A Real Gem from Sapphire: Announcing SAP Afaria, cloud edition
Cloud computing has become an increasingly attractive alternative to on-premise computing for the enterprise IT market. Cloud solutions are fantastic alternatives for companies who like the ability to minimize up-front investment and have the flexibility to operate with a monthly subscription model. Today, at SapphireNOW in Orlando, SAP introduced a portfolio of mobile security solutions – including SAP Afaria, cloud edition – that will rock the enterprise mobility space. Secure mobility can now be a reality for companies of any size.
SAP Afaria, cloud edition is a complete SaaS-based mobile device management solution to manage the mobile workforce without the complexity and expense of an on-premise installation. Companies can secure their mobile devices through a subscription model with the assurance that all operational aspects, from security to upgrades to disaster recovery are handled automatically.
With the growing trend of employees using personally-owned (BYOD) devices in the workplace, regulating these devices is essential for protecting sensitive data and enhancing employee productivity. And who can resist the allure of full mobile device management capabilities – without costly staffing requirements, the burden of IT infrastructure and expense of an on-premise installation?
Offering Afaria as a cloud solution is an easy and natural option. Providing our customers with choice is a core goal across all of our SAP Mobile Secure products. It’s always preferable to have options, and in this case we have a great option for those of you who have embraced cloud computing. For customers that prefer to closely manage their IT infrastructure internally with on-premise solutions, Afaria’s “behind the firewall” solution makes sense. And for companies who like the idea of cloud but want their entire mobility infrastructure maintained by a third party, we also have many partners who offer full Managed Mobility services.
With the move to cloud in itself isn’t really game changing, the great news is the price. This cloud version will be available for a shocking low price of only 1 euro (or $1.11US) per device per month. Having this convenient, reliable and incredibly low priced solution eliminates the barriers to entry for any company of any size. Finally – security can be reality for all!
Quick highlights of SAP Afaria, cloud edition:
- Provides the lowest per device per month cost possible
- Provides a dedicated environment at shared environment cost
- Maintenance, upgrades and support are all included as part of the subscription
- Requires no initial investment for licensing, hardware or equipment
- Can be deployed in under 15 minutes
A little more meat:
- It’s uilt on the latest version of SAP Afaria technology (Afaria 7.0 SP3, released March 31)
- Includes the best way to see data – Afaria reports running in Business Objects web and mobile dashboards
- Has enterprise integration provided with Secure SaaS Connector, requiring no inbound access to customer environment
Try it out!
If you’re in Orlando, come by the Enterprise Mobility Management table in the mobile campus. You can also go to SAPAfaria.com where you can get a free 30 day trial with the option to instantly turn your configured test-drive image into a live production system in the cloud. If you already use earlier versions of Afaria you can test this infrastructure to experience Afaria 7.0 capabilities before deciding to upgrade their on-premise deployment or move licenses over to
SAPAfaria.com.
This is some good news to start SAPHIRENOW with.
The price is very attractive. In fact, it makes me thinking about using Afaria for my personal use. I do have a 2 or 3 mobile devices and with 12 EUR/year/device it can make sense to manage them centrally ... now
Is this for companies only or also for normal people? Actually, some of the enterprise features may even be a little bit too much, any plans to make a end-user Afaria cloud solution that may even beat the 1EUR?
Hi Tobias,
Interesting thought, I had the same idea when I heard the news... "I should sign up for that..."... but then I thought "Why? What benefit would I get from it?" can you elaborate on which features of Afaria you think individuals would find useful?
In my mind at least I feel that Afaria is more about enforcing certain security and standards upon a group of users/devices, I am just struggling to see the personal use case.
Thanks,
SImon
Have it for the obvious reason to have a MDM tool manage my mobile devices. Instead of checking what is installed on each device, get a overview page, delete apps from a single point, maybe even install new apps.
Remote wipe, etc in case I lose a mobile device.
I also develop apps, enhancing them with Afaria makes sense (learning) and can also be used for demoing Afaria + mobile apps.
It'll also show if Afaria Cloud scales: from 1 people, 0..n devices to thousands of users & devices. Having thousands or even millions of individuals using the software, for sure SAP will find bugs and UI/UX issues that normally never would have been found, given that SAP knows how to work with an average non-corporate user.
I understand there is a minimum user base and contract term to achieve the low monthly costs mentioned in this article so it may not actually be of any use for individuals.
Of course your negotiation skills with your SAP account manager may help on this front 😉
That's a great news. Since the price is low and there is no need of an initial investment customers can take this opportunity to implement Afaria in their landscape. SAP is doing a good job.
Given that the average cost of insuring a physical on a mobile device (when offered) is around $5/month, on a ~$400 device. The ability to secure corporate data on device for $1.11/month is a no Brainier.
With this new offering SAP is once again re-enforcing itself as the market leader in the enterprise mobility space.
This is going to be epic!!!
Bingo! 😆
Great article as usual thanks for providing a good level of detail. Could I ask a couple of questions:
Also some thoughts on the insurance angle mentioned by Marcus - perhaps SAP should investigate partnering with handset insurers and offering a collaborative offering where consumers purchase an insurance package (at a reduced cost due to reduced risk) that includes an agreed set of policies.
Am I being stupid or is the 30 day free trial of Afaria not available in the UK? This is a shame, as like Tobias I'd be interested in playing with this on a personal basis.
Gareth.