Symantec acquires Nukona for MDM, mobile application control

Symantec Corp. is acquiring mobile application management security vendor Nukona Inc. in a deal to strengthen its mobile device management (MDM) capabilities with mobile application control features.

The mobile management market isn't slowing down; there's lots of development and evolution that's yet to come back.

Christian Kane, analyst, Forrester Research Inc. 

Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed. The transaction is anticipated to near in April.

Solana Beach, Calif.-based Nukona sells an internet-based service that helps companies established their own corporate app store for mobile devices. Organizations can apply policy to custom apps without using a platform-specific software development kit or APIs.  Instead, the corporate encapsulates the app in a management-layer environment to support data encryption. The safety layer could also control whether the app can write data to local storage, whether off-line access is permitted, and whether document sharing or copy/paste capabilities are enabled.

It supports mobile apps for Apple iOS and Google Android devices in addition to custom apps developed using HTML5.

The fledgling company has gained numerous interest because organizations are beginning to consider mobile device management features that incorporate application control and document management, said Christian Kane, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc. Meanwhile, Symantec, McAfee and other antimalware vendors are generally playing catch as much as provide their customers with mobile device security and control capabilities, Kane said.

Symantec's acquisition retains the Nukona talent and technology to assist it further develop an integrated mobile device management product, Kane said.  

“This goes to be a stepping stone,” Kane said.  “Symantec goes to get this integrated with their core mobility products, however the mobile management market isn't slowing down; there's lots of development and evolution that may be yet to return.”

Symantec said Nukona will be integrated with its earlier acquisition of mobile device management vendor Odyssey Software. Odyssey provides the underlying mobile device management features while Nukona adds the mobile application control capabilities. For instance, the Nukona software could be set to alert IT when an employee installs file-sharing software corresponding to Dropbox on their device. It could also add a safety control layer around third-party applications corresponding to Dropbox or Evernote to produce one more layer of security.

The Nukona software supports Active Directory, LDAP and other enterprise identity platforms.  

In a blog entry in regards to the acquisition, Rob Greer, vp of product management in Symantec's Endpoint and Mobility Group said Odyssey and Nukona are complimentary.

“Odyssey provides the MDM foundation to sign up and manage all necessary device settings across a broad range of platforms, while Nukona provides an innovative technique to help enterprises seamlessly distribute, secure and control applications and knowledge without requiring them to regulate the devices,” Greer wrote. “By securely distributing and managing mobile applications and content, our customers can be ready to address corporate data security concerns around data leakage, encryption and authentication on a per-application basis, for both BYOD and company-owned devices.”

The technology somewhat solves the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) movement by allowing employees to self-service their phones during the company-controlled mobile app portal. It ultimately gives corporate IT some control and visibility over certain apps running at the device. As with other MDM software, the technology can remotely lock or wipe a tool. It also has the power to wipe only corporate data within the event an employee is fired or leaves the corporate.

According to Forrester, Odyssey Software stood out as a best-of-breed MDM vendor attributable to its integration with Microsoft. It really works with the Microsoft's System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM). AirWatch, BoxTone, MobileIron and Zenprise was innovative mobile device management vendors, incorporating some application control and a mobile enterprise app store. The MDM vendors currently with essentially the mostsome of the most widely deployed install base, Forrester says, are Good Technology, Microsoft, RIM and Sybase.

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