Tuesday, February 25th, Samsung launched its latest mobile solution - KNOX.  KNOX is a dual-persona platform, enabling two distinct environments to exist simultaneously on mobile workers' device.

BYOD continues to challenge IT, driving complexities in multi-OS management, BYOD vs corporate device management, and security management.  Samsung is betting on the dual-persona concept as the path forward. While the concept has existed for several years (with Enterproid one of the first to market with a solution), its adoption has been slow.  

Yet, KNOX is clearly an attractive solution:

• For consumers, the KNOX will simplify management of corporate versus personal data and protect personal data/content from access by IT.
• For IT, KNOX facilitates containerization and enhanced security of corporate content, integrity management services, easy integration with existing MDM, and VPN services, as well as simplified management of employee devices.

While the solution clearly has some drawbacks (e.g. limited to Samsung GALAXY devices, Android-only, available only on select Galaxy devices starting in Q2 2013), this was a bold move by Samsung.

The BYOD trend - driving consumer-grade devices into the workplace and increasingly complex mobile infrastructures - has represented a clear market opportunity for Samsung to more fully penetrate the enterprise market.  Launching the SAFE (Samsung Approved for Enterprise) program in 2011 for certifying enhanced device security, KNOX will further drive Samsung's penetration into the enterprise market.  

For traditional enterprise mobility vendors, this announcement should be a red flag - Samsung is determined to carve its own place in the enterprise market.

Stay tuned for our next post on this announcement by Eric Klein, Senior Analyst - currently at MWC Barcelona.