Motorola, Softbank Sign On for VMware Horizon Mobile

VMware (NYSE: VMW) has confirmed that Motorola will ship smartphones in Japan sporting the virtualization kingpin’s Horizon Mobile service run through wireless carrier Softbank Telecom as a managed cloud service, available for trials starting Dec. 10, according to a VMware blog post.

The Horizon Mobile service, formerly called Mobile Virtualization Platform (MVP), is VMware’s answer to BYOD, or technology enabling employers to accommodate workers bringing their own devices to the workplace yet still securing confidential corporate data on them. The solution, initially built for Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) devices (first introduced at VMworld 2011) but now acclimated to Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iOS, allows privacy for personal apps and data while maintaining corporate information separate. LG and Samsung already have mobile phones running the Horizon Mobile platform.

Motorola’s Razr 201M smartphone will be the first such device in Japan to use VMware’s virtualization technology to enable “enterprises to embrace BYOD without compromising usability or security and manageability of the corporate content (apps and data),” wrote Srinivas Krishnamurti, VMware chief technology officer (CTO) in a blog post.

Horizon Mobile not only deals with BYOD but also the fact that users are downloading more apps onto their smartphones and tablets than ever before, said Krishnamurti.

“We are seeing devices used for multiple purposes – work and personal, i.e. dual-persona devices,” he wrote. “Almost all devices will have personal content and corporate content (apps and data) no matter who actually paid for the device – corporation or employee. So the critical thing is to completely isolate personal from corporate to prevent data leakage and have IT only manage the corporate content. By leveraging virtualization, we are able to offer the most secure isolation of these environments.”

A Horizon Mobile-equipped smartphone operates as a consumer’s device while also featuring a “work phone” icon that takes the user to a separate work site. The list of applications on the corporate side is completely different than the user’s personal phone, the user can’t download applications on the work side, and the only way new apps can be added is when IT administration pushes applications to it. In other words, it’s fully controlled and managed.

VMware debuted the Horizon Mobile platform at the vForum conference in Tokyo Nov. 5.