We are excited to announce the availability of the new MobileIron UEM Cloud R76 and UEM Core 11.1, our on-premises offering. As with past releases of MobileIron UEM, our product team continues to focus their efforts on use cases that help our customers to enhance security, improve the admin/user experience and support new use cases driven by OS updates. Both releases include many features that help our customers to enable their users to choose the devices they prefer to use – without sacrificing security. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights!

Enhanced anti-phishing capabilities for Android devices

Phishing continues to be the number one threat vector targeting mobile devices. I’m happy to tell you that with the recent release of new UEM Cloud R76, organizations can take full advantage of VPN-based anti-phishing capabilities on their Android devices. Powered by MobileIron Threat Defense (MTD), MTD’s VPN-based anti-phishing protects more than just corporate email and also protects apps, in-app browsers, text/SMS, messenger apps, social and future modes of communication. If you are not taking advantage of MTD today, here are a few key reasons why you should consider doing so.

  • MTD admins are now in full control of anti-phishing activation, so 100% user adoption is a reality.
  • Users are not required to take any action.
  • MTD’s on-device phishing detection leverages a machine learning engine to protect user privacy.
  • And because it's on-device, it works even without Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity.

Multiple DEP profiles

Now let's talk about support for multiple Apple Device Enrollment Program (DEP) profiles. Prior to release of UEM Cloud R76, the only authentication option made available in MobileIron Cloud UEM was "per Apple account." The challenge here was that devices were forced to bypass or were prompted for registration/login. Admins can now deploy different devices – and with a single account because Auth Profile Settings is provided at the DEP Profile level. Organizations have the freedom to customize automated Apple device enrollment for their users. This provides a much better user experience.

Increased number of devices added during Android bulk provisioning

With UEM Cloud R76, we have increased the number of Android devices that can be added during bulk provisioning. In prior versions of Cloud UEM, there was a limit of 1,000 devices that admins could add in bulk. So, for large organizations that need to provision more than 1,000 devices this became a more time-consuming process. With UEM Cloud R76 we have increased the bulk provisioning number by 5X. So, for larger organizations, this makes the Android bulk provisioning process much more efficient.

Expanded AR/VR technology support

The use of AR/VR technology in today's everywhere workplace continues to increase. Because of this, organizations need to make certain that they can properly manage and secure these devices. UEM Cloud R76 now offers improved support for Microsoft HoloLens 2 mixed reality glasses by assisting with enrollment, configuration, policy creation and enforcement, as well as app deployment and management for these devices – an improved experience for admins and users alike.

Now let’s look at UEM Core 11.1. While this release also supports the anti-phishing capabilities that I mentioned above, there are many other features/enhancements. Check out some of the highlights below.

Custom enrollment URL

The MobileIron mobile device management (MDM) Server now provides a custom enrollment URL in addition to a standard URL as part of the Apple DEP Profile. This means that UEM Core customers can use this alternate URL either to enforce their authentication model or provide any other information. Prior to this improvement UEM Core admins were unable to easily use their organization's identity provider "as is" for device DEP authentication. This required quite a bit of work. The benefits of new enrollment customization include both enhanced security and improved usability.

Support for new NFC restriction in iOS 14.2+

Additional restrictions have been made available for Apple devices, one of which is related to Near Field Communications (NFC). The cool thing about NFC is that it allows devices within close proximity to each other to exchange information – wirelessly. Though some organizations might welcome use of this information sharing tool, others might choose to disable it. UEM Core 11.1 enables admins to allow or disallow NFC within the New Restriction Settings. By disallowing NFC, organizations can further improve security on their iOS devices.

Cross-profile communication for Android 11 devices

Core 11.1 now supports cross-profile communication for Android 11 devices. So, what do we mean by this? Well, for Android devices issued by a company that also allow for personal use, the inability to share information between the Work and Personal profiles can create challenges – for instance when a user is trying to maintain separate work and personal calendars. This can be a recipe for double bookings, missed business meetings and/or overlooked personal events. With UEM Core 11.1, admins can set a list of apps that can request user consent for cross-profile communication. It's important to point out that this communication occurs in one direction – from Work Profile to Personal Profile across the same app. This improved visibility helps users to maintain a better work/life balance and reduce the likelihood of missing out on key activities outside of work.

Direct Boot support

And finally, UEM Core 11.1 supports Direct Boot – which allows communication with apps before a phone has been unlocked following a reboot. With UEM Core 11.1 admins can wipe and reset passwords on devices that are in Direct Boot mode. The benefits here are enhanced security, as well as an improved user experience.

Interested in learning more? Be sure to check out our MobileIron UEM datasheet, and for a deeper dive, download our whitepaper, “The Ultimate Guide to Unified Endpoint Management”. Stay tuned for additional updates down the road!