Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich enterprise features detailed

Android Product Manager at Google Gabe Cohen made a post on Google+ today entitled “This one goes out to my IT pals” outlining some of the new enterprise-focused features in Ice Cream Sandwich. Here’s what he had to say.

First Gabe talks about security and encryption:

“We openly share how we implemented encryption within Android using Linux dm-crypt (see more details at http://source.android.com/tech/encryption/android_crypto_implementation.html), and we will soon open-source our implementation for further review within the Android community. ICS adds ASLR to Android to protect the system and apps from memory exploits. ICS also has a new public keychain framework to make it easier for applications to manage authentication and secure sessions. And, as with every release, ICS fixes bugs, cleans up permissions, and improves end user insight into security issues.”

He also mentions Ice Cream Sandwich now uses EAS v14.1 protocol for Exchange support and the total number of supported Exchange ActiveSync policies is up to 16 with the addition of support for “limiting attachment sizes, disabling attachment downloads, enforcing manual sync while roaming, and disabling the camera”.

Android 4.0 will now include support for pure IPSec VPNs and a new platform for handling SSL VPN clients from the Android Market. Gabe also outlines some of the new improvements to the email app in ICS:

“ICS also adds a number of improvements to the email app including server-side search for Exchange and IMAP, nested sub-folder navigation and sync controls, reply/forward indicators, quick responses, and better app navigation.”