Google Apps and Android Device Policy

Google recently announced that with the adoption of so many Android devices (over 200,000 activations every day), they are launching new administrative controls that will make these devices more secure for businesses.

The new controls will allow those businesses on Google Apps, with employees who access their business email via their Android phones, to ensure the security of corporate information on their employees’ phones without having everyone on a corporate phone plan or restricting their employees’ personal content or emails.

The new controls will allow employees with any Android 2.2 phone to access their corporate data, but will allow admins to enforce security policies like:
- being able to remotely wipe all data from a lost or stolen phone
- require a device password and set password policies for length and complexity
- and even remove access to the corporate info when an employee leaves the company

The big thing here is the ability to control only the sensitive corporate info. If an employee has their own personal Android device, they can still get access to their business email and calendar. But, if they leave the company, the admin can easily remove just that information from the device and both can part ways easily.

The only thing the phones will need is the Google Apps Device Policy application, which Google says will be available from Android Market in the next few days. It will be free to all Google Apps Premier and Education Edition customers.

To learn more about this, Google is hosting a live webcast with their GA Product Manager on November 10th at 9am PDT. To read more and to find out how to register for the webcast, check out the story here.