Motorola Takes Good Beyond Messaging

Later this year, Motorola will release the Good Mobility Suite version 6.0 which adds a new managed service VPN along with an enhanced device management and security platform.

The suite will include Good Mobile Connection, Good Administration Center and Good Mobile Messaging to enable VARs to offer their customers more secure, seamless and manageable mobile access to applications, according to Dan Rudolph, Good's director of product marketing.

Good Mobile Connection is a managed service VPN that enables a smartphone or mobile device to connect to any application or resource behind the corporate firewall. Using Good's existing trusted transport, which is used now by Good Mobile Messaging for email and calendaring, enables connection to other enterprise applications and services like instant messaging, intranets and thick-client applications.

Rudolph said Good Mobile Connection offers persistent network-agnostic connection through the Good Network Operations Center to behind-the-firewall data and applications. Doing so lets users deploy any application leveraging standard TCP protocols over the Good Mobile Connection transport with no modifications or custom coding required.

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"Any application for Windows Mobile will work on the Good pipe," Rudolph said, adding that no special coding is required to enable applications to run properly, like with proprietary solutions. Additionally, the VPN does not require continual log-ins if a connection is lost. It automatically re-establishes the connection and starts the session again.

On the security side, and to protect against hacks and denial of service attacks, Good Mobile Connection lets users set restrictions on the type and location of assets that can be accessed behind firewall in addition to the device-level security features of the Good Mobility Suite.

Another part of Good Mobility Suite 6.0 is the Good Administration Center, a central location where Good applications, devices, security polices and data access rights can be managed over the air. The unified Web-based administrative console lets VARs and IT administrators manage devices from wherever they are, it also uses Web services APIs that can enable automated management operations and integrate with other third party management portals and processes.

Rudolph said along with managing security policy, software distribution and troubleshooting, Good Administration Center offers fleet reporting, to give administrators a quick view of the devices that are in use, what wireless carriers they use and what software versions they're running.

Lastly, Good Mobility Suite 6.0 features the latest version of Good Mobile Messaging 6.0 with new features like a customizable home screen, client APIs which let third party applications easily inter-operate and voice activated dialing even when the device is password protected.

Rudolph said Good 6.0 will be available sometime in late 2008 through VARs that are part of Motorola's PartnerSelect Program, which expanded earlier this year to include Good Mobile Messaging; carrier reseller partners; and directly. The software and service can support a range of smartphones and devices running Microsoft Windows Mobile or Palm's operating system, including devices from Motorola, HTC, Palm and Samsung. It will also support both IBM Lotus Domino and Microsoft Exchange email systems.

Rudolph said there are several aspects of the new mobility suite that VARs can leverage. On the application development side, it can simplify their development efforts and speed their time to completion. From a pure reseller perspective, VARs can license Good Mobility Suite for added licensing revenues.

In addition, Rudolph said, Motorola and Good are trying to encourage more resellers to sign up as carrier activators, giving them the added licensing revenue along with revenue for every device activation that goes through them.

Sue Forbes, senior director of product management and marketing for Motorola's Good Technology Group, said the release of Good Mobility Suite 6.0 acknowledges the growing need for anytime and anywhere access to applications other than just email and calendaring.

"Mobile messaging is no longer enough for today's mobile enterprise," she said. "Although mobile messaging remains a killer application, enterprises need an end-to-end mobility platform that enables them to manage all of their critical mobile applications across Wi-Fi and WAN/cellular networks."