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Rhomobile Tames Smartphone Security for the Mobile Enterprise
[February 16, 2011]

Rhomobile Tames Smartphone Security for the Mobile Enterprise


BARCELONA, Spain & SAN JOSE, Calif. --(Business Wire)--

Rhomobile, the clear choice of enterprise applications for mobile devices, today announced at the Mobile World Congress (News - Alert) the latest release and new enhancements of its award-winning Rhodes framework for building and delivering the best breed of secure, information-rich smartphone applications for the mobile enterprise.

The explosion of modern smartphones is pressuring developers and IT managers to rethink their approach to building and securing enterprise applications. That's because smartphone usage is dominated by native local apps (versus most enterprise applications for the last fifteen years being written as centralized web-based apps). Until now, modern smartphone apps have been written natively with local data on the device. Computing has shifted to "on the edge end user seamless agility and experience", often with devices not truly controlled by the enterprise.

One of the effects of the paradigm shift to native smartphone apps is that securing such apps for the enterprise requires a new set of rules. Today's new generation of apps must be secured with:

- on device encryption

- transmission encryption to the backend app

- delegated authentication with an enterprise directory

- app management and provisioning/deprovisioning ("remote device wipe")

"Because native apps on devices have won the day, enterprises are writing apps in new ways. This creates a new set of application security requirements. " explained Adam Blum (News - Alert), Rhomobie's CEO. "Rhomobile provides a complete set of products and services for the full lifecycle of enterprise mobility: from Rhodes development to RhoSync for data distribution to RhoGallery for app management. This gives us a unique opportunity to secure all aspects of an enterprise smartphone app."



Specifically, with Rhodes 2.3 a developer can identify an app as dealing with secure data. The app then automatically encrypts all data. The app then uses SSL (https URLs) for all its connectivity to either the RhoSync server or a backend web service. The RhoSync server provides out of the box LDAP integration to insure that an enterprise directory is used for security. Finally RhoGallery provides app management and the ability to remotely wipe apps and data. Rhodes 2.3 allows you to write apps that can only be launched from the RhoGallery "enterprise app sandbox" insuring that such apps can only be deployed in a managed situation.

"A chief pain facing today's IT managers is balancing smartphone security with workforce enablement," said J. Gerry Purdy, Ph.D., and Principal Analyst of MobileTrax, a leading market research firm that focuses on the mobile and wireless market. "Rhomobile  (News - Alert)has put all the pieces in place to enable developers to create secure apps across multiple platforms. Rhodes 2.3 provides enterprise IT managers with a development tool that can support the evolving and emerging multiple platforms now available while ensuring end-to-end security for those apps: from the device to the backend. All from initial installation, through deployment through de-provisioning."


Rhodes open-source Ruby-based framework enables developers to rapidly build native apps for all major smartphone operating systems (iPhone, Windows Mobile, RIM, Symbian (News - Alert) and Android). These are true native device applications which work with synchronized local data and take advantage of device capabilities such as GPS, PIM contacts and calendar, camera, native mapping, push, barcode, signature capture, and Bluetooth.

About Rhomobile

Rhomobile Inc. offers the world's leading open source framework for enterprise mobility. Founded in 2008, the company's award winning software has thousands of active developers and is ideal for independent software vendors, system integrators and enterprises of all sizes. Rhomobile offers a comprehensive, modern, highly adaptable, and low cost solution for today's smartphone app developer. Rhomobile, headquartered in San Jose, CA (News - Alert), is a privately held company with backing from vSpring Capital. For more information, please visit www.Rhomobile.com.

Rhomobile and Rhodes are registered trademarks of Rhomobile, Inc. All other registered or unregistered trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners.


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