Microsoft has announced the release of an enterprise feature pack for Windows Phone 8 with support for S/MIME, VPN, Wi-Fi with EAP-TLS as an update in the first quarter of 2014. It will also include enhanced MDM policies to lock down functionality on the phone for more enterprise control with the ability to allow or deny installation of apps via application management dashboard. The pack will also ship with certificate management tool to enroll, update and revoke certificates for user authentication.
According to Tony Mestres, vice president of Windows Phone partner and channel marketing, the proposed VPN support will provide access to corporate network with so called app aware, auto trigerred VPN.
In addition to the above mentioned features, the length of Windows Phone 8 support lifecycle will be increased from 18 to 36 months, which includes various security updates as part of the proposed Windows Phone feature pack. Moreover, each subsequent update will be developed using the latest update pack with the ability for the mobile operator to control the
distribution of updates based on country, region and device hardware capabilities.
"By lengthening the Windows Phone support lifecycle policy and announcing of the enterprise feature pack, we show Microsoft's commitment to the Windows Phone platform," said Tony.