Samsung To Launch Certification Program For Samsung Knox Mobile Security Platform

Samsung is planning to launch a new partner certification program for its Samsung Knox mobile security platform aimed at helping solution providers generate new revenue from their mobile business.

Richard Hutton, director of channel marketing for Samsung Electronics America, on Tuesday introduced the new program during his keynote presentation at this week's XChange Solution Provider 2016 conference in Los Angeles.

The new program will provide incentives to channel partners of the Samsung Knox mobility security platform based on the level of certification and training they have received, Hutton told the solution provider audience.

[Related: Partners Cheer New Samsung Channel Training Tools To Expand Sales Pipeline]

The program will also include a demand-generation program and automated partner marketing for certified partners, and will offer non-Samsung-specific soft skills training, such as teaching sales reps how to talk to customers the way they want to be talked to, he said.

The program comes as Samsung looks for ways to simplify the mobile device market by providing tools to help partners develop their mobile business, Hutton said. "[Samsung has] done the investment for you," he said.

Patrick White, business development manager for Samsung Knox, told the audience that mobile security is becoming a major issue for customers.

"As the type of data and amount of data grows on those devices, the ramifications of losing the devices grow," White said.

According to analyst reports, 555 million mobile devices will be sold in 2016, despite a widespread belief that the mobile device market is saturated, White said. However, when it comes to the enterprise, "we're still on third base," he said.

Customer concerns about the security of Android devices is growing, and 2015 saw multiple exploits aimed at the Android market, White said. However, Samsung about five years ago started building a platform to lock down Android devices, he said.

Samsung Knox puts hardware-based security in the company's mobile devices featuring an open architecture that allows partners to leverage the platform as part of complete solutions, White said.

Solution providers said that Samsung is on the right track with Samsung Knox.

The fact that Samsung Knox adds hardware-based security to mobile devices is important for customers, said Roger Klein, president of Method Technologies, an O'Fallon, Mo.-based solution provider tying Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Exchange to customers' mobile devices.

Tying in hardware-based security from the Samsung Knox platform could be a key value-add for Method Technologies' Microsoft software business, Klein told CRN.

"This helps prevent issues where Android may face the kind of exploits that are impacting other operating systems," Klein said. "With a hardware-focused platform, it's harder for software-based exploits to take effect."

Alan "Skip" Gould, president and CEO of BrightPlanIT, a Buffalo, N.Y.-based solution provider and consultant, said he has been working with Samsung Knox for some time, although his customers have yet to adopt the technology.

"Samsung Knox is unique," Gould told CRN. "I don't think anybody else has paid attention to hardware security. And add in its open architecture, and it becomes an expandable solution."