Sybase iAnywhere today announced that its Information Anywhere suite Afaria component, which provides mobile device management and security capabilities, now supports the Symbian platform. Companies can leverage Afaria to manage and secure a range of mobile devices based on Windows Mobile, Palm and now Symbian handhelds, and Windows laptops.

“With the rise in popularity of Symbian OS handhelds for enterprise use, it is critical for companies to be able to centrally control, back up and secure these devices used by mobile workers,” said Joe Owen, vice president of engineering, Sybase iAnywhere. “Our customers are excited that we are bringing the same managed security approach to Symbian devices as we provide on other platforms, which allows IT to enforce important security policies such as enforced power-on password and device lockdown.”

Security capabilities for Symbian OS v9 include:

• Enforced Power-On password
• Administrator defined password format requirements
• Password expiration
• Device lockdown after exceeding allowed password attempts

Mobile management capabilities for Symbian OS v9 include:

• OTA software distribution
• Data backup and restore
• Hardware and software inventory collection
• Software license management
• Custom scripting component for automating electronic file distribution, file and directory management, program execution and notifications.

Anywhere Symbian support for Afaria is expected to be available in June 2008.