For years, every time you heard about business enterprise, defense, government or security – BlackBerry came to mind, and rightly so. With their BES package, when you needed a secure communication, your employer would have most likely handed you a BlackBerry Curve or such to use. However, the landscape of phones has greatly changed over the past couple of years – BlackBerry is barley in the smartphone business, not at all in the tablet business, so what’s a business to do? It looks like they are turning to Samsung with its KNOX security package and, if Google has anything to do with it, the Android operating system…and today at the Google I/O we found out that Google’s new Android L has taken a leap forward in providing that security with a little help from Samsung!
Other changes have been made on the smartphone at work concept – many employers are allowing their employees to use ONE smartphone for both personal and work. As an employee, you need to know that your personal data is secure from the prying eyes of your companies IT personnel, so last year Samsung introduced KNOX – a secure way to protect both the employee’s data and the employer’s data.
Android and Samsung have both made it quite clear that it wants in on the lucrative enterprise and government business and with Android L, that cannot become a reality. Using KNOX within the Android L OS was a surprise, but Injong Rhee, Senior Vice President of KNOX Business Group at Samsung Electronics said it best:
“I am very pleased and welcome this ground breaking partnership with Google. As a driving force of Android powered mobile devices, Samsung is in a unique position to meet the rapidly evolving mobile security and privacy needs of Android users. We are delighted with the opportunity to work with Google to help build Android’s enterprise eco-system and establish Android device as the leading choice for businesses. This represents an amazing transformation in workforce mobility.”
Google and Samsung have been ‘talking’ more recently and working more together. Please hook up with us on our Google+ Page and let us know what you think about Google and Samsung hooking up to develop Android L’s security to separate business from personal data…as always, we would love to hear from you.