Kaseya MDM Highlights
- Smart phone installed base will overtake PCs in 2014
- Smart tablet installed base will reach 500 million in 2015
- Kaseya has added Mobile Device Management to its K2 platform
- Introduces automated software deployment and device tracking
- Locks, wipes and alarms lost or stolen devices
- Designed for MSPs and corporate IT departments
A number of suppliers address the security risks of corporate laptops, meeting a need clearly identified by high profile losses machines full of confidential information. There is an urgent need to address similar issues for smart phones and tablets – especially Apple’s – enter the workforce.
Recently we travelled up to London to talk to Kaseya – an IT Automation Specialist or Systems and Service Management company which has just added some important new mobile management functions to its software. We think our readers will want to know what the new vulnerabilities are and the kinds of function those managing client fleets need, whether in Managed Services Suppliers (MSPs) or corporate IT departments, should consider.
The Growth Of Smart Phones And Tablets
Smart phones and smart tablets are joining the PCs as major client platforms. Figure 1 shows our sizing and forecast for the installed base of these devices between 2008 and 2016. We believe the installed base of smart phones will overtake PCs in 2014, while smart tablets will reach around 500 million by the end of 2015.
Mobile device management is even more important for smart phones and tablets than laptops, as they are, by their very nature, connected devices. MSPs already manage millions of devices used by consumers, while within the corporate world the influx of younger workers is increasing the importance of ‘Bring Your Own Device’ strategies for mobile devices and PCs alike.
Who Is Kaseya?
Kaseya (a word meaning ‘to protect or shield’ in the Sioux language) is a software supplier launched in 1999. Its headquarters is in Lausanne, Switzerland; approximately it employs 420 staff in 30 offices across 20 countries. It claims 10k customers worldwide: of these MSPs account for around 60% of deployments, with the rest split between banking and financial services, Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), education, government, healthcare, military, real estate, retail and transportation. Its reference clients include the US Airforce, FedEx, P&G, Ogilvy and Cisco and, in the UK, The Royal Brompton Hospital – a place we know very well.
Kaseya competes directly with Symantec’s Altiris, less so with CA, HP and IBM Tivoli and in part with smaller suppliers such as RES Software and Centrix Software.
What Does The K2 Management Platform Do?
Kaseya launched its K2 platform earlier in 2011, which offers a wide range of software to automate the management of client devices, servers, and monitor networks, and service management which include anti-virus, patch management, backup and policy implementation.
Most of its customers deploy the software on premise, paying for perpetual licenses, although for organisations with less than 100 seats to manage, it makes it offers SaaS Cloud services including:
- IT Center – ‘on demand, pay as you go and pay as you grow’ Automated IT Management
- IT Toolkit – IT troubleshooting and remote access
- Kaseya FREE – Remote access
Its solutions are TCP-IP based and involve installing an agent on each device to be managed. It has an Open Systems approach, publishing its APIs to allow other software to be integrated into its platform.
What Does Mobile Device Management Add?
Kaseya has added a number of mobile management functions. In particular:
- Automating email configuration and settings
- Collecting inventory information in a central repository providing an overall network view
- Tracking the location of mobile devices in real time or on location history
- Forcing Alarm sounds on stolen devices – we listened to ‘this phone has been stolen’ echoing round the office, an alarm which could not be turned down by the iPhone’s volume control
- Locking, wiping and resetting lost or stolen devices and recommissioning them if/once recovered
In addition the policies deployed can block explicit adult content, the use of the camera.
At launch Kaseya software addresses Apple iPhones and iPads (version 3 and 4) and Android devices (version 2.2). It plans to add RIM Blackberry and Windows Phone 7 devices later.
Some Conclusions – Corporate Security Implications Of Mobile Devices And Bring Your Own Mobile Devices
It is compulsory in countries such as the UK and US for organisations to publicise any major loss of customer or citizen data included on lost laptops and we’re sure that there have been many unreported incidents in other countries. The PC industry has introduced hard disk encryption, secure login, data point protection and other techniques in help. Kaseya has been participating in many of these areas itself for a number of years.
As the IT strategies of even major organisations are beginning to embrace ‘bring your own’ mobile device approaches, so they will no doubt discover just as many security risks from SPAM, virus infections and lost data as there are in the PC world. Kaseya’s early introduction of management tools will help through automating the scripting processes and adding new functions.
We are interested in other approaches to mobile device management and experiences of users in this area. As always please join the discussion by commenting on this article.