Westcon, BlueCat And Fiberlink Develop Reference Architecture For BYOD

In addition, the subscription-based service will include Westcon's Goldshield support, which features tech support and pre-sales support.

"Market forces around mobility drove the development of our BYODShield solution," said Lynn Smurthwaite-Murphy, senior vice president, North America at the Westcon Group. "Mobility is bandwidth intensive and moves the perimeter from the desktop to wherever the mobile device happens to be, and opens up a variety of security threats. We realize that this could be overwhelming so we came up with a reference architecture that brings together the technology of two vendors, and wraps our services around it. This is more than a bundle. These two vendors came together and wrote code over a period of months in order to make sure the user experience was very simple."

[Related: Westcon Group Extends Its Avaya UC Portfolio ]

Smurthwaite-Murphy explained that users are initially directed to BlueCat's IP Address Management (IPAM) system in much the same way that users are automatically directed to a customized start page on, for example, a hotel's wireless network. Once registered, they are granted network access based on policy. At that point, Fiberlink's mobility-as-a-service application, MaaS360, is pushed to the device to establish compliance and scan for viruses. Infected devices can be quarantined until any issues are resolved.

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Westcon's services include reseller installation assistance for the first 30 days, end-user help desk, customer administration, training, and emergency and critical response through which lost devices can be remotely wiped.

"Mobility is a focus for our company, and I think they have a unique approach that I think will resonate with our customers," said Trish Southwall, senior vice president of business development at Patriot Technologies, a Frederick, Md.-based VAR. "Providing these functions through a subscription model will make it easier for the customers as well as make it easier for us, because it is very much a turnkey solution. Access control and mobile device management are core to any mobile security solution, so this is a step forward."

The solution can also be white labeled by the partners, if desired.

"This is the future of distribution in our mind," added Smurthwaite-Murphy. "It's about the integration of point solutions and having them work together into a solution that solves a business challenge, as opposed to integrating preconfigured technology. We are bringing to the market a reference architecture upon which we will add additional services over time."

The service becomes available this week. Pricing is variable based on Westcon badge level and a variety of related incentives, but, in most cases, prices are expected to range from $8 to $10 per device per month.

PUBLISHED MAY 7, 2013

This story was updated on May 7, 2013, at 4:45 p.m. PST, to correct that the pricing is per device and not per user.