Newswise — NEW YORK – February 20, 2012 - Cellrox Ltd. announced today the signing of a worldwide exclusive agreement with Columbia University to license certain mobile technology developed at Columbia that will enable corporate IT departments to securely accommodate the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend.
The growing popularity of using personal mobile devices to access corporate network data and applications, whether at work or home, creates severe security and management challenges for corporate IT departments.
Using virtualization technology developed at Columbia's School of Engineering and Applied Science, Cellrox addresses the challenges of BYOD by allowing both corporate and personal individual "personas" to co-exist on a single smartphone. Employees have secure access to data and applications necessary for their jobs, while reducing security and compliance risks for corporate networks. This also alleviates the need for employees to carry two smartphones, knowing that their personal data and applications are kept separate.
"Today, most companies face the need to give employees the freedom to choose their own device. But it creates enormous security challenges for IT departments to prevent leaks from these kinds of devices," said Omer Eiferman, CEO of Cellrox. "By creating an impenetrable virtual wall between the employee's applications and the company's data and applications, we can provide proactive security and application transparency."
"Smartphones are now more powerful and popular than ever in business," notes Calvin Chu, senior technology licensing officer for Columbia Technology Ventures, the technology transfer office of Columbia University. "We're excited to see Cellrox put Columbia University virtualization technology towards solving the problems of enterprise compliance, security and maintenance."
"Our lightweight virtualization makes it possible, for the first time, to securely run multiple virtual phones on a single smartphone in a manner that is transparent to applications and blazingly fast," said Jason Nieh, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Columbia's School of Engineering and Applied Science, who oversaw the development of Columbia's virtualization technology. "For example, each virtual phone can run any of the applications from Android Market, including 3D graphics-intensive games, with no visible performance difference from native hardware."
Nieh's paper on Mobile Virtualization won the prestigious "Best Paper Award" at the 2011 Association for Computing Machinery Symposium on Operating Systems Principles. The Symposium is the world's premier forum for researchers and developers of the latest advances in computer systems technology.
Cellrox also has additional ties to Columbia through its co-founders, Oren Laadan, PhD and Ranit Fink, who are both alumni of the Department of Computer Science.
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About Columbia Technology Ventures A leading academic and research university, Columbia University continually seeks to advance the frontiers of knowledge and to foster a campus community deeply engaged in understanding and addressing the complex global issues of our time. Columbia University's technology transfer office, Columbia Technology Ventures, manages Columbia's intellectual property portfolio and serves as the university's gateway for companies and entrepreneurs seeking novel technology solutions. Our core mission is to facilitate the transfer of inventions from academic research to outside organizations for the benefit of society on a local, national and global basis. For more information on Columbia Technology Ventures, please visit http://www.techventures.columbia.edu.
About Columbia Engineering Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, founded in 1864, offers programs in nine departments to both undergraduate and graduate students. With facilities specifically designed and equipped to meet the laboratory and research needs of faculty and students, Columbia Engineering is home to NSF-NIH funded centers in genomic science, molecular nanostructures, materials science, and energy, as well as one of the world's leading programs in financial engineering. These interdisciplinary centers are leading the way in their respective fields while individual groups of engineers and scientists collaborate to solve some of modern society's more difficult challenges. http://www.engineering.columbia.edu
About Cellrox Cellrox provides the best of breed solution for the adoption of smart mobile devices - phones and tablets - by corporate IT departments. The company's award-winning ThinVisor technology enables co-hosting of two or more individual, independent and secure virtual environments on a single mobile device. By creating an impenetrable wall between the employee's applications and the company's data and applications, Cellrox focuses on proactive security and application transparency all in a single swipe – one phone, two or more personas. Cellrox was founded in 2011 by seasoned entrepreneurs and technology leaders. The company is privately held with headquarters located in Israel. For additional information, please visit http://www.cellrox.com.
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