IBM Corp. is augmenting its bring-your-own-device (BYOD) capabilities with cloud-based mobile management technology from enterprise mobility management solution firm, Fiberlink Communications.
IBM on Wednesday announced a definitive agreement to acquire Fiberlink, but no financial terms were disclosed.
“To protect and enhance the complete mobile experience, it’s crucial to secure the app, user, content data and transaction,” said Robert LeBlanc, IBM senior vice president for middleware software, in a statement. “The acquisition of Fiberlink will enable us to offer these expanded capabilities to our clients making it simple and quick to unlock the full potential of mobility.”
IBM intends to leverage Fiberlink’s MaaS360 cloud-based mobility management solution to enable IBM to deliver a complete mobile management and security offering.
MaaS360 is being used across a variety of industries including financial services, healthcare and manufacturing.
Using a cloud-based delivery model, MaaS360 decreases the amount of time and cost required for IT teams to support corporate BYOD programs. MaaS360 end-users can often enroll devices in less than five minutes with self- service.
“While the proliferation of mobile devices provides great flexibility and agility for organizations, it also increases the complexity to manage and protect corporate data,” said Jim Sheward, CEO of Fiberlink. “We are looking forward to becoming part of IBM’s strategy to put mobile first and deliver holistic mobile device and app management and security for today’s always-connected workforce.”
IBM said MaaS360 will be part of IBM’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) portfolio of more than 100 cloud services. Big Blue plans to offer MaaS360 on the IBM SoftLayer cloud infrastructure.
MaaS360 will augment IBM’s MobileFirst strategy, which aim to bring all mobile resources together in one platform.