Employees, and many businesses, want to allow personal devices to be used at work, and potentially for work. However, balancing that with corporate policies for information security, clear rights-of-use, liability, and then bounding it within an acceptable IT cost structure is no small feat. Cisco has joined forces with leading MDM vendors to link together a solution that starts at day zero -when an employee first buys a new device and tries to use it at work. It includes self-service onboarding to the network, offering a choice of using a device as a guest or work asset, and forced enrollment in (and compliance with) MDM when business policy must be enforced.

Citrix's new XenMobile product adds a top-tier MDM to their mobile workspace and application management solutions. Cisco and Citrix have been working together on integrating security features, starting with Zenprise before they were acquired. The tight linkage of Cisco's Unified Access Solution, and the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), to Citrix XenMobile MDM, is a powerful combination for customers to deploy since it brings quite a bit more to the table than standalone MDM.

Cisco is demonstrating at Citrix Synergy LA 2013 this week a proof of concept version of Cisco Jabber for IOS and Android, integrated with XenMobile MDM and Enterprise.  As an early partner in Citrix's MDX ecosystem, Cisco is working closely with Citrix, customers and partners to determine how best to integrate Cisco applications with XenMobile, and build upon the marketing leading virtual desktop and applications solutions Cisco and Citrix are delivering today.  Cisco Jabber is a Cisco Unified Communications (UC) client application that streamlines communications and enhances productivity. Cisco Jabber provides the best user experience across broadest range of platforms, browsers and devices.  When combined with XenMobile, Jabber can be deployed, managed and removed security, simply and efficiently by corporate IT, even on a personal device.

Blog Update: Cisco Jabber for iPhone, iPad and Android are free to download from iTunes App Store and Google Play, respectively.  Companies can leverage an MDM solution to distribute the standard versions of Cisco Jabber, which will provide users with a pointer back to the App Store or Google Play to install the application.  Direct distribution of the application file through an MDM, including Citrix XenMobile, is not currently supported. 

Tags: citrix, Identity Services Engine, ISE, MDM, Mobile Device Management, mobile device security, mobile devices, unified access, Zenprise, XenMobile, Jabber