New AirWatch Smartphone & Mobile Device Mgmt Solution Offers Advanced PKI Integration

AirWatch, a provider of enterprise-grade mobile device and smartphone management (MDM) software, announces the release of AirWatch 5.13. This new AirWatch release further accelerates and secures mobile device deployments through its enhanced Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) integration and certificate management framework, which makes it easier to generate and manage certificates on mobile devices for authentication and encryption.

 

After authenticating a mobile device user, AirWatch automatically generates the necessary certificates for the device, speeding the overall mobile device deployment process. Organizations can rely on their own existing PKI and Certificate Authority (CA), or AirWatch can set up the necessary infrastructure for generating and managing certificates. AirWatch’s enhanced certificate framework automatically generates and then issues the necessary certificates for authentication to Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes, VPN servers, Wi-Fi networks and more. For environments requiring high levels of device security, AirWatch can rotate and re-issue large volumes of service-based certificates on a monthly, weekly or even daily basis.

 

AirWatch 5.13 directly integrates with Microsoft Certificate Services, as well as several other popular PKI infrastructures. Certificates can be generated and managed using either a pre-defined CA service account or with end-user credentials. The solution integrates with Microsoft Active Directory to store certificate information in a user’s account, as well as associates the certificate with the user’s account as a logon credential, which is required for single-factor certificate-based authentication with Exchange ActiveSync. This method of ActiveSync authentication can prevent account lockouts that occur due to expired passwords.

 

Additionally, for high-security environments where users authenticate with smartcards and IT does not provide Active Directory passwords, AirWatch 5.13 provides a certificate self-service portal. Via domain single-sign-on, this portal can utilize a customer’s existing logon methods to issue certificates using end-user credentials, preventing the need for service accounts for certificate issuance.

 

AirWatch 5.13 also includes integration to Microsoft’s Exchange ActiveSync either through a proxy server or through a ‘listener’ module installed on the client’s EAS server as well as comprehensive App Catalog and Application Management capabilities. AirWatch 5.13 is available in three delivery options: Software as a Service (SaaS), a dedicated software appliance and software deployed on premise behind a corporate firewall. The solution’s delivery options allow for the flexibility to transition easily across the different models.