Airwatch Tackles Mobile Email on iOS

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Atlanta-based mobile device management (MDM) specialist Airwatch continues to expand its platform, and this time the startup has email on iOS in its sights.

AirWatch Inbox, part of the company’s enterprise Mobile Email Management (MEM) suite, is now available for iOS, after being released for Google Android. As a business-class alternative to native mobile email clients, AirWatch Inbox provides access to corporate email, contacts and calendars in a secure, containerized app.

Based on the unified code base that underpins AirWatch’s Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM) platform, AirWatch Inbox slots seamlessly into the company’s management and configuration environment. Inbox can be deployed as a managed app or within AirWatch Workspace, which operates the app in a secure container.

Further securing email messages are data encryption (in-flight and at rest), independent passcodes and AirWatch’s support for multi-factor authentication and advanced certificate integration. Perks for IT staffers include email accounts that “can be automatically provisioned based on defined security policies, and administrators can enforce access control policies.”

Users will feel right at home, claims AirWatch. The company promises an “intuitive and seamless end-user experience for email, calendar and contacts.”

“We developed AirWatch Inbox to have an intuitive end-user experience to increase employee adoption but with the security capabilities to ensure organizations can protect sensitive corporate information,” said AirWatch president and CEO John Marshall.

AirWatch Inbox is available now for Apple iOS and Android. A subscription costs $1 per device per month including maintenance. Alternately, buyers can pay a $20 one-time fee per device with an additional maintenance fee of $4 per device per year.

Buoyed by a big round of VC financing last year, AirWatch has been steadily baking more functionality into its MDM platform. In December, the company announced that it had added app scanning capabilities to the mix, courtesy of Veracode. The company’s customer roster includes Best Buy, United Airlines and the Intercontinental Hotels Group.

Industry stalwarts are also getting in on the MDM action.

Last month, Dell revealed that it was laying the groundwork for a cloud-based MDM offering based on the company many acquisitions in the space. HP launched its own suite, called Enterprise Cloud Services – Mobility, in April. IBM, no stranger to strategic acquisitions, snapped up Fiberlink Communications, the company behind MaaS360, another cloud-based MDM solution, for an undisclosed amount.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Datamation. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.