Cellrox: New Technology Splits One Mobile Phone Into Two

Tired of carrying around two mobile phones, one for work and one for personal use? A new startup has just launched a new technology that will allow one phone to adopt both “identities.”

The startup Cellrox, founded in 2011 and headquartered in Bnei Brak, Israel, presented its software for smart mobile devices at the latest Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The company is developing the beta version of their new virtualization software, called Jade.

According to Cellrox, the growing popularity of using personal mobile devices to access corporate network data and applications (Bring Your Own Device) creates security and management challenges for corporate IT departments. Businesses are increasingly looking for solutions that will enable the adoption of their employees’ smart devices for corporate use.

The solution Cellrox offers splits the Android Operating System in smartphones or tablets into two separate environments: one for personal usage and the other strictly for business.

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Split your operating system

The software creates an impenetrable virtual wall between the employee’s applications and the company’s data: a different contact list, different applications and different email accounts.

In this manner, the business persona can be set and secured by the company’s IT, in order to protect information, applications and business networks. The personal persona, on the other hand, gives the user complete freedom to adjust the device as he or she wishes, with personal applications and social media.

According to Omer Eiferman, the company’s CEO, the software is intended for corporate IT groups who can’t find the right balance between the need to secure the enterprise’s data and the rapid rise in the use of personal and corporate-owned smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. This also alleviates the need for employees to carry two smartphones, knowing that their personal data and applications are kept separate.

Color-coded profiles

The private and corporate “personas” are color-coded: blue is for business and red or orange for personal space. Jade is displayed as a toolbar located at the top of the phone’s screen. It shows the profile which is currently active. By touching the toolbar, Jade will take you from one profile to the other without interrupting device’s performance.

Jade's color-coded bar

The technology is overseen by Jason Nieh, a professor of Computer Science at Columbia University’s school of Engineering and Applied Science. According to Nieh, this technology “makes it possible, for the first time, to securely run multiple virtual phones on a single smartphone in a manner that is transparent to applications and blazingly fast.”

Anticipated to launch in May, Jade consists of client software and server software. While the client software will be installed on the device itself, the server software will be installed behind the corporate firewall or stored by an external provider, such as Cellrox itself.

Once launched, corporate customers will need to register their devices online. According to Cellrox, the monthly subscription fee will be between $5-8, depending on the number of users.