By Bob Gourley
Editor’s note: I serve on the Fixmo advisory board and have never been prouder of my association with this very virtuous firm.- bg
The following exciting information is from: http://ctolink.us/1cUY9Wk
Defense Information Systems Agency Mobility Management for U.S. Department of Defense
n June 2013, the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) announced the awarding of a landmark contract for Mobile Device Management and Mobile Application Store (MDM/MAS) capabilities to support the use of hundreds of thousands of Apple iOS and Android devices across the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). This program has been considered a core foundation to enabling the secure compliant use of a diverse selection of mobile devices, operating systems and applications by DoD personnel for years to come.
“DISA is proud to lead the DOD mobility effort because we see mobility is one of the disruptive technologies that we are bringing to bear,” said Lt. Gen. Ronnie D. Hawkins Jr., DISA Director.
“It gives us the ability to move information wherever we need it and put the information in the hands of the warfighter wherever he or she might be. With the mobile device management system and mobile application store, we will be able to manage devices and the applications that our warfighters use while ensuring our networks and information are secure and protected.”
Fixmo is proud to be a critical technology provider for the DISA MDM/MAS program. In partnership with Digital Management Inc. (DMI), Fixmo provides the following technologies to enable the secure and compliant use of Apple iOS and Android devices across the DoD:
Fixmo SafeZone Secure Workspace for secure Email, Browsing, Document management and application containerization
Fixmo Sentinel Integrity Services for device integrity verification, application integrity monitoring and policy compliance reporting
Fixmo EMP Enterprise Server for secure remote access to private DoD networks with end-to-end FIPS certified AES 256-bit data encryption
The Impact of the DISA Mobility Plan
The Mobile Management infrastructure being deployed by DMI and its partners will enable the DoD to support a broad array of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf devices for non-classified communications. This is a significant step towards enabling the “warfighter” with access to critical information anywhere, at any time. Mobile technology “will empower our greatest resource—the ingenuity of our people — and the philosophy of mission command we embrace,” Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a speech at the Brookings Institution.
“The widespread adoption of secure container and mobile app technologies by the U.S. Department of Defense highlights the pressing need for organizations to enable the secure use of business data and applications on smartphones and tablets,” saidChris Hazelton, Research Director for Mobile & Wireless at 451 Research. “As one of the largest deployments of managed iOS and Android devices, these tools will allow the DoD to recommend and distribute key applications to military personnel that allow them to do their jobs anytime and anywhere in the world. At the same time, these tools will ensure that sensitive DoD data remains protected and private, even as these devices are taken into the battlefield.”
The DISA MDM/MAS solution is being deployed to act as the enterprise-wide solution across the DoD, and represents the U.S. Federal Government’s largest investment to-date to secure mobile devices beyond BlackBerry. The agreement for MDM and MAS technology sets the stage for a digital ecosystem that will operate and assure the integrity and security of mobile devices and applications that connect with the DoD networks. In all, the agreement has the potential to protect up to 100,000 smartphones and tablets in its first year and up to 300,000—all Defense mobile users—in the final option period, according to DISA.
“DISA’s planned large-scale deployment of a range of Android and iOS devices is a good indication of the direction that the enterprise mobility market is heading in,” said Richard Absalom of Ovum Research. “Firstly, although not opting for a BYOD policy, the agency is dealing with one of the key drivers of the BYOD trend and offering a choice of devices for its employees to use, using a CYOD (choose your own device) model. Secondly, using Android and iOS devices opens up the large developer ecosystems working on those platforms and makes it easier for the agency to develop and deploy custom built mobile applications. And thirdly, the adoption of a containerized security and management solution demonstrates that the appetite for enterprise mobility management (EMM) is moving beyond a pure MDM approach, to include more app- and data-centric solutions.”
Enabling Secure and Compliant Mobile Computing for Government
Fixmo’s mobile security and mobility management solutions have been developed under a Co-operative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. National Security Agency and are uniquely designed to meet the stringent security requirements of Military/Defense agencies and highly regulated markets. Fixmo is the first commercial vendor to enable DoD agencies to meet the full range of security requirements specified in the DISA Security Technical Implementation Guidelines (STIGs) across BlackBerry, Android and Apple iOS devices.
Click here to read Fixmo’s full press release about its involvement in the DISA MDM/MAS program.
The DISA Award, In the News
Fixmo selected to provide mobile security solutions to DoD, Fixmo Press Release
How DoD is Securing its Apple and Android Devices, Federal Times
Mobility key to military’s future success, Federal News Radio
A year of milestones: DISA moves forward on JIE, mobility, cloud and the enterprise, Defense News
DISA Awards MDM/MAS Contract, DMI Press Release
Related articles
Fixmo selected to provide Mobile Security and Data Protection for DoD (forums.crackberry.com)
Fixmo Selected to Provide Mobile Security and Data Protection Solutions to U.S. Department of Defense as Part of $16M MDM Contract (virtual-strategy.com)
DISA Tackling Hard Work And Making Tough Choices In Data Center Consolidation (delphibrief.com)
Dave Bennett, CIO and director of Enterprise Services, DISA (ctovision.com)
DOD CIO Takai to Receive Award for Leadership Excellence (delphibrief.com)