SonicWALL launched its Mobile Connect client app for Google Android smartphones and tablets. The app is available as a free download via the Android Market. It provides users of Android-based smartphones and tablets with superior network-level access to corporate, academic and government resources over encrypted SSL VPN connections. With the app installed, mobile users can access these resources across SonicWALL appliances, including SonicWALL Aventail E-Class Secure Remote Access (SRA), SRA for SMB and SonicWALL Next-Generation Firewalls.

While mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, keep vital business infor-mation flowing, they can also introduce malware, either inadvertently or intentionally, into the network. When deployed with or alongside a SonicWALL Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) the Mobile Connect app creates a Clean VPN™ to decrypt traffic while the NGFW decontaminates threats, viruses and malware from smartphones or tablets over SSL VPN before they can enter the network. SonicWALL Clean VPN delivers critical dual protection to secure VPN access and traffic by combining SSL VPN and high-performance next-generation firewalls. Additionally, network administrators can utilize SonicWALL Application Intelligence and Control functionality to identify which apps should receive critical bandwidth. This assures performance for key business, education and government applications, while throttling down other bandwidth intensive applications not deemed important.

As smartphones and tablets enter the internal corporate perimeter and connect via Wi-Fi networks, a SonicWALL Next-Generation Firewall scans traffic to ensure Android devices adhere to organizational security, application control and content filtering policies. With this capability, Android users can now experience enterprise-class security and control outside the network utilizing Mobile Connect and inside the corporate network via SonicWALL Clean Wireless.

A key feature of the Mobile Connect app is End Point Control (EPC), available only on the SonicWALL Aventail E-Class SRA Series. For Android-based smartphones and tablets running Mobile Connect, EPC identifies specific device attributes and enforces they are met before allowing the device to connect to the network. EPC can also determine if an Android device has been jailbroken, thereby removing Android’s built-in security enforcement, so that connections from compromised devices may be rejected or quarantined.

“Android tablets and smartphones are commonplace tools for today’s mobile work-force. Companies must have tools to manage security for those devices both inside and outside the corporate network,” said Patrick Sweeney, vice president of product management and corporate marketing at SonicWALL. “With Mobile Connect, enterprise, educational and government institutions can maintain stringent security standards while their employees travel outside of the protected perimeter, thus enabling greater workforce productivity.”

Now, with the Mobile Connect app for Android, users and organizations can also be protected while traveling and accessing networks from public hotspots or over 3G/4G connections.

The SonicWALL Mobile Connect app for Android app is available immediately as a free download from the Android Market. Learn more about Mobile Connect app for Android.

SonicWALL also offers the Mobile Connect app for iOS, iPhone and iPad, available on the App Store.