Background

AT&T set out to solve the problem of dual use mobile phones – for work and personal use – one mobile phone, two usage profiles, and an IT administrator trying to manage and control the use of enterprise mobile applications on the work side of the phone. AT&T Toggle is a software solution that enables a mobile phone to be compartmentalized into distinct personas with specific privileges or restrictions. In the era of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) where employees are increasingly rejecting company-issued phones and devices, this presents an interesting technology approach to addressing mobility management in general and location data privacy management in particular. We spoke with Mobeen Khan, Executive Director for Mobility Marketing about the role of AT&T Toggle in enterprise mobility management and how it fits into location data privacy.

LBx What were the market drivers behind the development of AT&T Toggle?

 KHAN: There are two converging trends taking place. One is that mobile devices are becoming expensive for companies to procure. Second is that IT managers are in a technology race they cannot win. Devices and technology are changing too fast and IT managers are operating in an environment that is increasingly difficult and too costly to control. There are four key issues for IT managers in the management of mobility:

1. to ensure that the devices in the hands of the employees are secure,
2. to make sure corporate policies are extended to the devices,
3. to manage the applications on the devices, and
4. to monitor how enterprise apps are used in the workplace.

We launched AT&T Toggle and ToggleHub to allow the IT manager to provision a container on an employee’s mobile phone. This gives the IT administrator complete control over that container, fully secured and password protected. A geo-fence can be placed around the usage of the device to restrict access to the container outside a geography, or restrictions can be based on time. For example a union worker can only access the work related features within a certain radius from the workplace or within a shift time.

Bio

Mobeen Khan is the Executive Director of Marketing for Advanced Mobility Solutions, a business unit of AT&T Business and Home Solutions. His responsibilities include marketing strategy and execution for AT&T’s broad portfolio of mobile enterprise solutions for business and government customers of all sizes.

LBx How does AT&T Toggle work?

 KHAN AT&T Toggle creates a container on the mobile device that is accessible by the IT manager. For the personal side of the device, the IT administrator has no visibility into the employee’s personal usage in terms of applications or location. The container has ToggleHub as the enterprise app store and the method for downloading content and applications. We also plan to bundle AT&T Toggle with anti-virus software to address increasing security concerns resulting from malware trends in mobile devices, in particular Android devices.

LBx How is AT&T Toggle being received in the marketplace?

KHAN We launched AT&T Toggle in the Fall of 2011 and only on Android devices. We recently announced AT&T Toggle’s availability on iOS and may expand to other major mobile operating systems. We are still in beta and have been getting incredible feedback from our customer trials of large and mid-market customers.

LBx How is AT&T Toggle dealing with privacy concerns?

 KHAN Regarding employer-procured devices...

The full article is available in the Summer 2012 Digital Edition of LBx Journal.