Blue Bell, Pennsylvania Fiberlink has transitioned in recent years from being a network operator to a software company, with its Extend360 client giving laptop users the ability to connect to the internet on fixed and wireless links, which includes secure links back to intranets for corporate employees.
The company recently got a major feather in its cap with the announcement that Vodafone Group Plc, the world’s largest multi-country mobile operator by subscriber numbers, would OEM Extend360 from early next year, re-branded as the Vodafone Secure Remote Access client. It will enable access over broadband, cellular and WiFi.
The offering will initially be only in Vodafone’s home market of the UK, but there is clearly the potential for extension of the deal to others among the carriers 28 properties around the world, acknowledged Skip Taylor, Fiberlink’s VP of product marketing. He added that the new client won’t necessarily need to replace the Vodafone Mobile Connect client for laptops, as the latter can be repositioned as a consumer offering, with the Fiberlink product being marketed into enterprises.
Fiberlink has been adding functionality into the client over the last year or so with features such as device and application hardening, and today’s announcement is a further step in that process. The Mobile Guardian from Dallas, Texas-based Credant will be integrated into Extend360, with Fiberlink operating a Credant server integrated into its own policy platform and offering management of its corporate customers’ laptop encryption policies as a managed service.
We are addressing the security risk of data theft via USB sticks, said Taylor. We believe this is the first MSSP offering based on the Credant technology. He added that the service will be charged as a nominal fee on top of the standard [Extend360] client, which is per-user, per-month.
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