iAnywhere Announces New Version of Afaria Frontline Management and Security Solution

iAnywhere, a subsidiary of Sybase, Inc. today announced the general availability of Afaria 5.4. 

The latest version of the companys award-winning frontline management and security solution includes greatly expanded capabilities for managing RIM BlackBerry devices. Afaria is the only leading mobile device management and security solution that enables a company to manage BlackBerry devices from the same administrative console as its other mobile devices. In addition, Afaria 5.4 includes full management and security capabilities for Windows Mobile 5.0 devices, including new device monitoring capabilities. Other enhancements include a permanent client identifier for handhelds, and inventory management improvements for converged mobile devices.

With Afaria 5.4, its easy for administrators to manage all of their mobile devices, including BlackBerry, Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone, Palm and Symbian devices, and even laptop computers from a single console, said Joe Owen, vice president, engineering, iAnywhere.  This is a huge advantage for companies who need to manage and secure a variety of devices.  Now all of these devices can be easily managed and tracked through the Afaria Management console.

Windows Mobile powered devices help users increase their productivity when theyre away from the office by enabling them to access critical business information regardless of location, said Chris Hill, group product manager, Microsoft Corporation. Windows Mobile was built with enterprise-class security in mind, and as such, businesses always have complete control of their vital information. Afaria 5.4 provides businesses with yet another way to manage the security of Windows Mobile powered devices.

"Were excited about the possibilities that the new version of Afaria brings to Intrinsic," said Derek Fournier, director of Product Development and Management Technologies, Intrinsic, a partner of iAnywhere.  "Having a solution that allows users to manage BlackBerrys along with other handheld devices through the Microsoft SMS console will help companies maintain centralised control to ensure their systems and devices are up-to-date and secure."

Significant new features in Afaria 5.4 include:

New BlackBerry Management Components With Afaria 5.4, organisations can deploy, install and repair software applications on Blackberry devices.

In addition, the flexibility of the Afaria Session Manager component is now available for BlackBerry devices to allow administrators to customise system management tasks and support business processes.  Microsoft SMS administrators can also easily manage BlackBerry devices directly from their SMS console with extensions to the console for software distribution and inventory management.  Additional features for BlackBerry device management include:

            Protection of lost or stolen devices through the ability to lock and/or remove data and applications from devices.
           The ability to configure and enforce BlackBerry device settings.
            Tracking of software licenses and installations.
            Improved collection of asset information with the Afaria Inventory Manager component, including the ability to retrieve a broad range of data regarding device connectivity capabilities.
            Expanded communication optimisations including scheduling, outbound notification, dynamic bandwidth throttling and checkpoint restart.

Enhanced Device Monitoring Afaria 5.4 allows administrators to monitor Windows Mobile 5.0 devices and automatically react to changes in the state of a device.  These monitoring capabilities offer an additional method for initiating local management tasks or triggering connections to the Afaria server.  With Afarias enhanced device monitoring, administrators can:

          Back up key files on a device when the battery level drops below a critical level.
          Monitor and enforce application installation and usage policies.
          Log when confidential files on mobile devices are written to external cards or sent to other devices.
          Ensure that vital information is always available to frontline workers, and automatically replace critical data on the device when required.

Enhanced Inventory Manager With Afaria 5.4, administrators can collect additional phone and connectivity information on handheld devices including: phone number, IMEI, IMSI, mobile operator, current network, and WIFI, Bluetooth and IR configuration and status information.  For laptop computers, new differencing scans transmit only inventory changes to the server, reducing communication time and costs.

New Permanent Client Identifier Adds the capability to re-identify mobile devices even after power failure, device hard reset, or the loss or reinstallation of the Afaria client, keeping Afaria assignments and policies intact for the device.