On Wednesday, MobileIron made an announcement sure to ease anxieties of those worried about securing their data in the cloud: A partnership with Dropbox.

As per the announcement, MobileIron Access–the firm’s cloud security offering–will now integrate with Dropbox Business, the enterprise arm of the cloud collaboration company. MobileIron Access serves an important function–ensuring that only verified users, on trusted devices, using verified apps, have a way to access enterprise data in the cloud.

This integration with MobileIron Access gives enterprise IT administrators the power to ensure security by designating which employees can access the service and what devices it can be used on, while providing tools to log activity on Dropbox to ensure that the platform is not being used by any person (or device) that is not authorized.

SEE: Cloud Data Storage Policy (Tech Pro Research)

The new integration also offers single sign-on (SSO) capabilities. According to the release, “the siloed sandbox architecture of mobile apps prevents traditional SSO techniques from working effectively so employees using a variety of cloud services like Concur, Office 365, Salesforce, or Tableau need to provide their credentials every time they log into an app.” But with MobileIron Access, business users will use MobileIron Tunnel, a per-app VPN solution, for authentication. This method gives users a certificate which can produce a SAML token “in order to provide seamless single sign-on to Dropbox and other enterprise-managed cloud services such as Concur, Office 365, Salesforce, and Tableau.” Essentially, the sign-on method should allow users a more simple sign-on experience, while still protecting data.

Here’s more that MobileIron access can do, according to the release:

  • Easy on-boarding
  • Policy enforcement
  • Conditional access
  • Data-in-motion and data-at-rest security
  • Audit and compliance reporting

SEE: Dropbox: The smart person’s guide

Several scenarios, such as a jailbroken phone, unmanaged device, or unmanaged app, can lead to security issues on mobile devices. MobileIron Access said it will address these concerns by designating cloud access based on user identity, application, IP address, device posture, or other criteria, according to the release.

With more than 500 million users worldwide, Dropbox, nearly a decade old, is one of the world’s most popular cloud storage and sharing services. Dropbox Business offers a standard plan with 2TB of storage, as well as Advanced and Enterprise options with unlimited storage. (Here’s more on the Dropbox Business Plan site.)

The 3 big takeaways for TechRepublic readers

  1. On Wednesday, MobileIron announced that it will integrate its MobileIron Access platform with Dropbox Business, increasing security in the cloud.
  2. The new integration gives IT administrators that use Dropbox power to designate which employees can access the service, which devices it can be used on, and provide new tools to log activity on Dropbox to ensure that the platform is not being used by any person (or device) that is not authorized.
  3. MobileIron Access will also tackle issues such as a jailbroken phone or unmanaged device by designating cloud access based on user identity, application, IP address, device posture, or other criteria.

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