Mobile Device Manager for IBM's Tivoli Endpoint Manager 8.2 software, currently available in beta, adds the ability to apply security policies to Android (2.2 or later) and iOS devices, as well as Nokia Symbian, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone devices - in addition to being able to manage your company's desktop and server machines.

Nokia Symbian, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone devices can be managed from within the Tivoli MDM management console, but assumes that you have a Microsoft Exchange deployment and are managing devices via an Exchange ActiveSync mailbox policy (or policies), which the Tivoli software interfaces with. Integration with a Lotus Traveler deployment is also supported from within the Tivoli management console.

Apple iOS devices are managed, in a similar manner to most iOS-supporting device management platforms, by registering the Tivoli server with the Apple Push Notification Service by means of an Apple-supplied certificate and creating device configuration profiles based on the feature set available in the iOS Configuration Utility.

In this article I am more interested in looking briefly at the features available for managing Android devices. It should be noted that this article was written using a trial beta version of the software, and as such functionality may differ from any subsequent full product releases.

The Tivoli MDM solution uses a client-server architecture, with a client application required on the Android device, configured with the details of an Internet-facing device management server.

The client itself can be downloaded from http://software.bigfix.com/android as an APK file and installed on the Android device manually - a client will be available in the Android Market at a future stage:

The client simply needs the DNS name or IP address of the device management server, or relay server depending on how the solution has been deployed, and the email address of the user:

Within the management console on the server, multiple Android security policies can be created and assigned based on user, group or device property:

On Android 2.2 devices, use of a device password can be enforced, as well as password length, the amount of time the device can be left inactive before it will lock itself and the number of attempts a user may have to enter their password before the device will wipe itself.

On Android 3.x devices, password complexity, history and expiration rules can also be applied, as can enforcement of the platform's on-device encryption capability.

Android 4.0 devices can also have their camera hardware disabled via security policy.

Cellular Access Point Name (APN) information can be configured and pushed out to connected devices:

As can WiFi network profiles:

Applications can be imported from APK files and organised into catalogues for users to receive mandatorily or select from voluntarily:

Configuration items can be assigned to users, groups or devices intelligently, based on a granular set of device properties (inherited from the solution's desktop management capability presumably):

Detailed inventory information about connected clients can be obtained and reported on, including manufacturer, model, OS version, processor, memory, storage, etc, etc

Devices can be remotely wiped, locked, have access to email disabled or re-enabled by the administrator from within the management console.

For more information on the Tivoli Endpoint Manager 8.2 MDM solution, visit the Wiki.

For other Android device management solutions, visit the Device Management section of the blog.