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New mobile device manager emerges, from Xcellenet

Most corporations simply can't control what software its employees run on mobile devices. In fact, they simply can't manage what mobile devices most of them use. Version 5.0 of a software product called Afaria may give the IT department a way of bringing order to the mobile workforce.

Afaria was conceived by Xcellenet as "Remoteware For The Internet" - a way of sending data to remote, mobile devices, updating them, and making sure they had all the software they were supposed to have.

CEO Joan Herbig told customers that the new version of Afaria has actually been shipping since end March, but will be announced officially next week.

In its newest form, it makes it possible for IT management to keep every mobile device fully up to date, managing 64 devices simultaneously, no matter whether it is Symbian, or Windows, or Pocket PC, or Palm.

Yad Jaura, European marketing manager, demonstrated the new technology at an Xcellenet customer day in London today, said that the product gave a huge amount of control over remote policy on notebooks, handhelds, and smartphones.

"We can not only replace any data that ought to be on a mobile device," said Jaura, "but we can also remove data that shouldn't be there."

As an example, he illustrated how an IT manager could disable ActiveSynch on a client notebook, preventing it from syncing with a non-authorised hand-held.