Thursday, February 4, 2010

Google Apps gets more IT-friendly



Google Apps become more IT-friendly today with the addition of new security features for iPhone, Nokia, and Windows Mobile users. The new features allow administrators to enforce password requirements and remotely wipe data from mobile devices.

"With this change, Google Apps Premier and Education Edition administrators will be able to manage their users' iPhone, Nokia E series, and Windows Mobile devices right from the Google Apps administrative control panel, without deploying any additional software or having to manage dedicated enterprise mobile servers," wrote Bryan Mawhinney, a Google software engineer, in an announcement posted Wednesday on the company's Enterprise Blog.

These new mobile device management capabilities will allow administrators to:
  • Remotely wipe all data from lost or stolen mobile devices
  • Lock idle devices after a period of inactivity
  • Require a device password on each phone
  • Set minimum lengths for more secure passwords
  • Require passwords to include letters, numbers and punctuation

These features will be accessible from the 'Mobile' tab under 'Service Settings' in the Google Apps control panel. Once a user starts syncing their devices with Google Apps, the domain administrator will be able to remotely wipe device data, right from the user settings page. These policies will let employees access their data from their phone while helping IT administrators easily control access to corporate data on mobile devices.

Read the official article on the Official Google Enterprise Blog