Discovery Communications
knows no boundaries with
MobileIron solutions
Discovery Communications is the world's leading nonfiction media
company, reaching 2.5 billion cumulative subscribers in more than
220 countries and territories. Discovery is dedicated to satisfying
curiosity through more than 190 worldwide television networks, led by
Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Science, and Investigation
Discovery. In fiscal year 2012, Discovery reported revenues of $4.487
billion—an increase of 8% over 2011.
Discovery implemented a MobileIron enterprise mobility management
(EMM) platform to enforce security policies across 2,000 iOS and
Android devices, let employees complete HR and financial
transactions through a secure mobile web browser, and remotely wipe
corporate data from employee-owned devices after employees leave
the company.
Removing global barriers
When Discovery Communications’ employees need to take work on
the road, lugging laptops around simply won’t do. These professionals
must be able to pull up corporate data in seconds so that they can
remain productive as they travel. And because the company has
personnel in more than 40 countries, it’s essential for employees to be
able to access and share assets from anywhere.
INDUSTRY: Media
Products
• MobileIron Android
Management
• MobileIron iOS Management
• MobileIron Web@Work
• MobileIron Apps@Work
Key Benefits
• Pushing certificates, settings,
and policies to 2,000 companyissued and employee-owned
devices worldwide
• Enforced device limits to
prevent employees from putting
corporate data at risk through
excessive syncing
• Gave employees secure mobile
access to internal websites and
web applications
• Recommended productivity
apps to employees through a
company-branded app store
• Selectively wiping corporate
data from employee-owned
devices after employees leave
the company
Why MobileIron?
• Responsiveness of staff
Seeking to remove barriers to doing business around the globe,
Discovery initially focused on allowing its employees to email on
mobile devices through ActiveSync. Then the iPad came along—and
Discovery saw the possibilities for empowering its workforce to
complete a much broader range of work on the go. But it wasn’t until
Discovery began planning its transition from IBM Notes Traveler to
Microsoft Exchange that it realized it would need more robust
functionality for managing its growing number of mobile devices.
• Ease of setting up a proof of
concept
• Scalability and flexibility of the
platform
• Provided the level of visibility
and control the company had
become accustomed to on
BlackBerry Enterprise Server
“We didn’t think the default ActiveSync policies on Microsoft
Exchange would give us enough control and granularity,” says David
Duvall, Vice President, Global Infrastructure Services, Discovery
Communications. “When we began discussing how we were going to
configure Wi-Fi and enable VPN connections, we decided to begin
evaluating enterprise mobility solutions.” 1
415 East Middlefield Road
Mountain View, CA 94043 USA
Tel. +1.650.919.8100
Fax +1.650.919.8006
info@mobileiron.com
It’s all about speed
Discovery needed an EMM solution that could manage the increasing
number of iPhones it had begun issuing to employees—and the iPads
employees were beginning to bring into the workplace. After
evaluating several potential solutions, Discovery invited finalists to
present proofs of concept. Several factors tipped the scales in
MobileIron’s favor.
“One of the main reasons we chose MobileIron is how quickly their
staff responded to my requests during the proof of concept,” recalls
Michael Pebley, Desktop Architect – Apple, Discovery
Communications. “We were also impressed by how quickly we were
able to set up the proof of concept, and the scalability and flexibility of
the platform itself. All of this ultimately helped us go live on a very tight
timeframe.”
“Web@Work lets our
employees launch a
secure web
connection with one
click. They don’t have
to worry about starting
a VPN connection just
to complete a simple
financial or HR
transaction.”
David Duvall
Vice President, Global
Infrastructure Services
Discovery Communications
Securing without intruding
MobileIron at Work
Today, Discovery uses a single instance of the MobileIron platform,
with separate installations of MobileIron Sentry providing email access
control in the U.S., London, and Singapore. Using the MobileIron
platform, Discovery pushes SCEP certificates, Wi-Fi settings, PIN and
encryption policies, and Junos Pulse VPN settings to about 2,000
devices under management. Although Discovery is primarily an iOS
shop, there are about 200 Android devices—mostly Samsung—on the
network.
While the most common devices on the network are company-issued
iPhones, Discovery does encourage employees to register their own
iOS devices through a self-service Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
portal. About 38% of the devices on the network are BYOD.
“We’ve found that many people wanted to keep their corporate
BlackBerry but also add their personal iPad to the network,” says
Duvall. “This is fine with us because MobileIron makes it easy to
enforce device limits. We can periodically audit device usage on our
network to ensure employees aren’t syncing their email to an
excessive number of devices and putting corporate data at risk.”
2 • MobileIron iOS Management
supports Discovery’s “iOS-first”
BYOD policy by securing
corporate data on 1,800
employee-owned and corporate
issued iPhones and iPads.
• MobileIron Android
Management helps Discovery
manage the approximately 200
employee-purchased Android
devices on the corporate
network.
• MobileIron Web@Work gives
Discovery’s mobile employees
secure access to internal
websites and web applications.
• MobileIron Apps@Work lets
Discovery present in-house and
third-party apps to employees in
a branded app store
environment.
How to get started
Our team of Mobile Device
Management experts will work
with you to understand your
unique data security requirements
and priorities, and introduce you to
our industry best practices.
Contact MobileIron to get started
at +1. 650.919.8103 or email
info@mobileiron.com.
When employees eventually leave Discovery, the company can easily
wipe company data from their corporate-issued or self-purchased
devices.
“It’s rare that we would ever need to wipe an entire device remotely,
but we do have that capability,” says Duvall. “MobileIron lets us
identify and selectively remove any information that shouldn’t leave
the company with a departing employee.”
Secure transactions are always a click away
With its EMM program thriving, Discovery is now rolling out MobileIron
Web@Work to give its employees secure mobile access to internal
websites and web applications. With Web@Work, Discovery
employees can open a mobile-friendly email containing an approval
notice for a purchase order or human resources transaction, and click
through to a tunneled browser to complete the transaction.
“Web@Work lets our employees launch a secure web connection with
one click,” says Duvall. “They don’t have to worry about starting a
VPN session just to complete a simple financial or HR transaction.”
In addition, Discovery is deploying MobileIron Apps@Work as a
branded company app store that provides a list of companyrecommended productivity apps. Duvall anticipates that with
MobileIron’s help, Discovery will continue to innovate in the mobile
realm.
“Every time I wish for a new feature or function, MobileIron seems to
ship it in their next release,” he remarks. “Their whole team is really
open to listening, and I look forward to seeing what else we can
achieve together.”
3 415 East Middlefield Road
Mountain View, CA 94043 USA
Tel. +1.650.919.8100
Fax +1.650.919.8006
info@mobileiron.com