Google Apps just became more IT-friendly today with the addition of some great new security-centric features for iPhone, Nokia, and Windows Mobile users.

The new security features allow administrative control with respect to enforcing password requirements and remotely wipe data from mobile devices.

"With this change, Google Apps Premier and Education Edition administrators will be able to manage their users' iPhone, Nokia E series, and Windows Mobile devices right from the Google Apps administrative control panel, without deploying any additional software or having to manage dedicated enterprise mobile servers," wrote Bryan Mawhinney, a Google software engineer, in an announcement posted Wednesday on the company's Enterprise Blog.

The features became available early Thursday.

Premier Edition is the $50 per-user, per-year, version of Google Apps, which offers e-mail, calendaring, word processing, speadsheet, and other web-based applications.

The paid version adds enterprise features, domain support, and greater storage to the free, basic version of Google Apps. Education Edition is a special version available free to schools and 501(c)(3) non-profits.

The new mobile device management capabilities allows administrators to:

• Remotely wipe all data from lost or stolen mobile devices
• Lock idle devices after a period of inactivity
• Require a device password on each phone
• Set minimum lengths for more secure passwords
• Require passwords to include letters, numbers and punctuation

Google said users should "stay tuned" for even more new features to be offered in the future. Most noteably on the Android devices, including the Motorola Droid, HTC Hero, Samsung Moment, and Google Nexus One smartphones, but offered no specific timing. BlackBerry devices were not mentioned, but do have the ability to synchronize with the Google Sync Blackberry Application, as well as the ability to use the Blackberry Enterprise and Small Business Software.

If you are interested in seeing how Google Apps Premier can save your small business thousands of dollars, contact Orange Technology Management at (239) 438-4934 or clicking the link below. We are Southwest Florida's most experienced Google Apps Authorized reseller.

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