During a turbulent year grappling with COVID-19, businesses leaned heavily on mobility to adapt to hybrid and work-from-home environments. As we look ahead, it's clear that mobility will be pivotal to how businesses thrive in this new workplace reality.

A successful enterprise mobility strategy requires multiple layers — choosing devices for your team, picking a preferred management solution, setting up for remote and distributed enrollment and taking advantage of helpful features built around security. Google provides solutions at each step to help you meet your mobility goals with Android.

Devices for your whole team

Picking the right devices to help meet business goals is a critical first step. To help provide greater flexibility for more workers and use cases, we've added new Android Enterprise Recommended partners, welcoming Samsung, Lenovo, OnePlus and Xiaomi. From premium smartphones to rugged devices for your frontline workers, there’s an Android device for every need. When selecting Android Enterprise Recommended devices, you’re assured that they are backed by Google security services and support our range of management features.

Flexible management solutions

Android Enterprise gives you the versatility and flexibility to manage your mobile fleet, no matter the size of your business.

If you’re a small business, you face the challenge of securing devices and data without the resources of a larger organization. It’s why we recently announced early access for Android Enterprise Essentials, a new way for small and medium-sized businesses to get automatic, affordable protection. Essentials is available from U.S. resellers CDW and SHI, and from U.K. resellers Bechtle, Chess, Intercity and Tela. We expect to add additional U.S. and U.K. resellers soon and plan to expand to more countries and regions throughout the year. 

Essentials takes away the guesswork and the day-to-day worries of device management by providing a core set of always-on features that work automatically, from the moment you buy devices to when your employees turn them on. You can learn more about Essentials by watching our launch event on demand or downloading a copy of a new technical review of Essentials by research firm Enterprise Strategy Group.

Larger businesses often have more advanced security and management needs, be it a larger device fleet or supporting multiple operating systems. To meet these use cases, we also offer Android Enterprise through our Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) partners. Our management framework is built with granularity, so companies can manage devices on their own terms, whether they are fully managed corporate devices or employees’ personal devices. 

Helpful features built around privacy

Smooth device setup and helpful features are critical for mobilizing your teams. This begins with device setup — it’s why we made zero-touch enrollment, our seamless deployment service, even more useful by expanding support to all Android 9.0+ devices. You can choose zero-touch or, if your team is using Samsung devices, Knox Mobile Enrollment to best suit your needs.

We continued our focus on privacy, security and helpfulness with Android 11. The Android work profile helps keep business data safe and personal stuff private when using a personal device for work and play. And IT admins benefit from additional tools to ensure devices comply with corporate policies. You also get a more helpful experience with the option to allow trusted apps to connect between work and personal profiles. 

Try our Solutions Finder

Choice doesn’t have to mean complexity. To make this easier, we recently launched the Solutions Finder, an interactive assessment tool that helps recommend a management solution based on your needs.  This resource is built to help you easily take advantage of all Android offers.

As we look ahead, we believe our investments in security, privacy and management will help companies succeed in transitioning to today’s hybrid workplace.

During a turbulent year grappling with COVID-19, businesses leaned heavily on mobility to adapt to hybrid and work-from-home environments. As we look ahead, it's clear that mobility will be pivotal to how businesses thrive in this new workplace reality.

A successful enterprise mobility strategy requires multiple layers — choosing devices for your team, picking a preferred management solution, setting up for remote and distributed enrollment and taking advantage of helpful features built around security. Google provides solutions at each step to help you meet your mobility goals with Android.

Devices for your whole team

Picking the right devices to help meet business goals is a critical first step. To help provide greater flexibility for more workers and use cases, we've added new Android Enterprise Recommended partners, welcoming Samsung, Lenovo, OnePlus and Xiaomi. From premium smartphones to rugged devices for your frontline workers, there’s an Android device for every need. When selecting Android Enterprise Recommended devices, you’re assured that they are backed by Google security services and support our range of management features.

Flexible management solutions

Android Enterprise gives you the versatility and flexibility to manage your mobile fleet, no matter the size of your business.

If you’re a small business, you face the challenge of securing devices and data without the resources of a larger organization. It’s why we recently announced early access for Android Enterprise Essentials, a new way for small and medium-sized businesses to get automatic, affordable protection. Essentials is available from U.S. resellers CDW and SHI, and from U.K. resellers Bechtle, Chess, Intercity and Tela. We expect to add additional U.S. and U.K. resellers soon and plan to expand to more countries and regions throughout the year. 

Essentials takes away the guesswork and the day-to-day worries of device management by providing a core set of always-on features that work automatically, from the moment you buy devices to when your employees turn them on. You can learn more about Essentials by watching our launch event on demand or downloading a copy of a new technical review of Essentials by research firm Enterprise Strategy Group.

Larger businesses often have more advanced security and management needs, be it a larger device fleet or supporting multiple operating systems. To meet these use cases, we also offer Android Enterprise through our Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) partners. Our management framework is built with granularity, so companies can manage devices on their own terms, whether they are fully managed corporate devices or employees’ personal devices. 

Helpful features built around privacy

Smooth device setup and helpful features are critical for mobilizing your teams. This begins with device setup — it’s why we made zero-touch enrollment, our seamless deployment service, even more useful by expanding support to all Android 9.0+ devices. You can choose zero-touch or, if your team is using Samsung devices, Knox Mobile Enrollment to best suit your needs.

We continued our focus on privacy, security and helpfulness with Android 11. The Android work profile helps keep business data safe and personal stuff private when using a personal device for work and play. And IT admins benefit from additional tools to ensure devices comply with corporate policies. You also get a more helpful experience with the option to allow trusted apps to connect between work and personal profiles. 

Try our Solutions Finder

Choice doesn’t have to mean complexity. To make this easier, we recently launched the Solutions Finder, an interactive assessment tool that helps recommend a management solution based on your needs.  This resource is built to help you easily take advantage of all Android offers.

As we look ahead, we believe our investments in security, privacy and management will help companies succeed in transitioning to today’s hybrid workplace.

With every major Android release, we want to strike the right balance between improving security and manageability and making the platform more usable and private for employees. 

With Android 12, now in developer preview, we’re introducing a number of features that not only bolster security, but also provide more simplicity and utility for IT and more privacy and productivity for employees. 

Simplifying password complexity

For users on work profile devices, we’re introducing a more straightforward, modern approach to password restrictions. Instead of granular requirements that often result in easily forgotten passwords, we’re establishing pre-set complexity levels of high, medium or low that will be used to access the device. 

With Android hardware-backed brute force protections in place since 2016, IT doesn’t have to employ super-complex restrictions, which can still be guessed by computers. By utilizing the new complexity levels along with other Android security protections, including SafetyNet Attestation API and Google Play Protect, IT teams can be assured devices are safe and easy to use for employees.

Easily set up a work security challenge

Admins can still utilize a more granular password, if they prefer, through the work security challenge to manage access to business apps in the work profile. The work security challenge enables an IT-approved password for access to data in the work profile, separate from a simplified password for the device. 

We’ve improved the device setup process to prompt employees if their provided password doesn’t meet complexity requirements set by their admin. 

Users who receive a prompt can simply choose to increase the strength of their device password or set up a work security challenge to access apps in the work profile. If approved by IT, employees can also switch back to one password for both work and personal if they change their mind. 

For company-owned devices, admins will be able to choose whether they use the new password complexity levels or continue using the more granular restrictions.

Certificate management on unmanaged devices

Certificate management is a critical tool that allows enterprises to enable authentication for employee access to remote services. Today, the process can be seamlessly handled on managed devices through an Enterprise Mobility Management’s (EMM) device policy client, which can programmatically generate keys, install certificates from the Android KeyChain service and present them for authentication. 

In Android 12, we’re streamlining credential management for unmanaged devices by making the process available to apps beside the device policy client. With this expanded credential management, more companies can extend secure access to employees regardless of their location, a key requirement in the COVID-19 era. Additionally, employees can avoid the cumbersome, manual process of installing certificates themselves.

Enrollment-specific IDs for personal devices

For employee-owned managed devices, we’re creating a new enterprise-specific device identifier that may help enhance privacy in the event an employee leaves their current employer. Instead of relying on hardware identifiers such as IMEI or serial numbers, personal devices will get a new identifier derived programmatically during enrollment. 

Enrollment-specific IDs allow IT admins to identify the device if it’s re-enrolled at the same organization, even if the device is factory reset. But these IDs limit IT’s ability to track the device if the employee leaves the company. 

Today’s initial preview covers some of the features you’ll see in the next release of Android with more to come as we get close to launch. Learn about the enterprise features in the Android 12 Developer Preview at the Android developers website. To give Android 12 a try, you can download it to a Pixel device today.

Android Enterprise partners play an essential role in helping customers grow their businesses with Android. We launched the Android Enterprise Partner Program earlier this year to make it easier for partners to engage with Android and grow their capabilities.

Our program provides device resellers, device manufacturers, service providers and enterprise mobility management (EMM) providers with instant access to sales and training resources, community forums and marketing assets. Our goal is to give our partners the resources to build up their knowledge and expertise in Android Enterprise solutions.

The Android Enterprise Partner Program has gained tremendous traction in the last few months. The program is in the process of validating over 200 partners as service providers and device resellers, and hundreds of other partners have joined the program to access our resources. Today, we’re sharing details about the key benefits to the program for all our partner communities and how these can be put to use to give customers a great Android experience. 

A platform to connect with resources

• The Android Enterprise Partner Portal is the single point of entry to all our programs and resources. We have simplified the contracting and engagement process, making it smoother for new partners to onboard and connect with these resources.

• Community forums have become an invaluable resource for partners to connect with industry peers, get technical advice and solicit expert opinions on Android Enterprise solutions. We have tailored communities for our core partner groups, helping create focused discussion forums that meet their needs.

• We offer the Android Academy to provide specialized training and certification for partners to get the most up-to-date knowledge about how to support customers with their mobile deployments. Within the portal, partners can track their teams’ progress along their learning paths to ensure everyone meets their learning objectives. You can learn more about our training and certification offerings at info.androidenterprise.training.

Recognizing validated partners and solutions

Device resellers and service providers who meet our technical and go-to-market validation requirements can gain public recognition with a verified partner badge. This badge is an important tool for customers to recognize a trusted ecosystem partner.

Customers can visit the Android Enterprise Solutions Directory to access validated device resellers, service providers as well as Android Enterprise Recommended enterprise mobility management (EMM) solutions and devices. Customers can choose providers and solutions with confidence that they have met the highest standards for the ecosystem.

Partners that wish to find out more and join the program can do so from through the Android Enterprise Partner Portal.

Many small and medium-sized businesses believe that because they’re smaller, their security risk is relatively small as well. But that isn’t always the case. Some small and medium-sized businesses also worry that mobile security requires a large, complex investment, perhaps beyond their budget or expertise.

Smaller organizations, however, are increasingly the target of malicious attackers and may be required by local laws to protect company data. And with more business and customer data residing on mobile devices, one lost or stolen phone can create a major incident that can have a large and lasting impact on your business. 

Investing in mobile security doesn’t have to be a big, complicated endeavor. It’s about using the right tool for the job to help ensure that critical protections are in place.

For businesses with simpler needs, smaller budgets

Small investment, big reward

"Businesses are increasingly telling us their top considerations for investment are security and increased user productivity," said Mark Bowker, Senior Analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group. "During ESG’s validation of Android Enterprise Essentials, it became quickly evident that the simple management capabilities and seamless employee experience provide confidence in security for businesses and a safer work environment for employees.”

Essentials is ideal for small and medium-sized businesses, but also works for larger organizations that want to extend core protections to devices which may not need advanced device management. Essentials can also serve as a starting point for customers who want to try out simple management at first, and potentially upgrade to more sophisticated management in the future. 

We are working in the initial roll-out with distributors Synnex in the US and Tech Data in the UK. We plan to make Essentials available through additional resellers as we prepare to take this service global starting early next year. To learn more about Essentials and how it makes mobile security easy and affordable for businesses, please register for our webinar or check out our Essentials website. And if you’re interested in becoming an Essentials partner, please visit the Android Enterprise Partner Portal to register for our partner community.

Many small and medium-sized businesses believe that because they’re smaller, their security risk is relatively small as well. But that isn’t always the case. Some small and medium-sized businesses also worry that mobile security requires a large, complex investment, perhaps beyond their budget or expertise.

Smaller organizations, however, are increasingly the target of malicious attackers and may be required by local laws to protect company data. And with more business and customer data residing on mobile devices, one lost or stolen phone can create a major incident that can have a large and lasting impact on your business. 

Investing in mobile security doesn’t have to be a big, complicated endeavor. It’s about using the right tool for the job to help ensure that critical protections are in place.

For businesses with simpler needs, smaller budgets

Small investment, big reward

"Businesses are increasingly telling us their top considerations for investment are security and increased user productivity," said Mark Bowker, Senior Analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group. "During ESG’s validation of Android Enterprise Essentials, it became quickly evident that the simple management capabilities and seamless employee experience provide confidence in security for businesses and a safer work environment for employees.”

Essentials is ideal for small and medium-sized businesses, but also works for larger organizations that want to extend core protections to devices which may not need advanced device management. Essentials can also serve as a starting point for customers who want to try out simple management at first, and potentially upgrade to more sophisticated management in the future. 

We are working in the initial roll-out with distributors Synnex in the US and Tech Data in the UK. We plan to make Essentials available through additional resellers as we prepare to take this service global starting early next year. To learn more about Essentials and how it makes mobile security easy and affordable for businesses, please register for our webinar or check out our Essentials website. And if you’re interested in becoming an Essentials partner, please visit the Android Enterprise Partner Portal to register for our partner community.

Three years ago, we launched Android zero-touch enrollment to make scaled deployment of Android devices seamless and secure. Since then, we’ve partnered with almost 300 global resellers, with another 100 partners poised to add support shortly. And we have customers who are now deploying hundreds of thousands of devices in one go, lighting up secure, managed devices with ease. 

“With zero-touch enrollment, our IT team enrolls and configures devices quickly — they’re ready for use with the right apps right out of the box.” said Chadhi Mraghni, Director of Information Systems for O2 Care Services, which provides healthcare and home support services throughout France. “This process has shaved thousands of hours off of our device setup time when compared to our previous management mode, freeing up our admins to focus on other strategic tasks to support our teams.”

Expanding zero-touch to all 9.0+ devices

We are now building on the momentum of zero-touch by expanding its reach and streamlining the management experience for organizations.

First, we’re making zero-touch available on all Android 9.0+ devices through an update in Google Play Services. With this update, all recent devices — including Samsung devices — will support zero-touch. Customers deploying Samsung devices now have the option to choose between two services: Samsung Knox Mobile Enrollment or zero-touch, depending on their needs and preferences.

Second, we’re making it easier for enterprises to configure their devices by integrating zero-touch into their existing enterprise mobility management (EMM) solution. Organizations can now link their accounts to automatically configure and manage their zero-touch devices from within their EMM console, instead of having to utilize the zero-touch portal. 

This update removes friction from device configuration, since zero-touch now understands which EMM solution a customer is using and applies auto-generated configurations, all from the EMM console they use every day. 

Coming to resellers this year

Zero-touch on all Android 9.0+ devices is rolling out now to resellers and will be supported by all zero-touch resellers by the end of 2020. EMM partners are currently adding the integrated zero-touch experience to their consoles, which is a new advanced feature available in all Android Enterprise Recommended EMMs in 2021. Work with a zero-touch enrollment reseller and your EMM to begin enrolling new and existing devices.

With these updates, we believe zero-touch enrollment becomes an even more powerful tool in the hands of enterprise customers, helping you mobilize with greater speed, simplicity and security. Check out our webinar to learn more about the value of zero-touch and what these new updates can do for your business.

We launched the Android Enterprise Recommendedprogram in 2018 to help customers select, deploy and manage devices with more confidence. Since our initial introduction with seven device manufacturers, we’ve expanded the program to more than 30 global partners, most recently adding devices from leading manufacturers such as Lenovo, OnePlus, Oppo, and Xiaomi. To make Android Enterprise Recommended even more useful, we're welcoming Samsung Galaxy devices into the program.

The Android Enterprise Recommended program has become a critical tool for enterprise customers, helping them easily evaluate and approve devices that meet Google’s requirements for hardware, software and updates. This flexibility and device choice is even more pressing during Covid as businesses support more distributed workers. According to IDC senior research analyst Bryan Bassett, 84 percent of US IT decision makers are planning to invest more in mobility as a result of the current business climate.

We’ve heard from a number of customers like SAP, who appreciate that our validated devices establish a baseline they can rely on for quality and consistency in their mobility programs.

“Android Enterprise Recommended helped SAP to easily find Android devices that meet our security, technology, total cost of ownership approach and provided a range of devices to meet our users' needs,” said Christian Lohde, Enterprise IT Architecture Manager with SAP.

Each year we evolve the program requirements to bring more value to customers. This year, we’re rolling out updates to the requirements for Android 11 that focus on tighter hardware specifications, improved testing and more transparency around device update support. The new requirements will be reflected in the updated Android Enterprise Solutions Directory to help customers identify devices best suited to their needs. The Enterprise Solutions Directory now includes information on: 

• Last date of security updates from device manufacturers

• Android release running on a device when validated as Android Enterprise Recommended 

• Regional availability of devices

• Critical industry certifications, such as Common Criteria

Also, with our announcement today that Android zero-touch enrollment is now available on all 9.0+ devices, customers have an additional option to deploy Samsung Galaxy devices in addition to Knox Mobile Enrollment.

Samsung has been a key player in the mobile enterprise space for many years, and we’re excited to have them on board as we make it easier for customers transitioning to a mobile workforce. We look forward to recommending Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets to our enterprise customers to provide them with great devices for security, efficiency and productivity.

You can expect to see us working even closer together to help companies achieve their mobility goals. Read more about this in Samsung’s press release here. 

October is the time when ghosts do their best haunting. Yet there are other unwelcome guests who cause havoc year-round, trying to sneak into your company phone and make real-world mischief.

Malware and other threats are always on the mind of mobile security professionals, which is why the issue gets special attention every October for Cybersecurity Awareness Month. While malware is something to guard against for all smartphone users, enterprises must be especially mindful of protecting sensitive corporate data.

It’s why Android ships with strong protections enabled through Google security services, with anti-phishing features coming from Google Safe Browsing and anti-malware features like Google Play Protect continuously monitoring for malware and removing any if discovered. With so much work taking place on mobile devices, built-in security features are essential.

We are committed to providing transparency into our efforts to reduce Potentially Harmful Application (PHA) rates on devices and in Google Play. Recently, we specifically analyzed Android Enterprise devices to gauge how our enterprise devices fare when they use Google Security Services and Android Enterprise as their sole anti-malware solution. We were pleased to find only .003 percent of devices with any active PHAs. That’s less likely than being hit by a comet or asteroid in the United States!

How our security services deliver for enterprises

We’ve been able to keep the PHA rate on enterprise devices very low by combining built-in malware defense with management APIs so admins have the controls they need to minimize threats to their device fleets. 

Google Play Protect scans over 100 billion apps every day, finding PHAs in real-time, notifying users of potential threats and removing them if necessary. Google Play Protect also works even if the device is offline and users can always perform a manual scan.

Android Enterprise admins further tighten controls with managed Google Play. By using blocklist and allowlist they can control exactly which apps are allowed on devices, closing another potential opening for malware. 

Admins can take other proactive steps such as forcing devices to install operating system updates and disabling the ability to install applications from unknown sources. EMM partners can leverage our APIs to implement security compliance into their mobility offerings. The SafetyNet Verify Apps API, for example, taps into our malware intelligence to help detect if any malware resides on the device.

The integration of our security services and Android Enterprise management tools give our partners and customers the security they need for today’s threats. Last year we also introduced the App Defense Alliance where we partnered with industry leaders to stop bad apps before they reach users’ devices. We’re pleased to see such positive results from these efforts and tangible evidence of how Android Enterprise management paired with our security services help provide comprehensive device protection.  Learn more about Android Enterprise security and how to take advantage of these essential security services.