IBM and F5 Give Customers Access to Applications for Mobile Collaboration

Joint collaboration combines IBM MaaS360 and F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager

February 15, 2016 – Today, IBM and F5 are introducing a combined integration to enable mobile workforces with simple access to apps, wherever they may be located. By joining capabilities from the IBM MaaS360 enterprise mobility management platform and the F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager unified access gateway, IT can now set granular, app-level access controls with strong data protection for their mobile use cases.

“To better address the needs of customers, technology vendors are increasingly looking to partnerships that can mutually expand their areas of expertise,” said Jeff Bellamy, Sr. Director of Business Development at F5. “The longstanding collaboration with IBM provides an ideal foundation to combine their industry-leading mobile device management offerings with the latest mobility-focused enhancements of our recent BIG-IP software release, version 12.0—extending the reach of individual offerings and providing a comprehensive enterprise mobility solution that delivers more value for our joint customers.”

The collaborative IBM and F5 integration provides IT staff the ability to grant access and control parameters based on up-to-date mobile device and network information. With support for on-demand, per app VPN and single sign-on authentication, users are able to seamlessly access enterprise applications, such as Microsoft Office 365, from their mobile device while IT secures corporate data in motion and at rest. In addition, it can help ensure all applicable devices meet compliance mandates and can take action to quarantine and remediate issues in real-time, protecting organizations from disclosure of private user and sensitive corporate data, lost revenues, and damage to brand or reputation.

This collaboration integrates the companies’ respective offerings:

• IBM MaaS360 provides IT teams with a wide range of security options to separate corporate data from personal data on mobile devices. This gives customers the flexibility of layered mobile protection to address their varied end-user needs and IT security requirements through mobile device management, containerization, app security, mobile threat management, and data loss prevention controls.
   
• F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager is a flexible, highly-scalable access and security gateway that delivers unified global access to applications and corporate networks. By converging and consolidating remote access, mobile access, LAN access, web access, and wireless connectivity within a single management interface—and by enabling the simple creation of easy-to-manage, adaptive, dynamic access policies—BIG-IP APM ensures cost-effective, secure, and scalable application access while freeing up valuable IT resources.

Current mobility trends and emerging practices continue to spur security concerns for enterprises and users alike, making this integration attractive to IBM and F5 customers. As organizations aim to balance worker flexibility and productivity with privacy amidst a changing threat landscape, IT teams are seeking more effective ways to uphold security and compliance mandates. This combined effort successfully mitigates a number of risk scenarios, such as when a compromised or jail-broken mobile device attempts to access corporate applications and data without adequate safeguards in place.

“The application needs of enterprise workers have extended well beyond the early days of email and basic corporate network access,” said Wesley Gyure, MaaS360 Portfolio Offering Manager at IBM. “Companies are relying on all types of homegrown and third-party applications to encourage productivity regardless of geographic location. In working with F5, IBM is further extending the capabilities for MaaS360, leading to an unparalleled user experience.”

For more information on the IBM/F5 integration and detailed deployment use cases, please see: https://f5.com/Portals/1/PDF/Partners/secure-mobile-access-using-f5-big-ip-and-ibm-maas360-use-case.pdf

IBM and F5 are also co-hosting a webinar on Wednesday, February 17 focused on these topics. To register, visit: http://ibm.biz/F5Webinar