Frequently Asked Questions

• What is Blue Cedar?

  Blue Cedar is a no-code mobile app security integration platform. With the Blue Cedar platform, developers can enable mobile app security for ISV and custom mobile apps with a single click.

• Where is the Blue Cedar platform deployed?
  The Blue Cedar platform can be consumed from our cloud or deployed on premises. The ability to deploy on-premises is important to a certain set of verticals such as government, financial, and healthcare.
• What is an accelerator?
  An accelerator is what the Blue Cedar platform uses to perform the no-code integration. Accelerator is a Blue Cedar term used to describe the bridge that enables the Blue Cedar platform to embed Blue Cedar’s or other vendor’s security libraries into mobile apps without coding.
• What accelerators are available for the Blue Cedar platform?

  The following accelerators are generally available

  • Blue Cedar Accelerator for BlackBerry
  • Blue Cedar Accelerator for Secure Edge Data
  • Blue Cedar Accelerator for Secure Edge Connect
  • Blue Cedar Accelerator for Arxan Data
  • Blue Cedar Accelerator for Arxan Connect
• What app security features are provided by each of the accelerators?

  Read the accelerator’s data sheets to learn about the supported security features

  • Blue Cedar Accelerator for BlackBerry
  • Blue Cedar Accelerator for Secure Edge Data
  • Blue Cedar Accelerator for Secure Edge Connect
  • Blue Cedar Accelerator for Arxan Data
  • Blue Cedar Accelerator for Arxan Connect
• I’m confused. Blue Cedar is a platform and an accelerator. Is that correct?

  Blue Cedar (the company) provides mobile app technology to address two different use cases.

  • The Blue Cedar platform provides the technology that performs the app integration (i.e., the process of embedding libraries into mobile apps) without coding. The Blue Cedar platform can integrate third-party tech or its own tech.
  • The Blue Cedar Secure Edge accelerators are Blue Cedar’s mobile security libraries that the Blue Cedar platform integrates into apps. Think of the Blue Cedar Secure Edge connectors as an option for prospects to consider as they weigh what security tech to use in their mobile apps.
• What is a microtunnel?
  A microtunnel is an app-level VPN connection. Apps use microtunnels to access on-premises enterprise resources that are behind the corporate firewall by going through a VPN gateway.
• Why are microtunnels important?
  Traditional VPN connections are long lived. On the other hand, microtunnels are transient connections, which the app creates when it needs to access remote resources. Once done, the app closes the connection and reopens a new one when necessary. Microtunnels are essential to accommodate the power conservation (i.e., power is used on the connection only when it is open) and bandwidth optimization (i.e., only using bandwidth when the connection is open) needs unique to mobile and edge environments.
• Does Blue Cedar enable apps to connect via microtunnels?
  Yes. Customers can use the Blue Cedar Accelerator for Secure Edge Connect with the Blue Cedar platform to integrate microtunnel capabilities into ISV and custom mobile apps. Integrated apps are automatically configured to create transient app-level secure microtunnels to backend services or applications through a VPN gateway. For this to work, the organization must either already have a VPN gateway or purchase the Blue Cedar Connect Gateway virtual appliance.
• Are in-app VPNs better that device-level VPNs?

  Device-level VPN means that all apps must share that same connection when connecting to remote enterprise resources.

  In-app VPN connections instead of a shared device-level VPN connection work well in a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) context and  are convenient for IT and users. Different apps can connect via different VPN configurations and servers, depending on the security level designated. Traffic from different apps is kept separate and apps can’t exchange data. In-app VPNs ensure that users do not need to remember to turn the device-level VPN on and off, and the use of personal apps is not impacted. The Blue Cedar Accelerator for Secure Edge Connect enables in-app VPNs.

• What is the difference between “in-app VPNs” and “app-level VPNs”?
  The use of “per-app” or “app-level” may lead customers to think of the per-app capabilities on the device. MDM must be enabled to use those capabilities. We are using the term in-app VPN to try to distinguish ourselves as not requiring MDM in order to provide app-level security.
• What is the Blue Cedar Connect Gateway?
  The Blue Cedar Connect Gateway is an IKEv2 standards compliant VPN virtual appliance that can be deployed on premises or in the cloud. The Blue Cedar Connect Gateway SKU is typically quoted with the Blue Cedar Secure Edge Connect SKU.