AT&T Offers Virtualization for Personal Devices at Work

iPhone with toggle switchAT&T is offering a new technology called “AT&T Toggle” to help enterprise IT manage employees’ personal devices when being used for corporate purposes. According to Ma Bell, it allows BYOD workplaces to securely manage devices without interfering with the employee’s personal information, apps, or setup. It can be installed after purchase on iOS devices and select Android smartphones and can be used with any carrier.

Many workplaces have adopted a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy which can lead to both nervous employees and nervous IT administrators. To deal with that reality, AT&T announced last week a technology called “AT&T Toggle” which is essentially virtualization for smartphones and tablets to separate the work and personal sides of the house.

AT&T Toggle serves as a portal to the “work side” of the device. Tap on an icon to gain access to AT&T ToggleHub. There, corporate email and messaging can be accessed securely including encrypting attachments. Approved apps, documents, and other corporate information are kept separate from the personal side. In addition, AT&T can help businesses set up custom apps which are part of ToggleHub and pushed to employees over SSL.

“The AT&T Toggle workspace management platform gives control to the IT department with the ability to set corporate policies, such as enable and disable applications, and to lock and wipe the AT&T Toggle workspace if the device is lost or if an employee leaves the company,” AT&T stated in a statement.

AT&T will charge $750 for setup and training, plus $6.50 per device per month and a support fee of $1.50-$2.50 per device per month. It expected to be generally available in about a month.

[via Ars Technica]