At the RSA Conference 2013 in San Francisco, Centrify announced that Samsung Electronics has selected Centrify to provide key enabling technology for Samsung’s next generation mobile enterprise solution — Samsung KNOX.


Samsung KNOX is a comprehensive mobile solution for work and play that lets consumers easily separate their work and personal lives on their mobile devices, while giving enterprises enhanced security at all levels of the Android platform. It is an Android-based solution designed from the ground up with security in mind to address advanced security requirements for the Android Platform.

KNOX retains full compatibility with Android and the Google ecosystem while engineering fundamental security and management enhancements, including container technology that with one-click securely separates personal data on the device from corporate data and apps.

Through this OEM software license and marketing agreement, Centrify will enable multi-application SSO for mobile and web apps inside the Samsung KNOX container, allowing customers to use their existing infrastructure — Microsoft Active Directory (AD) — to manage KNOX containers, Samsung devices and role-based access to mobile applications centrally and easily.

The Centrify technology Samsung is embedding into its KNOX solution is also generally available as part of Centrify’s latest Cloud Services release, Centrify for Mobile 2013, also announced today. The solution is being publicly demonstrated at the RSA Conference 2013 in Booth 233.

As part of this OEM agreement, Centrify will help Samsung power the growth of an easy-to-use, developer kit and ISV app ecosystem for Android in the enterprise through the licensing of its Mobile Authentication Services (MAS) Software Development Kit (SDK) into the Samsung for Enterprise (SAFE) SDK Framework. This enables any Android app developer to use this SAFE mobile client SDK within their rich native mobile app to enable “Zero Sign-On” from devices running KNOX to their cloud-based applications.

This Zero Sign-On goes beyond traditional SSO for devices enrolled in the Centrify Cloud Service, by allowing users one-click sign-on to enterprise apps without having to enter a username and password. ISVs such as Box, Catch, and Onvelop are part of a growing list of ecosystem partners which are in various stages of enhancing their apps using the Centrify MAS SDK to support Zero Sign-On inside Samsung KNOX containers.

Together, Centrify and Samsung KNOX address the key concern regarding the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomena — how do users easily separate work and personal spaces on mobile devices? With the enterprise-ready Samsung KNOX, IT organizations benefit from truly secure and efficient work and play performance on the Android platform, including a separate environment for enterprise apps, FIPS-certified security, and enhanced multi-layer security.

For consumers, KNOX enables increased productivity and efficiency with enhanced usability via an easy switch between work and personal environments, deep integration with the most up-to-date smartphone features, and a robust set of enterprise apps. Centrify extends Samsung’s vision for KNOX by giving employees single click sign-on to enterprise apps inside the container and allows IT organizations to use Active Directory-based Mobile Container Management (MCM) and Mobile Device Management (MDM) as part of KNOX.

“Samsung selected Centrify because they are experts in integrating Active Directory with data center, cloud and mobile resources, and also because they uniquely deliver both mobile authentication and AD-based policy management of virtual containers in a single solution,” said Dr. Injong Rhee, Senior Vice President, B2B R&D at Samsung Electronics. “The end result of this partnership between Samsung and Centrify is that consumers not only get the right mobile solution for work and play and the productivity gains of having one-click sign-on to their enterprise apps, but enterprise IT also leverages existing tools and skill sets to securely manage users’ work containers while knowing there is a clean separation of enterprise and personal data.”

“Samsung’s selection of Centrify validates our unique approach of delivering comprehensive SSO, mobile authentication and mobile container management services in a single solution. We look forward to a long-standing relationship with Samsung where its global customer base can benefit from the mobile security and role-based policy management that Centrify delivers through our nearly 10 years of experience,” said Centrify CEO Tom Kemp.