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An avalanche of cloud business services and a critical mass of BYOD adoption have pushed mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) solutions into the spotlight. And somewhat fittingly, software makers are offering cloud services to deliver solutions for organizations struggling with mobile IT challenges.

One such firm is AppSense, a New York City-based mobile IT management and security specialist that is rolling out a new software as a service (SaaS) offering dubbed MobileNow. Aimed at organizations with runaway smartphone and tablet usage, MobileNow is a cloud-based toolset that provides mobile device management, policy enforcement and security.

And MobileNow does it without trapping users in rigid app ecosystems, says Ravi Khatod, vice president and general manager of Mobile for AppSense. "Today's status quo solutions force IT to lock-down users' devices, restrict their application choice and thus significantly impact their productivity."

Currently available through the company's early access Customer Select Program (iOS for now), MobileNow seeks to balance employee choice in mobile business apps with an organization's desire to keep a lid on sensitive data.

"The MobileNow Customer Select Program enables a limited set of participants to maintain security and control while liberating users to choose the applications they want, access the data they need, on the devices they choose," adds Khatod.

According to AppSense, MobileNow provides transparent, real-time application, data and device policy enforcement for Android and iOS. Since it requires no customizations to apps or mobile operating systems, this results in a fully native application experience for end users, claims the company.

The product extends data encryption and data loss prevention (DLP) measures to native iOS and Android email clients and application data. Additional email features include Microsoft Exchange support, secure attachment launching and sharing capabilities, and real-time block and revoke services.

On the management front, the platform provides real-time policy enforcement, over-the-air user provisioning, remote device configuration and profile management along with malware and jailbreak detection.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.