In a somewhat surprising move, Samsung today announced that its KNOX mobile security platform will support Microsoft's Workplace Join and Windows Intune cloud-based mobile device management solution.
This move is in addition to Samsung's Cloud Printing Solution, which uses Windows Azure and SharePoint. Utilising Microsoft technologies, Samsung is looking to improve security and productivity for workers who use KNOX-enabled hardware.
Injong Rhee, Senior Vice President of KNOX Business Group, IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics, commented on the announcement:
"As a proud and long standing Microsoft partner, we are delighted to be able to offer their Workplace Join users with the full security and support that the Samsung KNOX platform offers. We are also pleased that Microsoft has enabled device management through Windows Intune, enabling enterprise IT managers to take full advantage of the management capabilities offered by Samsung KNOX."
Partnering up with Microsoft, Samsung's KNOX platform is the first Android implementation to provide full support for Workplace Join to Active Directory, included in Windows Server 2012 R2.
That all said, I bet many of you are wondering why the companies do not simply work together with Windows Phone. We'll have to see what happens with the rumoured Samsung device.
Find the full press release from today's announcement below.
Friday 28th February, 2014, Barcelona, Spain – Samsung Electronics announced today that Samsung KNOX will now support Microsoft’s Workplace Join to Active Directory and the Windows Intune cloud-based mobile device management solution in addition to Samsung’s Cloud Printing solution, which uses both Microsoft Windows Azure cloud platform and Microsoft SharePoint.
These Microsoft technologies will improve security and productivity for workers using Samsung KNOX-enabled devices, Samsung’s end-to-end secure mobile platform solution which is designed to provide advanced data and privacy protection for enterprise workers.
Injong Rhee, Senior Vice President of KNOX Business Group, IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics said: “Samsung developed KNOX as a secure and complete mobile platform for the enterprise and we continue to evolve it to protect and respond to ever-changing enterprise mobility and security challenges. As a proud and long standing Microsoft partner, we are delighted to be able to offer their Workplace Join users with the full security and support that the Samsung KNOX platform offers. We are also pleased that Microsoft has enabled device management through Windows Intune, enabling enterprise IT managers to take full advantage of the management capabilities offered by Samsung KNOX.”
Workplace Join
The Samsung KNOX platform is the first Android implementation to provide full support for Workplace Join to Active Directory, introduced by Microsoft in Windows Server 2012 R2. Offered on the latest Samsung mobile devices, Workplace Join will be available on all Samsung KNOX devices in the coming months.
Workplace Join enables users to register their devices of choice with their company to allow access to corporate resources. By controlling access to corporate resources, IT administrators can manage risk while helping users remain productive. As a seamless experience for end users, Workplace Join offers a second factor of device authentication through Active Directory.
IT organisations will gain the stronger authentication that enterprises demand for access to sensitive resources. With the integration of Workplace Join into the Samsung KNOX platform, enterprise IT administrators can be assured that employees that bring their own Samsung mobile device will be able to be strongly authenticated and allowed access to corporate resources.
Bob Kelly, Corporate Vice President, Cloud & Enterprise Business Development, Microsoft said: “In line with our commitment to serve enterprises and users in heterogeneous IT environments, we are pleased to work with Samsung to bring Microsoft’s trusted, cloud-enabled, enterprise BYOD capabilities to Samsung devices. Like Windows device users, Samsung mobile customers will now be able to take advantage of seamless authentication for access to enterprise resources, and Enterprise IT will be able to manage those devices and users through the cloud with Windows Intune. We are also excited to see Samsung use Windows Azure and Office 365 cloud capabilities to give users a smartphone printing experience that rivals desktop and laptop printing results, with Samsung Cloud Printing. We see many opportunities to collaborate with Samsung in the future to continue providing enterprise-grade solutions for BYOD environments.”
Windows Intune
Microsoft’s Windows Intune provides first class support for Samsung mobile devices supported with the KNOX platform. By implementing management APIs provided on the Standard platform, IT administrators can comprehensively manage Samsung mobile devices via the Windows Intune administration console and enable device access in high security environment, KNOX.
Samsung Cloud Printing with Windows Azure
Samsung Cloud Printing uses the Microsoft Windows Azure cloud platform and Microsoft SharePoint to provide PC quality printing experiences on mobile devices. Mobile users will be able to easily print documents directly from their smartphone, with results that will be indistinguishable from a printout of the document from a desktop or laptop computer.
