Following on from the consumer features (many of which will still be of use to corporate users), here is a post that looks more at the specific business features.
Mobile Device Management
Windows Phone 8.1 has a built-in MDM client that allows IT organizations to manage devices with the management system of choice, such as Windows Intune, MobileIron, Citrix, SAP and Sophos.
Microsoft have made it easier to enrol devices into these solutions, which reduces time & costs for the customer. Once enrolled, the IT admin can fully manage the device including:
- Configuration policies
- Email or Office 365 accounts
- Certificates for user authentication
- VPN and Wi-Fi profiles
- Apps
Platform Convergence
Over 90% of APIs are shared between Windows Phone 8.1 & Windows 8.1 Update. This makes developing apps for both platforms so much easier for business development teams. They no longer need to choose/prioritize on over the other and can create them all in the same environment.
This move makes it:
- Easier
- Quicker
- Cheaper
- More cost effective
for business to develop apps for Microsoft’s platforms.
Security
Windows Phone 8.1 can:
- Utilize remote business data removal if a device is lost/stolen
- Implement secure & trusted boot
- Better sandbox app to prevent rootkits & malware
Email Encryption
S/MIME, the industry standard for email encryption, is now supported with WP8.1. Managed via Exchange or an MDM system, this allows users to sign & encrypt mail directly from their device.
Assigned Access
Use this to lock a handset to running just one app. If you have users who need to be mobile but just need to perform one dedicated task, using a lower cost handset with this features enables cost savings and security.
Enhanced App Management
Organizations can, via an Enterprise account, privately & securely distribute apps to WP8.1 handsets. These apps can be updated, removed – even defined as mandatory.
Orgs can also whitelist/blacklist apps and even block the store completely if required.
Certificate Management
This allows IT pros to enrol, renew, and revoke certificates for user authentication. These can be used to authenticate against:
- Exchange Server
- An Intranet Web Server
- VPN
- Wi-Fi
- Line-Of-Business (LOB) applications.
Advanced certificate management is available so certificates are protected by the built-in TPM enabling Virtual Smartcard on Windows Phone.
Enterprise VPN & Wi-Fi
Windows Phone 8.1 includes app-specific VPNs, supporting IPsec & SSL VPN gateways. The VPN functionality is supported by many major vendors such as:
- CheckPoint
- Dell/SonicWall
- F5
- Juniper
which will make integration into corporate networks even easier.
Also, Enterprise Wi-Fi with EAP-TLS and EAP-TTLS will allow the employee to connect to the corporate Wi-Fi network, also managed with the MDM system; with Wi-Fi offloading using WI-Fi wherever possible to reduce data costs.
To see more of these features, and also those in Windows 8.1, check out this Windows blog:
Cloudy with a chance of Licensing 