D&H Arms Resellers With MDM Solutions For SMBs

D&H Distributing said Thursday it is offering two new mobile device management platforms, Microsoft’s System Center 2012 and Sophos’ Mobile Control software, to arm resellers with an SMB-specific offering for smaller clients grappling with the growing bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend.

The platforms, which offer support for both iOS and Android, are intended to help resellers and IT teams better manage and secure the myriad of employee-owned mobile devices being used in SMB environments. Sophos Mobile Control is an on-premise security solution VARs can resell to system administrators, enabling them to remotely "wipe" smartphones or tablets of any sensitive corporate data if they’ve been lost or stolen.

The Sophos software is typically hosted on a corporate server, and it provides an embedded agent on each mobile device that serves as a protective "gateway" for network access, D&H said.

[Related: 10 New Mobile Device Management Solutions To Ease BYOD Headaches ]

Microsoft’s System Center 2012, on the other hand, is cloud-based, meaning resellers have the option of either re-selling the platform directly or leveraging it themselves to monitor clients’ mobile fleets using a services-based model. According to Jeff Davis, senior vice president of sales at D&H, the two solutions are complementary; while Sophos provides the more granular device-level security and remote wiping capabilities, Microsoft’s System Center can also be used to monitor an SMB clients’ overall mobile infrastructure, including data and apps.

"The Microsoft System Center is really private data center management and then client management and security that get pushed out to devices," Davis told CRN. "But it really provides comprehensive end-to-end management of the infrastructure and the applications out to the mobile device."

Demand for MDM solutions, such as Sophos’ Mobile Control and Microsoft’s System Center, is on the rise, as more and more business owners struggle to strike a balance between arming their employees with the flexibility to work from mobile devices and ensuring the integrity of corporate data stays intact. These challenges can become particularly complex in smaller organizations, D&H said, where IT resources tend to be limited.

"In the past, people would come into work, they would do all their work on a computer, and then they would come home, open up their notebook, and do their personal stuff. Now, it’s all just kind of blending together," Davis said. "As a result, companies are struggling with how to secure the device, how do you secure the data, how do you make sure your security is updated, how do you standardize the programs… so these [MDM] applications, I think, address all these needs for small businesses."

NEXT: D&H Plans To Broaden Its MDM Lineup

Davis said D&H is broadening its MDM lineup not only because of strong demand from SMBs but also because it wants to provide resellers with an opportunity to offer a more robust, turn-key solution to SMB clients. Unlike larger organizations, such as Microsoft and Sophos, D&H has a wider reach within the small business space and is more poised to arm resellers with the SMB-specific solutions and training that they need.

"We are trying to educate our resellers on the fact that this is a trend that’s happening in the marketplace, and particularly around small businesses, and here’s how you secure these devices," Davis said.