Barracuda Mobile Device Manager Brings Mobility to Education

Barracuda Networks (CUDA) launched its free Barracuda Mobile Device Manager (MDM) this week, as the company looks to help the K-12 education space manage its device mobility initiatives through centralized monitoring and administration. The cloud-based mobile device and application management service will also help school IT admins to monitor iOS mobile phones and tablets on a 1:1 basis from a central administration point.

“At Barracuda, we have a 10-year history of working with customers to better understand their network requirements and have evolved our product suite to provide end-to-end protection across multiple threat vectors,” said Stephen Pao, general manager, Security at Barracuda, in a prepared statement. “We believe mobile device management is an integral part of this broader security solution, particularly for educational institutions looking to leverage mobile technology in the classroom.”

The security and storage vendor’s latest MDM application allows users to access information about iOS devices from a centralized console within the Barracuda Cloud Control portal, according to the press release. With the MDM app, school administrators will also be able to set device security policies for student devices and deploy and manage applications on their network of tablets and smartphones.

“The Barracuda MDM integrates seamlessly with a number of Barracuda solutions and is accessed in the Barracuda Cloud Control, which provides a single-pane of glass for customers to manage their security infrastructure,” said Pao. “Overall, mobile is a natural progression, providing a simple, easy-to-use and affordable way for customers to extend their content and network security policies right down to their mobile users.”

In May, the company released Barracuda SSL VPN version 2.5 as a way of giving enterprise customers improved remote access to internal web applications and files from their mobile devices without support from a VPN client.

The Barracuda Mobile Device Manager is available now for free to existing Barracuda customers, and can be accessed via the Barracuda Cloud Control portal or the iTunes App Store, with optional zero-touch enrollment and inventory management through the Apple DEP program. Barracuda has not announced whether it plans to release the app for Android users.