including possibilities of inventory of software and technical means, process automation and management of licenses for applications of the third firms.
• The new client portal of applications providing the remote, not entering noises to work of the user installation both required applications of own development, and recommended by corporate rules of commercial applications under control of IT managers of the organization.
• The strengthened safety features including coercion to observance of rules of change of passwords, activation of corporate means of blocking, an unblocking and erasing of contents of devices without participation of Microsoft Exchange.

Thanks to the new MDM protocol presented in iOS 4, Afaria offers the following improvements and opportunities:

• The new loaded client for the protected, seamless remote deployment and management of applications (including necessary intra-corporate applications and the recommended applications from App Store).
• Advanced opportunities of corporate security: remote blocking and erasing of contents of devices, management of corporate applications, configuring of devices and regulated access to corporate resources depending on compliance to requirements.
• The advanced management tools politicians and ensuring compliance with rules allowing IT service it is reliable to control access to the built-in applications, such as Lotus Traveler or Microsoft Exchange.
• Exact and comprehensive tracking of assets with delivery of information on continuous data of inventory and a status of the device in real time.

Deliveries of Sybase Afaria are planned for the middle of October, 2010. Sybase Afaria is a principal component of Sybase Mobility Platform, infrastructure of the servers of mobility, mobile applications and services, best in the class, which allows the organizations to improve ways of customer interaction and methods of equipment of employees.

In May, 2011 Gartner based on assessment of the product Sybase Afaria placed Sybase in a quadrant of leaders in the report of "Magic Quadrant for Mobile Device Management (MDM) Software" ("A magic quadrant of the control software mobile devices") made by Phillip Redman, John Girard and Leif-Olaf Wallen.

In the report it is noted that "by III quarter 2010 there were more than 30 global smartphone manufacturers and over 10 mobile operating systems though four hosts of the platform (Apple, Android, RIM and Symbian) occupied 89% of all market. To most the companies implementing mobile technologies and which earlier stopped on any one platform (for example, BlackBerry in North America and Symbian in Western Europe), it is necessary to support several operating systems now, and the Apple and Android platforms became more popular. However in most the organizations is absent responsible for mobile device management".

"The market of means of MDM quickly develops. Requirements and determinations promptly change, proposals of suppliers actively evolve and by next year will become more functionally rich and mature. The high demand leads to unknown rates of development and at the same time to excessive hopes. Though MDM, many of the advanced suppliers of means, concentrated almost only on mobile technologies, within the next several years producers of management tools personal computers will also be engaged in search of opportunities in the field of MDM and will begin the corresponding investments. Most of suppliers offer means for deployment on site or on model of program services (SaaS) now, and in the next three years there will be more mature managed services, stimulating growth of the industry" — it is specified in the report.

"The modern enterprises concerning mobile IT cannot be content with simple e-mail and require considerably bigger. Against the background of universal distribution of mobile devices of the organization realize importance of management of applications and their protection as a part of strategy of mobile device management — Oliver Bussmann, the director of SAP of information technologies commented. — Regardless of use model, whether it be for effective management of mobile data, applications and devices the comprehensive strategy of security has SaaS or own resources, crucial importance. SAP and Sybase urge the organizations to consider mobile device management in wider context of general strategy of mobile applications, but not as autonomous process".

Sybase Afaria 7.0

The SAP AG corporation announced in July, 2012 a release of the new version of the solution on mobile device management in corporate information infrastructure – Afaria 7.0. Its distinctive features – considerable improvements in the interface of the administrator and performance improvement – allowed to achieve significant simplification and acceleration of mobile device management of staff of the enterprise. The new version of the solution received the intuitive interface providing simple placement of mobile applications and excellent analytic functions from SAP BusinessObjects BI.

Afaria 7.0 allows employees to deploy independently the solution on the device and to get access to business processes of the enterprise. At the same time such indispensable requirement of corporate information systems as security will be provided. At the same time the universality of Afaria 7.0 will allow to use the broadest spectrum of devices for work, following one of relevant trends in IT – "Bring Your Own Device". Considerable investments into development of functionality of management of mobile applications (MAM – Mobile Application Management) allowed to provide automatic adjustment of the mobile applications installed through Afaria 7.0.

SAP Afaria gives to the enterprises the following key features:

• Integration within the enterprise
  • deeper integration: provides interaction of a set of untied directories, authentication and resource allocation. The data which are stored in directories will extend and be applied to setup the politician, the new devices directed to optimal integration which employees use in a workplace.
  • Advanced access control to e-mail and elimination of problems in operation of devices
  • Expanded management of certificates of IOK: provides reliable and careful control over delivery of certificates and management with them.

• Management of applications
  • Advanced portal of applications: considerably the efficiency of mobile employees as they receive the recommendations of rather optimal application of mobile applications for the solution of assigned tasks increases.
  • the New application programming interface for SAP Afaria and connected with applications the politician for completely automatic adjustment. Administrators will be able to develop and install applications without participation of users; the last should not enter any data (the server address, the domain, a user name, etc.). It will help to reduce considerably the number of addresses to a support service and will accelerate adaptation of personnel.

• IT services for corporate and personal devices
  • the Updated self-service portal - the simple interface which gives to users the chance to integrate the devices and to manage them. The organizations will be able to develop own interfaces.
  • the Full compliance of strategy of Samsung SAFE for devices based on Android, the enhanced capabilities connected with e-mail and security.
  • Enhanced capabilities for devices based on iOS are effective remedies of detection of "jailbreak" and support of regions where the cracked devices are widely used; the improved customizers of IOS and management of applications.

The management system for the mobile devices SAP Afaria of version 7.0 received in the summer of 2014 the FSTEC certificate of Russia on the 4th level of absence control of not declared opportunities. Announced this CNews in SAP, the world developer of corporate applications. As emphasized in the companies, the FSTEC certificate "confirms high quality of the software of SAP and a possibility of its application in systems for which threats of existence of not declared opportunities are relevant".