Microsoft’s recent announcement of its new System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 should be a galvanizing moment for the mobile security industry. While the market still has not opened up as much as expected—largely due to a threat landscape that still hasn’t truly evolved (but undoubtedly will)—the idea of a large vendor with deep pockets playing on mobile security turf is undoubtedly disquieting for many players.
However, there is still plenty of opportunity to tap into this burgeoning market for security vendors that can distinguish themselves through wide platform support, richer feature sets, and thoughtful partnerships and integrations. By extending its reach from the corporate network out to mobile devices anywhere in the world, Microsoft has finally turned the Windows Mobile operating system into a complete mobile ecosystem, marrying device functionality with centralized management, connectivity and security.